The weekend at Sebastian

[duckmanJR]

I have been staying local and have been scraping out a few fish.
Yesterday I went to my trusty Redfish spot first off...and it was empty! Shizzit!! Not a good omen but I pressed on. My first trout spot...nada...
as was my honey hole trout spot from early in the week.
The wind was not ideal for these places and the cloud cover was dense so "sightin' up" a fish was not going to happen.
Not looking too good.... Well, It was after 8AM before I got the first bite.
I decided to go look at spots that I had not fished in a while keeping in mind the wind...while not a gale..was already kinda brisk.
The first trout was no monster but 75 feet down the bank I got a nice fish that was 25". The next stop was another wind protected shore and the point had a slot trout on the upwind..but the downwind side had a beautiful 26" trout. The next fish was a small snook....and at the far end of the shoreline at the other windy point...an almost legal Red. With a slam in the boat I moved to another spot..actually the opposite side of a little bay where I caught a nice fish on thursday. This spot had wind protection and decently clean water...I missed a light little "tic" and saw a nice trout move away and up towards the bank. I fired the cast where I thought she went...and it was very cool to watch her come out and flare her gills and inhale that little jig. She wound up being 24".



I went to one last spot and caught 3 just in the slot trout and two more Reds that were 19"-20".... I caught a jack and a ladyfish there too so it was 8 trout 3 Reds 1 snook plus the jack and lady. I decided to run to the inlet and finally get to meet Ryan (final point) face to face. He's a very nice young man and we chatted for a while and he has a very nice floating shop with good stock of what you need for a day out.

Today I was not really planning to go...was supposed to do a little scouting for the upcoming duck season...but overslept my alarm so the scouting was aborted...and fishing substituted.
Two young men were ramping when I was and when I saw them head kinda towards where I intended... I took option B. There was a lot of bait in the area so it looked promising.
First fish was a 19" Red with 4 spots. I missed what I think was another and left the area figuring to come back later. Next spot was a wind whipped point but after getting inside the wind shadow..picked off a 21" Red. I opted to hit yesterdays last spot since it was now a wind protected cove. I picked up two 14" trout....and then...


It was now 8:45 and rather than hit the mornings first spot...decided that now was the time to push back from the table and count my winnings!

PS...all fish were caught Saterday on 1/8th oz Red Strike King head with white Mirrolure 3" soft sardine...and Sundays fish came on the same jighead..with a greenie DOA cal.

[Panfishangler1]

Thankyou duckmanjr! Always love reading your reports. Nice Fish!!

[fishboy]

yeah, thanks for the report!!

[johnD]

nice work, Joe ! what's the water temp in the river ?

[duckmanJR]

nice work, Joe ! what's the water temp in the river ?

Thank you...

It's kinda hard to say John... It has been spiking up and down a good amount based on overnight temps. It seems as though the dirty water south of the inlet holds the temp better than clean water. On the cold mornings water was high 60's but wind protected shorelines with sun on them were a couple degrees warmer.... and it concentrates the apex predators.

[redjim]

Nice report Duckman!!

I live just a bit North of you in Rockledge and fish that part of the river hard. I did not have you luck on Sunday, lots of ladies, two med trout and slot red.

John, I have been watching the water temp and where I live, 35 miles North of Duckman our water temp was 66 on Sunday. This week is suspose to be warmer and maybe better fishing.

Keep up the nice work Duckman!!!

[duckmanJR]

Thank you redjim,

I would not have been the least surprized at 66 especially if the water was clearer than the mud we have down here...we had 68/69 to start both mornings.

Also, The only reason I mentioned the ladyfish and jack I caught is that they are almost always an incidental catch.
Basicly, I have found if you are catching ladyfish and jacks you have one of two things..or both. One is you are over bare bottom and two is you are too hot on your retrieve speed. I think you will find if you slow the retrieve to very slow..with ever so slight hops...that you will go up exponentially on Flounder...and drop exponentially on jacks/ladys.

I'm getting ready to switch gears and start hunting ducks from this Saterday till the Sunday after Thanksgiving so this week will probably not see me fishing...have to pattern down those ducks!
After that, I have two weeks of closed duck season and hopefully I can pick up where I left off.

[angler18]

great report as always. and nice to see the slam reports coming again

[Indian Riverkeeper]

Thanks Joe!

[redjim]

Thanks Joe! I will give it a try!!!!

Thank you redjim,

I would not have been the least surprized at 66 especially if the water was clearer than the mud we have down here...we had 68/69 to start both mornings.

Also, The only reason I mentioned the ladyfish and jack I caught is that they are almost always an incidental catch.
Basicly, I have found if you are catching ladyfish and jacks you have one of two things..or both. One is you are over bare bottom and two is you are too hot on your retrieve speed. I think you will find if you slow the retrieve to very slow..with ever so slight hops...that you will go up exponentially on Flounder...and drop exponentially on jacks/ladys.

I'm getting ready to switch gears and start hunting ducks from this Saterday till the Sunday after Thanksgiving so this week will probably not see me fishing...have to pattern down those ducks!
After that, I have two weeks of closed duck season and hopefully I can pick up where I left off.