- May 4, 2024
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I hope everyone had a happy and safe Fourth of July.
A couple of friends of mine, Capt. Ralph Olivett, Pam Heil and Joe Ricke, had a great July 4 at one of the local reefs off Flagler County’s shore.
They had a blast catching red snapper. Olivett said they had about 15 snapper and all of them were between 20 and 30 pounds.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep a single one for the dinner table.
With fish like that, it makes you wonder where the government gets its data that says red snapper stocks are way down.
Dave Maloney went out of Ponce Inlet and also had a great day of fishing.
He had cobia, red snapper and mangrove snapper.
Maloney’s mangrove snapper was the largest he’s ever caught, weighing in a little more than 12 pounds. That’s a big mangrove.
On Sunday, Bruce Heditneimi and I headed out Matanzas Inlet to see if we could find some tarpon.
Once we were out of the inlet, we located a large school of menhaden and, in one throw of the cast net, we filled the baitwell.
We fished a couple of the larger bait pods around the inlet but had no luck. Then, we headed south to Matanzas Shores and found acres and acres of menhaden. We saw a couple of tarpon bust on bait, but nothing near us. They didn’t have the bait balled up so it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The only thing we got for our efforts that day was a bonnet head shark. Weather permitting, we will give it another shot this weekend.
I have heard that there have been a couple of tarpon and some king mackerel hooked up off the Flagler Beach Pier.
Inshore, the trout fishing has been a bit on the slow side during the day. The best bet for trout right now is night fishing. Fish dock lights for the best action. The best lights are the ones that are closest to the water. These lights will attract the most bait and in turn will attract predator trout. Cast your bait up current past the light and bring it through the light and back into the dark. If you are using shrimp, freeline it with no weight on it and just let it drift through the light.
If you are using soft plastic bait, you’ll have to work it a little more. One of the best ways to catch trout at night is by flyfishing. A fly with no weight or one that has bead chain eyes and is white will do the trick.
For redfish, try live mullet or chunks of fresh cut mullet or menhaden. A live mud minnow on a jig head should work, too.
