There will be no more fishing column in the Flagler/Palm Coast News Tribune. It was not my decision to end the column but that of the Daytona News Journal. They say it was due to budget cuts. They not only fired me but 18 other correspondents. I don’t know what’s going to be left to read in the News Tribune.
I know the column was read by many fishermen and also by people who didn’t fish. If you will miss reading the column I can suggest you do two things: 1-call the news paper and voice your opinion, 2-cancel your subscription to the News Tribune, I know I’m going to. They wouldn’t even let us put in some sort of thank you to the readers in our last column. I guess they were afraid of us voicing our opinions. I will try and keep a weekly report on this web site.
If you have any opinions on what they did I would like to hear them or if you have any fishing questions, you can e-mail me at captrco@cfl.rr.com. I look forward to hearing from all concerned.
I will be a monthly contributor to Florida Outdoors Magazine that can be found in most of the local convenience stores. If I get with any other publication I will post it on this site.
Thanks to everyone who read the column.

Slow moving tides coupled with westerly winds have made for some difficult fishing this past week. As I’ve stated before, fish prefer faster moving water. It makes the bait more active and thus the fish feed more. The westerly winds have pushed a lot of water out of the flats and the ICW making for low high tides and low low tides. When this happens the fish seem to migrate to the deeper water of the ICW and any deeper holes in the backwater. Try fishing the deeper waters to find fish.
The cold front that past through this week didn’t help things either. An approaching cold front will usually trigger the fish to feed heavily, but that didn’t seem to happen this time. Lou De Fazio and I headed out on Sunday to fiash the front but had difficulty finding a steady bite. We started by fly fishing for some trout. Lou used a heavier weighted fly and was able to get his fly down deeper to where the fish seemed to be holding Lou had a couple of trout, a jack and a snook. I on the other hand used a lighter fly that stayed nearer to the surface and had no luck but I did have a few fish come up and look at the fly.
We then worked our way into the backwater through some deeper cuts to try and find some reds. The water was real low and we tried throwing some jigs around oyster bars but couldn’t raise a fish. Having no luck in the backwaters we moved out and headed to Silver Lake thinking there might be some reds there. We cruised the whole lake and couldn’t connect with a redfish. We did however spook some reds holding up in the middle of the lake. To the north the skies looked nasty and we could hear thunder so we decided to call it a day.
I don’t see the fishing starting to improve until we have a change of wind direction to the east or northeast to push some water back inshore. As the moon approaches full it should also help to raise the water levels due to its gravitational pull.
One thing the colder weather will do is cool the water temperature down a few degrees. Hopefully this will bring the redfish up to school on the flats. As the day progresses and the shallow water warms they’ll come into the fats to warm themselves and look for food. This is when redfishing can get really good.
Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle says the action from the pier has been slow but whiting are providing the bulk of the action. They are being caught on sand fleas and shrimp.
After this week anyone looking for a local fishing report can go to my website, www.flaglerfishingcharters.com, and click on articles for up to date information on the areas fishing.

Extra, Extra read all about it: Fisherman Looking For lost Teeth. Here’s one of the best fishing stories I’ve ever heard. To protect the identity of the fisherman this happened to we’ll just call him Walt Matuszak. As the story goes Walt was fly fishing at Matanzas inlet and was hooking up with bluefish. All but one of Walts flies had succumbed to the toothy bluefish. Down to his last fly he hooked and landed a small blue. Walt went to remove the hook from the fish’s mouth with his right hand while holding it under its belly with his left hand. As he reached for the hook the fish opened its mouth and clamped down on his finger. (If you know anything about bluefish you know they have a mouth full of sharp teeth.) That had to hurt!
Not being able to reach for his pliers for the fear that the blue would have torn his finger apart if he let go of it, Walt decided to bite the fish in its back. He bit down hard enough that the fish opened its mouth and released its grip on the finger. When this happened Walt released his bite on the fish and the fish flopped out of his left hand and into the water. The fish sat there for a second, stunned, then began to swim off. As it swam off Walt noticed something sticking out of its back, it was four of his teeth that became dislodged from a plate in his mouth. This turned out to be one expensive fishing trip for Walt. P.S. If anyone catches a fish with teeth in its back you should return them to Walt. I’m sure he’d find a place for them on his trophy shelf.
I didn’t even bother fishing during the cold front we had last week. Instead I opted to wait until a few days after the front passed. When it did I went out to see if I could find some trout, and I did. All I brought with me that day was my fly rod. When I got to my spot it was dead low tide. It wasn’t until the tide started coming in that I began to catch fish. I caught and released 5 trout to 16”. I caught them on an EP chartreuse and white rattle fly. I also had 6 other trout come up and smack the fly but couldn’t connect. About an hour and a half into the rising tide the bite turned off.
I got a call the other day from Capt. Chris Herrera Telling me he was in Stomach Lake looking for redfish and saw a couple of small singles but no schools of reds. He did however pole up on a couple of 30” trout but they wouldn’t eat what he threw at them.
Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of whiting being caught. Black drum, sheepshead in the 5 to 7 lb range, bluefish and an occasional red and pompano are all being caught.
Jake Jaquish at Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports lots of redfish coming from the area backwaters. Also, lots of reds are along the banks of the ICW at low tide.



Photo: Steve Gombar, Tony Napoleon and Mike Marrale fished Dec. 30th for these 22” reds and 18” flounder. The fish were caught on live shrimp.

I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and may you all have great fishing in “2008”. One thing I do not wish to see in 08 is a repeat of any red tide. The red tide had a direct effect on the fall flounder run and other fishing in the northern waters of Flagler and southern St. Johns counties. I would also like to see some cold snaps during January and February along with some spring rain, these two conditions should improve the trout fishing in the year to come. Cold snaps will also drop the water temperatures causing redfish to school on the flats. For me, the only downside to a cold snap is that it will shut down the snook bite and cold snap that lasts too long, dropping the water temps into the 50’s, can kill off a large number of snook. I’ve seen this happen in the past. Let’s hope for the best conditions possible in the coming year.
As usual I found the fishing to be difficult around Christmas due to the full moon. I had fished the day before the full moon and could only manage a couple of small trout. Steve Gombar and a friend of his fished all day with me on Christmas Eve, full moon, and we only had three fish, a ladyfish, trout and a 25” red. A week later, with the moon on the downside, Steve came back with two of his buddies, Mike Marrale and Tony Napoleon. The trio had a much better day landing a couple of 23” reds, some rat reds, an 18” flounder, 10 snook to 18”, a couple of trout, mangrove snappers, ladyfish and an 18” barracuda, that’s right a barracuda in December. That was the 2nd barracuda I had in my boat during the month of December while fishing the Flagler Beach area.
On the 29th Dr. Claude Hearn and his wife Missy fished aboard my boat and they also had a pretty good day. The duo had a 25” red, a 16” and 18” flounder, a couple trout, 5 snook to 16”, ladyfish and mangrove snapper.
The cold front this past week will more than likely shut down the bite for a few days. Look for the fishing to pick up after it starts to warm up this weekend.
Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports whiting, black drum in the 3 to 5 lb range, sheepshead 4 to 5 lb, scattered bluefish and a few reds being caught at the pier.
Jake Jaquish at Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports that redfish are being caught in the backwaters in that area. He also reports that some big snook are still being caught in the area but look for the cold front to slow the snook bite down. Trout season is back open south of the Flagler County line and Jake says small trout along with the occasional keeper size are coming from the ICW and backwaters.


Photo: Dr. Claude Hearn with a 25” redfish he caught and released using a live shrimp.