Fishing Report & Forecast St. Augustine Inshore

By Capt. Tommy Derringer

It’sbeach time baby! Right now, along our beaches, just outside the surf, there are pogies (menhaden) getting chased, thrashed, and eaten by one of many predatory fish that roam our waters this time of year. Tarpon, kingfish, huge jacks and sharks are just some of the monster sea creatures waiting for you to hook into for the fight of your life! A great all-around rig to catch just about all those fish is to put a live pogy on a circle hook and cast just around the edges of the pods. Getting an early start will also increase your chances of hooking up along the beach as the feeding frenzy tends to taper off as it heats up and the sun gets higher in the sky.

By now tarpon should be thick along the beach gorging themselves on the pogys, but another fun way to catch the silver king in our region is to hunt them behind the shrimp boats. Summertime brings the shrimp boats within a mile or so of the beach. Look for the boats that have birds hanging around, as those are the ones getting ready to or just recently dumped their by-catch overboard. Approach the shrimp boats from behind and be very aware of any rigging they may have in the water. It’s as simple as going slow and looking at what’s feeding on the by-catch. Net a few of the floating fish and use them for bait. When you see a tarpon gulping down bycatch just toss your bait in the chum line and hold on. If you don’t see any tarpon you’re sure to see a ton of big sharks and they will definitely put a bend in the rod.

Inshore, the best bite will be early from first light to about 9am when things start to heat up. When it gets hot the fish will slow down and not be nearly as aggressive. At first light a top-water really can’t be beat this time of year as redfish and trout will be willing to give serious chase and devour a Berkley J-Walker plug. Once the sun gets up a bit, you’ll want to change to something sub-surface like the Saltwater Assassin paddle tail. I like to rig them on a 1/8 oz. or ¼ oz. jighead to help keep the bait down where the fish will be. The deeper creek holes will be a good bet once the heat of the day sets in. A live mud minnow or shrimp pegged to a jighead will also work well when fishing deeper.

With the murky “Summer” water settling in it’s a great time to use some baits with either scent, flash, or noise makers in them. One of the offerings from Fishbites under a popping cork is a no-brainer for this time of year as it cover the scent and the noise. A gold spoon or spinner bait is also a good choice when searching for redfish on a higher tide in murky water. They give off plenty of flash and the thump from the spoon or spinner blade can call a fish in in the murkiest of waters.