Team member Blake lives in Jacksonville, so he got lucky this time around (no traveling) while Jay (Cocoa Beach), John (Sarasota), Adam (Cape Coral), and myself (Palmetto) had to make the trek up. The west coast threesome arrived Wednesday night after a light bout with the wildfire smoke just outside of Orlando.
Even though the first “named” sub-tropical depression was in the area, we were bent on pre-fishing before Saturday’s contest. Our plan was to fish the Matanzas River (ICW) around the 206 bridge just south of St. Augustine. When we woke up Thursday morning…the winds were at a steady 15mph clip. Here we are at the launch getting geared up
Of course, there are no mangroves in NE Florida, but there is plenty of marsh grass to cast along during a flood tide. Adam is paddling and casting along a stretch looking for a bite.........
And one of Jay's buddys has the same strategy, but with a different view
John was the first to hook up to a decent Redfish......this is the look of a satisfied angler, seeegar burnin' and a smile.
"Is that Adam's trolling line I just crossed?"
Yes it was.....confirmed when my trolling line found his....time for some untangling
Shortly after getting untangled, Adam catches a nice middle slot Red
Before the tide begins dropping we decide to head up some of the feeder creeks while there is still high water.....at a spot where a skinny creek widened, John was able to hook into the largest Red of the day.
Once back out of the creeks, we found out what the tall grass was hiding......the winds ramped up to a steady 20-25 mph with gusts up to 35mph....yeesh. After an arduous paddle back to the launch it was time to call it a day. I had some solace in the high winds....kept the smell of my skunk downwind....no fish for me on Thursday.
Pic of the winds before we left.....
Our best fishing was on Thursday, we just couldn't find the same numbers of fish come tourney day. The weather on the day of the tournament actually turned out to be very pleasant after the fog lifted. Blake saved the day by placing 4th in the slam category (Redfish, Trout, Flounder). He fished an area in Jacksonville near Hecksher Drive. His biggest fish was a 27.5 inch Red
Good to see you there, Jeff. Looking forward to the DOA! Are you staying at the River Palms?
My sincerest thanks goes to the jaxkayakfishing.com crew and their sponsors for all of their hard work and effort in running this tournament. The last angler count I heard was over 280 total, what a awesome turnout! We all had a great time and look forward to next year’s tournament.
