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Before, during and after the rain...time to catch up on reports (lots of pics)
So, I haven't posted any reports in awhile but the rain has brought on some boredom so I'm going to try to make up for it. Before the tropical storm (must be what, 12 inches of rain ago or there about), we were starting to catch some big reds in the river. Made several trips to a favorite spot near the island and landed several just over the slot, one in the slot and one serious beauty. The fish in the third photo was 40" and fat. My third largest ever and probably the prettiest. Caught her on a slab of ladyfish.
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Then the rain started and we began looking for fish closer to home - NW St. Johns County - so we started fishing the river between rain storms and have been doing that for the past two weeks. All of the fish in the following photos were caught in Green Cove, north of the Shands Bridge. We started with the croaker. They are not real big yet but the average size is growing. We caught a few right at the bridge but most of the croaker, and everything else we've been catching due east of the pier in about 12 feet of water on a small dip that extends most of the way across the river. It's a popular spot - if someone on here doesn't like me sharing.....tough - I've heard it referred to as the "burnout" or "burndown" but I'm not sure exactly what that is in reference to. Maybe someone here can enlighten us. There have been very nice yellow mouth trout there for a few weeks, and, as you can see, we've caught some real fatties. Last Saturday morning we caught the black drum, yesterday we caught a 26.5" red just before the afternoon rain and this morning we the trout in the last photo. I thought all this rain would really freshen things up and I'm sure it has to some extent so you can imagine my surprise at catching a bluefish at the Shands Bridge. I always thought they were about the most freshwater intolerant of our inshore species - guess not!
With all those fish around, there must be some shrimp someplace close by or a lot of bait of some type.
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