Tie on your favorite topwater plug and get to casting, gator trout will be lurking the bait pods along the ICW. First light, outgoing tides and schools of mullet is the formula for a successful morning outing for trout. Working topwater and sinking plugs parallel to drop offs and around creek mouths will guarantee success! Schoolie trout have been thumping 1/4 oz. RipTide jigs and 3″ RipTide mullet in the darker colors around deeper docks during mid day hours.
Redfish will also be patrolling the shell banks of the ICW working the bait pods during low tides. Deeper flats that are holding mullet will have redfish shadowing mullet pods. A RipTide watermelon color jerkbait on a Daiichi 4/0 buttdragger hook is a great search bait for flats fishing. Oyster bed hopping and casting to spartina grass edges will produce strikes as long as the mullet are around. For finicky reds on the shallows that refuse artificials try a fresh cut mullet head with a 1/0 Daiichi circle wide hook through the bottom lip and out through the top. Cast the mullet head around oyster beds and hold on!
Blue fish continue to chew around Matanzas Inlet, they will bite just about any lure that resembles a mullet. Jacks are starting to show up as well and being caught at first light with surface poppers. Ladyfish are starting to stack on outgoing tides busting baitfish in the bigger creeks.
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Palm Coast / St. Augustine Fishing Tips & Reports 