Full moon causing slow fish off Jacksonville, St Augustine, Mayport and Northeast Florida

The skies have been clear and the moon has been full. The offshore fishing reports from the last few days haven't been too great. The pelagic fish are most likely feeding all night long. A wahoo here, a blackfin tuna there but nothing too consistent.

I would suggest putting a cedar plug on some light mono (100# or less) way back in your spread. Troll 6-8 knots and you'll probably get a hungry tuna or two. There are dolphin out there. Find the weedlines and sargasm out past 200' of water to get a good shot. The tuna patch a little south of Jacksonville should produce as well.

As the moon gets smaller the fishing will get better...

Jacksonville and St. Augustine Offshore Fishing Report March 9, 2009

We had quite a few trolling reports come in from the past weekend. It seemed to be hit or miss. A few boats came home with some nice Wahoo including the Inside Chance boat bringing home 9 wahoo and a couple dolphin. The Smooth C's boat, a 36' Yellowfin, found quite a few nice Mahi including a 36# bull dolphin. It's a bit early to be seeing nice dolphin so hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

There are still plenty of snapper to be caught. The best bites have been coming from the 21 fathom area. 120-125' feet of water with live bait will get you your best chance at some nice red snapper.

Northeast Florida Fishing Report - March 1, 2009

Fishing continues to be good if you know where they are! The snapper bite continues to be good but you need to go a little ways offshore to find them. There are fish in close but the water is too cold and the fish are lethargic and not responding well to bait. Head out until you get at least to the mid 60's and you will get a better red snapper bite. Fishing has been good from 90ft out to 21 bottom. Elton bottom and surrounding areas has been holding good amounts of red snapper as well as very large beeliners or vermillion snapper.

Trolling has been hit or miss. If you can find some warm water you should find some fish. The Double Standard boat, a 29ft Sea Vee, had 4 nice sized Wahoo on Friday as well as a couple dolphin. They saw 72 degree water and the bite was active most of the day. However jsut a week earlier trollers had 65 degree water at the ledge and there wasn't much of anything happening.

Support our Snapper Fishery!

Please be advised the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is meeting this week at:
Jekyll Island Club Hotel
371 Riverview Drive
Jekyll Island, GA 31527
Telephone: 1-800-535-9547 or 912-635-2600

Informal Question and Answer Session - Monday, March 2, 2009 at 5:30 PM - join Council member Dr. Roy Crabtree, Regional Administrator with NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) and Council chair Duane Harris to discuss issues relative to fisheries management within the Council's area of jurisdiction.

Interim Rule/Closure for Red Snapper Fishery - If the Council considers an Interim Rule request for addressing overfishing for red snapper, a public comment period will be held Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 1:45 PM.

The Council will vote at this meeting to determine if an interim rule for the closure is required. If the vote passes red snapper could be closed within 45 days of the ruling based on final approval from NMFS and the Sec. of Commerce.

***Please make an effort to attend tonight or Thursday's meeting to help prevent the red snapper closure from being passed***

Jacksonville and St Augustine Weekend Offshore Fishing Report

The ocean was flat as a lake this weekend so there was a lot of fishing going on! The wahoo are still there but are few and far between. Boats high speed trolling came home with 1 or 2 fish but did not get more than a couple bites. Bottom fishing has still been good. With the cooler water temperatures the snapper have moved offshore a ways. The best snapper bites have started around 100ft with the most fish coming from the 21 fathom and eltom bottom area. The beeliners are biting good in 21 bottom and the elton grounds as well. Scamp grouper were also being caught in 130ft and deeper.

A few big snapper around 25 pounds were brought in this weekend.

Mahi showing up off of Jacksonville and St. Augustine already!

We normally don't see a consistent Mahi-Mahi bite off of Northeast Florida until late March at the earliest. Well strangely enough bailer dolphin were caught all weekend in the gulf stream on some nice weed lines. We personally had 7 Mahi up to about 10 pounds. I heard other similar reports. All of the fish were caught at 250' or deeper. We were out of St. Augustine inlet.

There were also quite a few Wahoo caught. Tt sounded like the key to success was high speed trolling with Mr. Big's with blue and white from 150-190' of water. Most of the bites were caught a little south of Mayport and a little north of St. Augustine. The Pez Vela boat reportedly had 7 Wahoo!

West Palm Beach Sailfishing Report Aboard the Triple 7

Katie and I were lucky enough to be invited to fish on the Triple 7, a 60' Hatteras, out of Palm Beach this past weekend. Talk about being spoiled - a 60' boat with full time captain and crew just for the two of us. We had a great time. Over the two days we went 5 for 7 on sailfish, Katie caught her first and also caught a few kings accidentally. We had a triple hookup of sails on the kites on the first day of which we caught 2. The other 3 sailfish were caught slow trolling live goggle eyes.

The bite was great the day or two after the front passed through but our last day fishing the sailfish just weren't as aggressive as there were in the few days previous. We were lucky enough to bring a double header to the boat to save the day but those were the only 2 bites we had.

Triple 7 Sportfishing