Amelia Island

Charter Boat Association

www.ameliaislandcharterboatassociation.com

FISHING INFORMATION BY TERRY LACOSS

Tony Shores, center, recently landed and released this seven-foot sailfish while fishing with area fishing guide Captain Benny Hendrix, right, and mate Jeffery Brown.

"Captain Benny Hendrix was actually apologizing about the fishing," said Barbara Ainsworth. "We had fished a couple of Captain Hendrix's favorite fishing spots without much action, when a small kingfish was boated. Fishing was about to improve."

Offshore fishing had been excellent until the recent northeaster, which scattered bait fish schools and sent area game fish looking for new feeding grounds.

Just before the northeaster, which blew for five days, summer fishing action was heating up with good numbers of kingfish and a few sailfish catches coming from offshore fishing grounds.

"My sister-in-law, Sue Shores, was visiting me from Kansas City, Mo., with her husband, Tony, and two sons, Nathon and Nik," Ainsworth said. "We thought a deep sea fishing charter would be lots of fun and scheduled a trip with the Miss Val and Captain Benny Hendrix. None of us had been deep sea fishing in the before."

By now, Hendrix was feeling more confident and soon guided his charter to a nice size barracuda and a 25-pound king mackerel.

"We don't have much fishing time left in our charter and the fishing action is picking up here, so we might as well stay here and catch fish," Hendrix said.

The Fernandina based charter boat had visited the St. Marys sea buoy earlier that morning and jigged up a live well full of plump cigar minnows, prime live baits for Atlantic Coast sailfish.

"It was just about time to reel in our fishing lines and head back to land when a really large fish hit one of our live baits," Ainsworth said. "Tony grabbed the deeply bent live bait rod and hung on for dear life as a huge sailfish came leaping from the water with several wild jumps."

The battle actually raged for nearly an hour before the Shores reeled in his tired sailfish to the gunnel of their charter boat. Hendrix reached down and grabbed the bill of the sail, bringing the seven-footer in the boat for a quick picture. After a quick photo, Hendrix held the sailfish in the water for several minutes by its bill, allowing fresh saltwater to pass through its gills. Finally the sailfish showed signs of strengthening and swam away from the Miss Val, completely revived.

The summer of 2002 has produced several sailfish and may have been a record year if the recent northeaster had not played out a bad hand of cards to local deep-sea fishermen. However fishing action has picked back up during this last week and good catches of both offshore and near shore game fish have been reported.

In fact, Hendrix has made several excellent fishing trips to the south end of Amelia Island and hooked up great tarpon, shark and king mackerel action for his charter clients. During three consecutive fishing trips to the south end, Hendrix has landed at least one smoker king mackerel.

Good numbers of baitfish pods have shown up on Amelia Island beaches, and more than likely, are the big attraction for area game fish.

"Jack Healan and I were walking the beach early one morning when several large fish began busting up the schools of menhaden," John Crawford said. "Those fish were sending the menhaden several feet into the air. I have never seen anything like that. There must have been tarpon, sharks and king mackerel feeding in those bait fish schools."

Reports of king mackerel at some of the more popular offshore fish havens have also been filling the air at bait and tackle stores and docks. Needless to say, late summer (when stable weather conditions persist) can produce some of the best saltwater fishing action of the year.

During the 2001 summer fishing season, some of the largest king mackerel and tarpon of the year were caught during late summer.

There is one downfall of stable summer weather conditions, warm water temperatures. Fisherman are reporting water temperatures in the mid 80s. Look for the best deep sea fishing action to come where there is a temperature break of from one to two degrees.

Amelia Island Charter Boat Association

Terry Lacoss, Director • Over 25 years local guiding experience

World Famous Tarpon, King Mackerel & Shark Fishing and more!

1 North Front Street • Fernandina Harbor Marina

(904) 261- 2870

e-mail us:
website@ameliaislandcharterboatassociation.com