Spring patterns emerging

Another weekend, another breezy cold front. After the slight reprieve last Sunday, the trend this winter continues. In traditional El Cheapo tournament fashion, the winds will be blowing 15 to 25 out of the NE, and it will be brisk but sunny this Saturday for the world's largest sheepshead tournament. Offshore looks to be pretty much closed down for the tournament and everything else until sometime next week.
Inshore, the bites have been consistent all week, the spring patterns are beginning to emerge despite water temps hovering around 58-59F at the inlet. The bigger trout are starting to stage for the spawn, the female sheepshead are all full of roe and so are the ringtails we are catching. A good wave of slot size black drum has moved into the Mayport area, we were catching them pretty steadily on the rocks last week while fishing for sheepshead and redfish. The redfish bite has been hit or miss on the Jetties; they are schooled up so when you get into them you can catch a mess, most of the fish are over slots but a few in the upper range make an appearance. The valley has continued to produce good action on redfish, trout and flounder around the lower tide.
While the ocean temperature is still pretty cool, I’ve been hearing and seeing more whiting being caught locally and, this week, I saw the first good catch of nice sized pompano from the Vilano area. The bigger fish tend to be caught at the start of the run, so it’s a good time to get the surf rods ready to hit the beaches. The key for beach fishing is usually a combination of water temp and clarity, while our temperatures have been on the colder side for pompano we’ve had a few days where the water was beautiful. As the water temperatures rise the next couple weeks the surf bite will really turn on.
Offshore the big story was the nice weather window on Sunday. While it looked iffy at first on the forecast the boats that charged early and put up with a wet ride out were rewarded with a good Wahoo bite. Plenty of fish caught with a few studs coming in close to a hundred pounds. In addition to the 'hoo, some blacken, magi and kingfish were caught as well by the boats pulling ballyhoo. Closer in, the seabass bite has been pretty steady, and the nearshore wrecks are holding good numbers of drum and sheepshead. We did some prospecting during Sunday’s weather window and found sheepshead on three different wrecks and drum on every spot we checked. The key to offshore fishing for these fish is just patience and extra bait. You will have to put up with a pretty constant flow of snapper, grunts, toadfish and small seabass. The action is steady and when you set the hook into a big spawning sheepshead it makes it all worth it. Just bring about 3x as much bait as you would use inshore and don’t plan on taking any home.
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.