Northeast Florida is deep into its late-summer pattern. The St. Johns is warm and slow, the marsh creeks are running hot on the low tides, and the most consistent fishing has moved just offshore where the water is cooler and the bait is thicker. Mornings have been calm enough to run, which is the main thing.
What’s Hitting
King mackerel are the nearshore headline, holding on the bait pods and the reefs from 40 to 80 feet. Slot and bull redfish are working the jetty rocks and the river mouth on the moving tide, with the bigger fish showing more consistently as the month closes out.
Mangrove and lane snapper are on the nearshore ledges. Speckled trout are in the marsh creeks and along the ICW grass edges early. Flounder are staging in the inlet and along the jetty rocks, and there are enough tarpon around the river mouth and the beaches to be worth a shot at first light.
Where to Find Them
The St. Johns River jetties at Mayport are the workhorse spot — fish the rocks on the last of the incoming for reds and flounder. The river mouth and the ship channel edges hold bull reds and tarpon on the tide change.
Nearshore, the reefs and live bottom in 40 to 80 feet off Jacksonville Beach and Mayport are where the kings and snapper are. Inshore, work the Intracoastal grass edges and the feeder creeks off the Nassau and Fort George rivers for trout and slot reds. The Sisters Creek and Clapboard Creek systems have been reliable on a falling tide.
Tides & Conditions
Tides run a strong range on this coast — three to five feet is normal — so the tide is the dominant variable, not the wind. Fish the last two hours of the flood and the first two of the ebb in the marsh, and the moving water on the jetties.
Water temps are in the mid 80s inshore and around 80 nearshore. Afternoon thunderstorms have been rolling off the mainland most days. Nearshore visibility has been decent on the incoming and dirty on the hard outgoing when the river dumps.
Tackle & Tactics
For kings, slow-troll live pogies on a stinger rig — a 4/0 to 5/0 nose hook with a treble trailer on light wire — behind a 20- to 30-pound outfit. Find the bait, then work the edges of the pod rather than running through it.
Jetty redfish take a live mud minnow, a cut mullet chunk or a half-ounce jighead with a paddletail bounced along the rocks; 30-pound braid and a 40-pound leader keeps you honest against the barnacles. Trout in the creeks want a popping cork with a shrimp under it, or a light jig worked on the drop-offs. Flounder eat a live mud minnow dragged slowly on a Carolina rig.
Local Intel This Week
Ramps: the Sisters Creek Marina ramp at Heckscher Drive, the Mayport ramp, Palms Fish Camp on the north side of the river, and the Atlantic Boulevard ramp on the ICW. Shore anglers have good access at the Jacksonville Beach and Mayport piers and along the jetty rocks at Huguenot Memorial Park.
Fish are concentrating on the nearshore bait pods and at the jetties on moving water, with the marsh creeks best on the falling tide. Redfish, flounder and king mackerel all carry size and bag rules in Florida that change periodically — check current FWC and federal regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
When you find a pogy pod nearshore, do not immediately throw the cast net. Idle around it once and watch the surface. If the pod is tight and nervous with fish showering off the edges, kings are already on it — get a live bait in the water first and net your bait supply afterward. Netting first often scatters the pod and ends the bite before it starts.
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