SI Fishing Forcast

[Final Point]

Hello fellow forum members. We have entered one of the best fishing months that there is. Snook is finally open, the mullet run has begun, and offshore starts to heat up. Because of all these excellent fishing opportunities, we are opening up for addintional days and hours. We will be open from Dark-Dark on Sat, Dark-2 on Sun, and Dark-Dark on Holidays(like labor day).

Inlet: The snook are out there!! We hit the inlet for a midnight run on opening night and came away with a nice bit of fish. We took home 3 fish that met the slot, released one under-slot and one over-slot. We also added a pair of overslot reds and jumped a tarpon for good measure. The bite was very steady throughout the night. The hot bait for the evening were Pigs/pins on 3ft of 40lb fluro with a 3/0 owner cutting point with a couple of #3 splits.

With sunset coinsiding with an outgoing tide all weekend then there should be plenty of Snook coming on board to play. Just remember to be careful out there around all the boats. Things can go real wrong, real fast in that inlet.

Offshore: There havn't been many people going offshore since the storm, but those that have have reported good numbers of kings and cudas out to 120'. I heard of one boat getting 3 dolphin off of a floating pile of rope that had tangled in a couple of sections of driftwood. With this E wind that we had today it should push in some of the debri from Irene and fishing should be pretty fantastic if you can get out over the weekend.

Inshore: With bad wind and bad water the fishing hasn't been all that great inshore. The trout bite has still been doing pretty good up on the flats that have interspersed sand holes. Cast into the sand holes and work your bait out. If you are seeing fish but not getting strikes on artificials, then switching to a nice handpicked shrimp on a troll right jig head can really pay off.

I will add to this report tomorrow night after I close the shop. Hopefully some of you can stop by and let me know how you do. See you on the water!!

[Deviled Crab]

Thanks for the report! :)

[Jas2]

Thanks for the report FP !!

Will prolly be out there Sunday to see if any snook want to play !

[Snookmeister]

When I camped SI in mid July the far tip of the SW point of the park was where the snooks were goin nuts. There mullet literally being chased out of the water onto the beach on the incoming tide. I didn't really see anyone else fishing down there. Someone needs to hit that up.

[Final Point]

Hope to see you on Sunday Jas 2!! Always good to see forum members out on the water.

@Snookmeister...I have seen schools of well over a 100 snook explode on a mullet pod at the mouth of the inlet. That is a sight to see. The mullet will beach themselves on the rocks to get away from them. It is a spectacular sight to see! I may try that point one of these days though...I go right by it and never have fished there.

[Final Point]

Fri, Sat, and Sun report. It was tough fishing conditions with the wind, but a few of you were able to persevere and put some fish in the boat.

Inshore: Fishing the flats to the North and South of the inlet produced mixed results. Those of you who were using live bait made out much better. There were a lot of nice trout, some slot redfish, large schools of bluefish, and the occasional snook. An angler showed me a pic of a nice 35 incher he caught on the flats just outside of longpoint using a freelined finger mullet. The water is filthy, but once the sun comes out you should be able to locate the sandy potholes. Target these areas with either bait or artificials.

Inlet: Ok, snook fishing has been slow during the day. It's still possible to pick up a quality fish(such as the 40" that some moron brought to the shop for me to weigh) by using pinfish or finger mullet. The best method of targeting the linesiders is to drift, but anchoring at the tip of the north jetty can be productive as well. Other good fish have made their way into cooler, including mangrove snapper, pompano, redfish, and bluefish(if you like to eat them that is). The pompano and snapper were caught using live shrimp on the N side of the inlet just to the W of the kiddie pond. A few keeper redfish were caught by anglers at the tip of the N jetty.

Offshore: I talked to 2 boats that tried to troll for dolphin and neither had any success. The didn't stay out too long because of the conditions, but they were able to find some nice weedlines and debri. Once this wind dies down it should make for some great fishing. The bottom bite has remained consistant with good catches of black sea bass, trigger fish, endangered species, and even a nice mango or 2.

I met some good people out on the water today, and I hope to meet some more tomorrow. See you on the water!!

For those that made the trip out of the inlet this morning they were able to find schools of 40-50lb tarpon to the North of the inlet. They seemed to be targeting schools of glass minnows. Also in the mix were massive schools of 6-10lb jacks that provide a great fight, especially on light tackle. If you plan to target these fish make sure you take bait with you out there because today the mullet didn't start showing themselves on the beach until the afternoon.

[Docked Wages]

Thanks for the detailed reports, great info as ussual.

The water is dirty all the way up the river to Rockeldge.