Fresh Santa Maria del Mar Catholic Church Fishing Reports

What a fun fishing adventure today in Saint Augustine! These ladies watch our Fishin' Girl YouTube channel and for her birthday, one of the ladies wanted to come fishing with me! Being that the tide was going to be outgoing most of the trip, we fished at Vilano Beach at Surfside Park. We arrived just before sunrise and get things set up. After trying a few different bait selections, we started getting pompano bites mostly on salted shrimp and FishGum, and the lines that were seeing the most action were right in front of the sandbar. We ended up catching several pompano, one that was just barely keeper size (so we let him swim to see another day), and the rest were short. We were using our Fishin' Girl pompano and float rigs casting with a few different rods: Okuma Rockaway surf rod and Ninja Tackle Daggers, Penn Pursuit. Reels were Penn Spinfisher 6500, Okuma Rockaway 6000, and Penn Pursuit 8000. We mostly have our reels spooled with 20 lb high visibility line. As the time went on the water got cleaner, and there were a lot of mullet running in the surf, so I showed my clients how to use a cast net, and we were able to catch some finger mullet and greenies for bait, with plenty to bring home for future trips. Fall fishing is just around the corner and as the water cools down, we will be seeing more fish and getting better bites. If you want to experience a fun beach fishing trip, consider booking a charter with me! And check out our YouTube channel (@flishin-girl) for lots of surf fishing content to help you catch more fish on the beach!

August 8th is actually my son's birthday. He is in the Air Force in Tech school in MD, so I wasn't able to spend time with him, but I had a charter scheduled, and boy was there some great fish caught and memories! (Cool side note, my client's name was Mike, which is also my son's name!) It was just a few days after Hurricane Debby went through north of our area, but it had the ocean churning up pretty good, so the water was dirty, which I was expecting. Lately we had been catching a lot of catfish with the dirty summer water, which is to be expected. The tide was outgoing, with low tide around 10:40, so we would have a nice moving current the whole trip. Water temperature was around 81 degrees. First of all, you can't beat sunrise on the beach. We were fishing at Varn Park in Flagler County, Florida. I went live on TikTok right away and within the first few minutes started reeling in big sailcats (gafftopsail catfish) caught on our Fishin' Girl pompano rig in green color with Fishgum only on the hooks. Before my client arrived I had pulled in several sailcats, hardhead catfish, and croakers (that I used for bait on a heaver set-up: more about that in a minute...). And when he arrived, I gave him some education about what tackle, rods, and bait we were using, gave some casting lessons, and more. By the end of the charter he had a big step up in his beach fishing knowledge! Between lessons we caught more big sailcats and some really nice whiting. Bait that was working best was fresh dead shrimp and Fishgum on either green or yellow pompano or float rigs. About mid-way through the charter, the rod that had the croaker head on it bent waaaayyy over and the drag was screaming! I couldn't get the GoPro on quick enough to catch all the action. A tarpon had grabbed it and was running with the line. I had never hooked up on a tarpon before so I didn't know what to do (I have been told I needed to "bow to the king" because of their hard mouths). Just before the GoPro started recording, the tarpon jumped out of the water and was horizontal over the ocean. All the video caught (see footage!) was the fish landing back in the water and you can tell from the distance it was from the shore and the amount of the splash that it was a BIG fish! I'm guessing 6-8 foot long! After that, we kept catching, but all those fish seems small compared to the rush of that tarpon hookup! All in all it was a great day of fishing and a lot of fun, as well as a successful charter. If you would like to learn how to catch fish from the beach or want to have a fun family activity, why not book a beach-fishing charter with me? We always catch fish and have a lot of fun while we're at it! Thanks for reading this report!

I took an early morning charter before heading off to a tournament a few hours away in Georgia. Even as I was setting the lines up, they were getting hit. We reeled in whiting, bluefish, baby pompano, and jack crevalle. Location for in Ormond by the Sea, and this father and son was very happy with the fish we pulled in.

I took an early morning charter before heading off to a tournament a few hours away in Georgia. Even as I was setting the lines up, they were getting hit. We reeled in whiting, bluefish, baby pompano, and jack crevalle. Location for in Ormond by the Sea, and this father and son was very happy with the fish we pulled in.

This week started out great for me to be able to teach some people to fish. Jessica is a friend of mine and her father, Hubert or Hubie, was in town for the weekend, so she decided to bless him with a surprise surf-fishing charter. I got set up about 30 minutes before they arrived and started immediately catching some small spotfish, which I threw in the bucket with some water to keep them alive for bait. When Jess's dad arrive and I showed him the fish, his comment was "What are you trying to catch if you're using THAT for BAIT?" Well, I guess we will never know, lol. I rigged several of those spotfish up different ways on a Carolina rig with a 3 oz. egg sinker. First the line was going crazy and it bit the hook right off at the shoreline. The next spotfish got bit in half, so I rigged it in the mouth and whatever it was ate right up to the face but didn't get the hook. They are smart! We can only speculate of the "one that got away" and how big it was, lol. Between all the big hits, we were catching a lot more spots and some nice whiting, and a few smaller sharks. I taught them the proper way to cast for surf fishing (hard for Hubie because he is left-handed and all my setups are right handed, but he got the hang of it), and we looked for sand fleas. What a fun way to start the day and the week!

Sam booked a charter with me on a day that I forgot to block off because I was fishing a tournament, but it worked out beautifully! I was set up before the sun came up, and once Sam arrived, he started learning a lot about surf-fishing, saying that it was so awesome to be out on the beach that he didn't care if we caught fish or not. Surf fishing is super addicting and unlike any other kind of fishing! I started reeling in a line to check the bait and felt a fish on, so I handed it off to Sam and he reeled in a nice bluefish! Not long later, a line got hit and I brought in a 12.5 inch pompano (to the fork). The water was a bit dirty so my friend who was with me was catching some catfish (not her target species), and I also reeled in a big gaftopsail catfish (we thought it was a shark because of how it was swimming in--they put up a nice fight!) After the charter, my friend and I decided to move to a beach further south but could not find parking or easy beach access anywhere. After almost 2 hours of driving we found a long pathway over the dunes that was about 200 yards long with lots of stairs up and down. It was hard but we ended up with about another hour and a half to fish. We had to walk out to the 1st sandbar to cast, and I finally got my whiting for the tournament. I almost had 5th place for pompano secured, but got bumped off the board in the last 10 minutes of the weigh in. Oh well, it was a fun, awesome day anyway. Tight lines!