Winds are expected to die down, clearing way for good catches

Joe Murphy shows a redfish he caught and released recently fishing with blue crab.

We could definitely use less wind in our area. Every day, it seems the wind is blowing 15-plus knots. The forecast for today is showing improvement with lighter winds. Even with the high winds, anglers reported some decent catches.

Offshore fishing for snapper, grouper and flounder was decent for anglers with larger boats who could withstand the high winds. Many anglers also spotted cobia lurking around the wrecks and rock piles.
Live pogies, pinfish and grunts were doing the trick this past week. Rapala Magnums, Mirrolure deep divers and jigs rigged with plastic tails were working this past week for the lure angler when trying to entice a curious cobia.

Small kingfish appeared from AH to the FB bottoms. Trolling live pogies, cigar minnows or threadfin herring will be an excellent choice for live bait.

Fishing the jetties, inshore towers and around the shrimp boat by-catch has been producing cobia, sharks, jack crevalle and bull reds. Spanish mackerel and blues are being caught trolling along the jetty and beaches around the pogie pods, especially on the incoming tide. Reds and trout are still in good numbers on both sides of the north and south jetties. Sheepshead also are still being caught tight to the rocks.

The back-country fishing has been tough. The flounder have been moving into our rivers, many have reported them still to be too short to keep, but Lowell Hall reported a nice catch of several in the 4- to 5-pound range this week using live mud minnows.

Today, you have an excellent tide for the topwater plug angler. We have a high tide occurring around 7:41 a.m. This is a perfect tide to fish over the oyster bars with a topwater plug.

Trout, reds and flounder have been reported this past week at Fort Clinch along with blues and Spanish mackerel. The pier is still closed for fishing, but there are a whole lot of other spots to fish the fort. Cheryl Pankake and Linda Roaderick, fishing Amelia Island State Park on Wednesday, report a nice catch of redfish and puppy drum fishing the incoming tide.

Surf fishing has improved due to the increase of bait traveling up the coast. Blues, Spanish mackerel, whiting, bonnethead sharks and trout all were reported being caught this week by surf anglers.

Enjoy your weekend. Until next time … Capt. Jim.