Great time of year for trout, pompano and more

April is here and a great month for fishing on the First Coast. This time of year is great for targeting big trout, crawling redfish, pompano, mahi, cobia, blackfin – spring fishing at its finest. The pandemic we are all facing has closed almost everything, but, for now, the boat ramps remain open. Let’s stay safe and follow all the CDC and state guidelines so that we can continue to use the ramps and enjoy the water. The state has mandated recreational boaters stay 50 feet apart and that no more than 10 people be on a vessel. FWC has been out and enforcing this on sandbars across the state.
The fishing has been good this week. Still plenty of sheepshead being caught in the river; the trout fishing has been hot especially on topwater early mornings. The redfish are still schooled up and can with the work hatch over with have gotten back with the program and are keyed in on mullet right now. I’d start transitioning away from using shrimp and switch to mud minnows and mullet. Either one of those under a popping cork is a deadly combination right now along the grass lines or over oysters at higher tides. The flounder fishing has been pretty good with our mild winter, and they are popping up in the creeks and some of the usual spots in river. I haven’t targeted them personally the last few weeks but have heard good reports from both Mayport and  Vilano. The Spanish mackerel have shown up in force at Mayport and you can get into a limit quick trolling around the jetties or casting lures. Plenty of huge bluefish on the rocks as well that will put on a show when hooked and tear up your lures.
Offshore, the wahoo bite is still hot, with some more great fish being caught the last few days. This year has really produced some monsters, and it’s still good conditions to see a few more the next few weeks. This week there were some mahi caught out of both local inlets, and some blackfin and sailfish mixed in. I talked to an angler at the Vilano ramp who had two sailfish on his flat lines fishing 20 miles offshore Sunday that put on a great show for the kids on the boat, even though they didn’t land either. The cobia bite has been OK the last few weeks on the wrecks, but despite water temps in the 68 to 72 zone along the First Coast, the beach run really hasn’t made it to us yet. With the north swell this week, they will likely hold up south a little while longer, which is no surprise as late April is our usual window. With the water temperatures the last few weeks, I know I wasn’t the only one anticipating an early run, and there has been an occasional ray seen locally, but the bulk are still south of Daytona. We made the run a few times last week and had a couple good days and some days mostly looking for things we never saw. Hours of boredom punctuated by brief windows of action are typical for beach fishing, whether it’s cobia, tarpon or kingfish. In general, there is a lot more watching and waiting than fishing offshore, but those seconds of excitement keep some of us coming back for more every season.
For any questions, to book a charter trip or to send in a report and pictures of your catch to be featured in a future report, send an email to Chris@fishjax.org.