February was a busy month, but I still managed to get out on the water three days to do some shad fishing. Each trip was successful and covered different areas of the river.
Putting in the Miles at Hatbill
On February 1st Ray and I ran to Hatbill to see if we could find some numbers of fish that had pushed through Puzzle Lake. With the fishing still hot out of C.S. Lee, the weekend traffic had been thick and while fishing with the pack is indeed good fun, I like to stretch my wings some and catch fish in different places and different ways.
With the water at 3.6ft on the SR50 gage, running the river was easy and fast. No bumping bottom (for the most part) but all of the spots we frequent are fishable. I like this section of river when it’s between 3-4ft, and 3.6 is dang near perfect. We ran to first junction to have a look and did not see activity. However, along the way we dodged hundreds of dead tilapias, likely victims of the cold front that drove central Florida temps down into the 30’s for several days and even caused SNOW in the panhandle!
We decided to run upstream to Orange Mound as Ray had never fished there before and it had been a few years since I had as well. The water is clear and the bottom sandy on the run in-front of the midden, but unfortunately there is now some fallen timber in the water that breaks up the fishing. That did not seem to faze Ray, and he quickly caught his first Orange Mound shad. I managed several panfish before we decided to move.
We continued to push upstream through the winding, high reeds and tight confines towards the T-split. This section of river absolutely, positively has the best current in the entire river, and we could see potential for every pool to hold fish. However, you cannot fish from shore here, so a bigger boat, and spot lock or anchor would be needed to explore it. Even then, this section is so narrow that someone could come flying around a blind corner and run into you, so fish it with caution. We did fish the T-split (where you can get out and fish) and did not find shad. Again, the current is exceptional, we just need to figure out the right conditions to make this spot hot before returning.
Rather than pushing further upstream, we backtracked to make our way down to Second Junction, figuring the numbers had to be closer to Puzzle Lake. I deviated and took a side channel cut that also heads towards Bear Bluff (going upstream) and showed Ray one of the tightest, most fast moving, claustrophobic high reed sections of river in this area before dumping back out just a turn or two from the launch. Good fun! We used the Baxter Point pass to get down to Second Junction without issue at these water levels, with the motor trimmed up. I managed two shad there even if the pictures don’t tell the story.
We continued downstream towards Heffer Mound to a spot we frequent and found shad there as well. We both caught them on conventional and fly rods, but not in any real numbers. There were clearly more fish there but getting them to participate was a different story. We made one more stop at Second Junction where Ray picked up a couple of fish before we called it a day.
While we did not find numbers, we did find onesy-twosies at several spots. In all, we covered 14 river miles, warranting a stop at the Jolly Gator to have a couple of beers with Bill Gordon and his crew that were down from Pennsylvania doing some shad fishing, a trip they have been doing for decades! Great group of guys, and thank you again to Bill for the beers!
Solo Run to C.S. Lee
On February 15th, I fished out of C.S. Lee solo as Ray had previous family commitments. With the gage at Lake Harney at 1.34ft, and a chilly, rainy day forecasted, I did not have high hopes. I took my time in the morning and had an extra cup of coffee before arriving at the launch at 8:30. After loading up the gear and setting sail, I quickly ran into Paul Janke, a member of the SoTF Facebook group over from Tampa. Good to meet you in person Paul!
I ran down to the east bank across from the mouth of the Econ and got to work with the two-hander. There were 7-8 boats fishing the downstream run there. It quickly became apparent to me that the intermediate tip I was fishing was too heavy for these water conditions, and I switched to a floating tip and bead chain fly. On my second cast I landed a beautiful roe shad. Four or five more casts and I caught another. Ten or twelve more and I caught another. I decided then I wanted a fish on the one hander.
I casted and covered plenty of water but did not manage a fish for a while. I could see fish occasionally rising and feeding but the wind would pick up and push them down. With the overcast conditions I decided to switch up flies and tie on a chartreuse Kip Tailed Clouser. Those that know me would consider this an anomaly. While I am happy to fish chartreuse in salt, I just don’t have the same confidence in it in freshwater. No rhyme, no reason, I just think orange and white and pink and white seem to perform better for me in freshwater. BOOM, very next cast I catch a shad, and a kind friend in a skiff passing by captured it on camera and sent me a copy via text! Thanks buddy that was a cool shot! I also ran into Keith Browning there before yielding the spot.
I ended up moving to the west bank and caught several more shad and blueback herring at the mouth of the Econ before making a run into Puzzle Lake. There is a spot in Puzzle that Ray and I found two years ago that is a minimal open water crossing commitment but had good amounts of shad that I wanted to check out. I found schooling bass and tons of specks, but no shad this day.
I wanted to push upstream because there were thousands of white pelicans up there that know exactly what is going on, but I have said it before and I will say it again, it is not worth crossing Puzzle when the gage is under 2ft. Add wind and it’s a sh@t show. Add to that a commercial cast netter sitting right where I wanted to fish and forget it! I decided to run back downstream and instead fished the creek mouths and east channel. I caught plenty of bycatch but no more shad. Overall, a solid day of fishing.
Toso for the Win!
On Saturday the 23rd, Ray and I launched out of Tosohatchee, begrudgingly. Yes, the roads, the kidney rattling, bladder shaking roads! I am tired of writing about it. Why can’t they just fix Powerline Road??? At least the alternate path was dry this day (for the most part,) but for the love of GOD, why do we have to drive down to 528, and then drive all the way back up to Powerline Road to get to the river? It adds a solid 45-60 minutes to the trip depending on the road conditions. Fix the washed-out culverts! I will take up a collection at this point! In the immortal words of Danny Glover, I am getting too old for this sh!t! Poor Ray, he is even older! Eheheheh!
Complaining and jokes aside, Tosohatcheee does not have a boat launch on the St. Johns River. It is a cattle ranch, turned hunting camp with a lot of history, and it became a WMA in 1977 when the state acquired it. The access that Powerline Road provided to Long Bluff gave those of us with canoes and kayaks a convenient place to launch and access excellent sections of water for shad fishing. That is until a hurricane washed out a culvert, closing the road indefinitely. Now the journey requires travel down roads that seem like they have not been maintained since 1977. It is no longer convenient to get to the water; it is a commitment.
Committed to catching shad, Ray picked me up at 8am and we made the long drive to the launch. His 4WD is a real asset out there, particularly since my Jeep has had its last adventure. We arrived to find multiple carloads of cast netters already there. They were netting the run in front of Long Bluff all the way up to the first junction and down to Catfish Hotel. Seeing this, we decided to take a ride straight downstream towards PawPaw Mound and then fish our way back upstream throughout the day.
With the SR50 gage at 2.70ft, the journey required the outboard to be in the low water position. Even so, we bumped bottom pretty regularly. Airboats and Mudboats have the advantage at these gage heights. Also, with the water this low, the alligators are all concentrated in the pools with literally dozens of them on every turn. I have to say that crossing crowded pools in a canoe, while gators are diving off the cut bank into the very narrow stretch of water you need to traverse to keep the prop wet, is NOT for the faint of heart! Something I have never figured out is how a giant, noisy airboat full of people can ride right up to a group of alligators and they will not budge off the bank, but we get within 50ft of them, and they start a synchronized diving competition. I don’t know, maybe they are afraid of Ray.
As we approached a turn I fondly call the “40 Gator Pool,” (want to guess why,) we noticed birds diving and some surface activity. We generally just zoom past this spot on our way downstream but decided to give it a go as it had great current. We tend to probe new spots with the ultralights before moving to the fly rods, as you can just cover the water more quickly. The ultralights found fish within a cast or two, so we moved to the fly and caught several more shad and panfish on the Gamboozler, with an audience of reptiles all around us. The Gamboozler has quickly become a favorite in my fly box, particularly when the fish want the fly stripped.
After catching our fill, we crossed the 40 Gator Pool and continued downstream, stopping everywhere we saw birds diving or surface activity, catching both shad and copious amounts of panfish and even a couple of bass along the way. It was a feeding frenzy, and there were fish everywhere!
As the day grew late, we worked our way back upstream, stopping at all of our normal haunts. We caught shad at all of them with one exception, 7 Palms. I don’t know what is up this year, but the fish just have not been congregating there, well at least while we are there anyway. It may be worth a look if you fish from the boat, but for us bank fishermen, I would still say it’s not worth a hike in.
It was a great day of fishing, with over 50 fish caught a piece, and plenty of shad mixed in! Sadly though, if we do not get some serious rain in the next week or two, the run may be coming to a swift end, at least in the upper stretches of the river. Pray for rain, and a cold front would not hurt either.
great report!
Thanks Lars!