This week on the water around Jacksonville, the summer flood tides are the story. Big afternoon highs are pushing water into the spartina, and the redfish are following it in to feed with their backs out of the water.
What’s Hitting
Redfish are tailing on the flooded grass flats on the bigger afternoon tides, and mangrove snapper have moved onto the rocks at the Mayport jetties in real numbers. Tarpon are shadowing the pogy pods along the beaches, flounder are picking off mud minnows around dock pilings and creek mouths, and a few kings are running the beach just outside the bait.
Where to Find Them
The flood-tide flats up and down the Intracoastal — around Sisters Creek, Clapboard Creek, and the marshes behind Ponte Vedra — are where the tailing happens. Snapper are tight to the jetty rocks on the slower tide phases. Find the pogy pods off the beach anywhere from the jetties south to Jax Beach and the tarpon and kings will not be far.
Tides & Conditions
This week brings solid afternoon flood tides — the kind that put reds in the grass. The river is holding decent clarity for July, and the ocean has been fishable most mornings before the sea breeze stacks it up.
Tackle & Tactics
Flood-tide reds want a weedless gold spoon, a crab-pattern fly, or a soft plastic rigged weedless and dropped a few feet ahead of a tailing fish. Snapper at the jetties eat live shrimp on a light knocker rig. For beach tarpon, an 8/0 circle hook through a live pogy, drifted at the edge of the pod, is the play.
Local Intel This Week
The Mayport boat ramp and Jim King Park at Sisters Creek are the workhorse public ramps for the jetties and north river, with Joe Carlucci and Goodbys Creek covering the Intracoastal and the south river. Fish are concentrating around the jetties, the beach bait pods, and the flooded spartina on the big highs. Check current FWC regulations and seasons before keeping fish — redfish and flounder rules have shifted in recent years.
This Week’s Tip
On the flood tides, arrive before the water does. Stake out a flat you know holds fiddler crabs, wait for the first push of water, and let the reds come to you rather than chasing wakes across the grass.