Fishing Report: High seas shuts door on offshore fishing, but plenty of action in the river – Daytona Beach News-Journal

The open sea has turned treacherous this week. Offshore and surf anglers are turning to the Halifax River and catching snook, trout, flounder and redfish.

High seas because of all the tropical activity in the Atlantic Ocean is sending the regular offshore fishermen to the safety of the Intracoastal Waterway.

SURF, PIERS: Roy Mattson (royssurffishing.com) said there has been limited activity because of rough seas. It will stay like that through the weekend, he said. Gene Lytwyn at The Fishin Hole in downtown Daytona Beach said only a handful of his regulars are casting into the surf. The surf has been good when weather conditions allow, he said. We are seeing whiting, pompano and a few redfish. Windy conditions have led to rough surf and strong currents, making surf fishing difficult.

OFFSHORE: Capt. Michael Mulholland (seaspiritfishing.com) said the ocean has been a no-go situation. The weather has been so bad and blowing nobody has been out, he said, adding the Sea Spirit remains in dry dock for maintenance. Capt. Jeff Patterson (smallboatbigfish.com) said he fished the mouth of the inlet one day before the waves became too high to handle. Rough seas probably until Sunday, he said. We managed to get out to the jetties Tuesday morning before the north wind picked up and it was already like a washing machine. Capt. David Caruthers (strippinlipscharters.com) is an offshore regular, but stayed in the river all week. It was too rough to get offshore, he said.

PONCE INLET, HALIFAX RIVER: Capt. Kyle Busby (nobigreel.com) reports catching doormat flounder in Spruce Creek by free-lining jumbo-sized shrimp. There are some really nice flounder coming from the Dunlawton Causeway area, both around the flat bridge and also under the main bridge around the fenders, Busby said. He said the inlet is holding plenty of tarpon as the mullet run begins. Snook up to 20-inches have been all over the place, but the larger snook are a little harder to find, he said. Mattson said there are lots of redfish around the inlet and flounder all over the river. Pompano are on area sandbars, he added. Lytwyn said his customers are catching snook. Snook activity has been strong both inshore and at the jetties, he said. Most anglers are using artificials, but live bait is working, too, such as shrimp and finger mullet. The inlets are still having plenty of activity with large redfish and tarpon. Inshore around the bridges and docks there are flounder, redfish, ladyfish and jacks or keeping anglers busy. Patterson said since he could not fish the inlet, he concentrated on fishing the river. We were fishing around some docks and managed to find one slot redfish and one 30-inch redfish, he said. Caruthers said he caught plenty of redfish, pompano, flounder and mangrove snappers. Offshore probably isn't going to happen anytime soon because its looking rough all through the week, he added.

TOMOKA BASIN, RIVER: Capt. Barry Englehardt (fishwithcaptainbarry.com) said he went out twice in the last week. He bagged nine redfish and three snook on Day 1 and four reds and a snook on Day 2. Salty Dawg Outfitters Highbridge is located just north of Tomoka. Salty Dawgs Dave Farlow said his customers are catching snook. Trout fishing has been ridiculously good around dock lights at night, he said. The redfish count is down a bit because of high waters. We have been getting some solid reports of flounder and tarpon as well. Black drum seem to be stacking up at Highbridge and Tomoka.

MOSQ. LAGOON, INDIAN RIVER: Capt. Michael Savedow (edgewaterriverguide.com) said the Edgewater Backcountry has been backed up with higher levels of water. We are seeing water at flood levels with all the east wind, he said. The migrating mullet schools have started coming through with jacks and blues busting on them. Savedow said he has caught a variety of fish including trout, mangrove snapper, snook, whiting and ladyfish.

MATANZAS INLET, RIVER: Capt. Chris Herrera (palmcoastfishing.com) said he has been dealing with high winds and water levels during the last week. During these high tides it's best to cover grass lines with a popping cork and live shrimp, he said. We have caught snook, redfish, trout and jack. The inlet bite has been great for redfish during slack tide on either high or low tide using live mullet.

ST. JOHNS RIVER: Capt. Bryn Rawlins at Highland Park Fish Camp in DeLand gives bass fishing a thumbs up even with the high water. She said anglers are catching bass up to 8 pounds. Speckled perch season is almost here and we have already seen good catches coming in from Lake Woodruff, she said. Most anglers are trolling for them.

SEND PHOTOS: We want to see your most recent catch. Email your fish photos to godwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com. Be sure to include type of fish, size of fish (weight and/or length), where the fish was caught, first and last names and hometown of angler who caught the fish, and first and last name of person who took the photo. If a child is in the photo, please include their age. The News-Journal will use one or two photos in print each week and the other photos submitted will go into the online gallery called Readers Fish Photos.

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Fishing Report: High seas shuts door on offshore fishing, but plenty of action in the river - Daytona Beach News-Journal