May
08
2010
I’m going fishing in the St. John’s River (bait)?
What The Buc? asked:
What would be the best bait to use? There’s redfish, flounder, brown trout and tarpon that primarily live there.
What would be the best bait to use? There’s redfish, flounder, brown trout and tarpon that primarily live there.
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By Brandon W, May 9, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
St Johns is a great fishery. I live just SW of Jacksonville and fish that area occasionally. By brown trout I think you mean Seatrout (spotted, yellowmouth or Sand trout) If you want to fish natural bait get little mullet, pinfish, shrimp or cut ladyfish. The St Johns has plenty of backwater areas as well as docks and grasslines. You can find fish pretty easily. If you want to throw artificials here’s some tips.
Redfish- find backwater flats with oysterbars and creekmouths. The water is pretty dark there so use dark colored lures. StrikeKing coffee tubes rigged on a football head jig work great. Also earlymorning Topwater plugs like a black Mirrolure Topdog or Topdog Jr. Spinnerbaits or gold spoons also work well because they flash and cause vibration. Gulp 3 or 4 shrimp on 1/8 or 1/4 ozjigheads, and mirrolure suspending lures also have their place.
Flounder- Fish grasslines and docks w/ Gulp shrimp on 1/4 oz jigheads or a dark colored spinnerbait.
Trout- Are everywhere from backwater flats to the main river under bridges, down grasslines and along seawalls. Use any of the methods above and be careful or you might catch a trout.
Tarpon- Early morning they will be in creeks and canals and in the main river. As the sun starts to come up they will move onto the flats and start feeding. Watch for them, they will come up and roll, don’t try to chase them they will come to you. Throw Mirrolure suspending lures colored like mullet ( I think the color is 15) Work them slowly out in front of the fish. For these I would recomend having 80lb Florocarbon leader with 30lb braided mainline.
For all the other fish I would use 12lb mono w/ maybe 25lb Florocarbon leader on a med to med hvy 6’6 to 7′ rod
For more info Email me
Gimme, I’m sure there are people on here that know the area a little better than I do but I do fish there a few times a year. I spend most of my time on the Gulf coast. I occasionally venture off to Jville or St Augustine or Ponce or Oakhill or Haulover or Cocoa or the Keys or…. well you get the picture.
The St Johns is alot like the New Symrna area on the ICW
By gimmenamenow, May 11, 2010 @ 11:22 am
Yep yep. Brandon’s got it covered, and I’m sure he knows that area better than I do. (you know, I think we’ve about got someone for just about every area of Fl, don’t we?)
(Hit some pilings with some shrimp and make a try for your day’s limit of mangrove snapper… nothin’ wrong with a mess of them to make the flounder and all the rest last a bit longer…. or let more people go to the fish fry…)
Edit: Well, yeah, but here I am holed up in my little area with not very far I can go, even from time to time… heck, I’d be excited just for a trip ~all the way to Port Canaveral~… ha!
Can’t wait till the kiddo can be left with Mimi for longer stretches of time…. maybe make a day trip down to Sebastian… ahh, that would be nice…