TheFishing Report Summer 2024
The summer weather has locked in and the fishing has been really great.Look for redfish, mangrove snapper and drum to feed in decent numbers both at the rocks and the Mayport basin up into the lower St John's River into the surrounding creek systems. The ICW both North towards Nassau Sound and South past Atlantic Blvd should hold good numbers of quality fish. Try fishing with float rigs and live shrimp, jig/shrimp combos as well as carolina rigged baits on the falling tides . Look for clear water when you can find it for the best results as dirty water tends to be a turn off to most inshore species.
The Big bull reds will be around in small numbers but, can still be caught into the St Johns River and surrounding Mayport Basin rock piles and points. Fishing the bottom of the low tide to the first of the incoming tides for the best opportunities should give you some shots at some trophy 25-35lb reds.Try fishing with fresh chunks of bull mullet, whole blue crabs, and even cut ladyfish. If you can the best baits are live pogies fresh off the ocean if you can snag a live well full. Pin a fresh jumbo livey through the nose and it's on! I have found over the years that the fresher the bait the better the results. Always remember these are our breeding stock so handle them with some sense of gentleness and release them back as quickly as possible careful to vent them when its needed. A venting needle is the best tool to use for this. Try fishing the deep drops in the river, edges of the shipping channel, the edges of the big rocks at Mayport, and on the outside of the rocks , Ocean side, early in the morning and later in the afternoon. Stout heavy tackle is preferred to minimize stress to these big breeders. My preferred rod is a Shimano Saragosa 8000 spinning outfit with 80lb braid on a stiff 7ft rod.
The offshore scene has really fired up. The big clouds of live bait showing up enmasse with pogies and jigged live baits available for those willing to work for them.These live menhadden, cigar minnows, greenies, and sardines are the big game changer in catching a mess of good quality striking fish and bottom dwellers. A fresh live well of nice baits will make for a great day of morning trolling and then a quick switch to bottom fishing for black sea bass, ringtails, vermillions, triggers, and snapper. Cut baits fished on the bottom can be productive. I typically deploy cuttle fish, cut cigars, cut mullet, and will occasionally use live shrimp. Recent catches have been good with nice catches of kingfish, cobia, little tunny, cudas, sharks, and a few sailfish as well. It's going to be a great Summer so jump on the Light Tackle or Heavy Tackle fishing to experience Northeast Florida's greatest asset. Try your hand at some of the best Offshore fishing in Florida and get hooked.
Also be sure to catch the Outdoors Show each Saturday from 7am to 10am for the local tides, weather, and our local updated fishing reports on AM 1010 or FM92.5. Give us a shoutout and let's hit the water. 904-626-1128. Capt Kirk. You Can also visit us on Instagram, FaceBook, Trip Advisor, Bing, Or Yelp for updates to pictures and recent catches.
