The Cats Meow

Wanted to get out and fish Atlantic beach on Friday but got called to do something else, so I put a lot of stock into getting out the with family on Saturday and fish all day.  As usual we got a late start and didn't get to Vilano until about 10am.  Several people were already there and very little was happening.  Another lesson learned for me the best tide to fish the surf at Vilano is outgoing.  Incoming will drag your weights towards the inlet.  Not wanting to wait for the 2pm change in tide and definitely wanting to get on some fish packed it up and headed north to Guana South aka "The Rockpile".  Have always come away with some fish at the Rockpile.

Got to Guana two hours before high tide.  Very steep drop right at our feet.  I'm guessing the depth at about 5 feet.  My wife spotted a dorsal fin in that first trough.  The sharks were in extremely close feeding.  I spotted it.  If you were to walk to the waters edge and reach your hand out you could have touched it, it was that close!  It's probably what happens on these beaches when people get shark bite playing in that deep first trough.  Later in the day we caught half a whiting.  Yep, bit clean through by a shark. 

First line in was the 7' Shimano Saguaro with the Spheros 6k and almost immediately it was bending over.  There was definitely a rhythm to the day.  A couple blues and a couple whiting followed by a half dozen hardhead catfish.  Then a couple blues and a couple whiting followed by another half dozen cats.  Yes, the water was dirty but it started to clean up towards the end of the day.  That's when we started catching 14" whiting.  The bite was almost non-stop, which is why the bones are aching today.  I was able to get three of our four rods rigged and into the fight for the first couple hours, then finally the fourth.

Finished the day at 4pm with 8 whiting and 6 blues on shrimp and clams.  It was a very fun day, especially being out there with the family.  Everyone caught fish and had a blast.  Plan to hit it again next Saturday with my son, probably at Ft. Matanzas, but we may go north to Talbot.

The short answer to which area is going to be fishable on any given day I believe depends primarily on tide for that area and time of year.  Vilano seems to always be a problem on the incoming tide.    It's an inlet.  Yet I've never had a problem at Matanzas on the incoming tide and it's an inlet.  The majority of the summer and spring the currents weren't a problem.  Jax beach, Hannah Park, Talbot Island, fall currents seem to run rampant.  I'm going to build a chart to keep track of it and sort it all out.  That will reduce getting into situations where I've set up in a place that's unfishable due to current.