Fishing with friends

[Ninering62]

Last wk was fun filled full of shooting, fishing, cooking some of last seasons wild game, lots of laughing & horsing around & a lil good German beer & good sippin whiskey too.
On Monday morn my friend from NJ arrived & my friend I shoot, hunt & fish with regularly took the wk off work to hang out with us for most of it.
We 3 shot at my home range all day Monday ( some 100yd shooting, then on to 200yds & then ringing the 12" gong at 400yds.
On Tuesday we shot half a day, doing some peep sights 150yd gong shooting, then on to 200 & 400yds. The second half of the day we went to lake Watertown in Osceola Nat Forest. A cpl storms blew in on us & we got soaked & didn't catch a single fish. But we had fun anyway.
Wed we 3 headed to the Atlantic coast not far from Daytona called Matanzas Inlet. We stopped in Palatka on the St John's river to catch some shrimp & minnows for bait for fishing at Matanzas Inlet.
The place was beautiful, but it being a state park, no beer drinking, and families with little screaming & crying kids were everywhere & ppl did not give a crap about us fishing & throughout the whole day ppl kept getting right in front of where we were very clearly fishing & even right into our lines on more than one occasion. Zero respect, regard or consideration. Just WOW!
It has knee deep water out to well over 200yds from the beach. That's me out there trying to get to the channel that runs through there.
I won't ever fish there again!
We didn't even get a single hit between the 3 of us all day long. It was a looong 160mi trip back too.
On Thur we shot half a day with a few of my smokeless muzzleloaders then did a bunch of cooking & beer drinking. Fri morn he left & I took the day to just relax & get ready for my long trip to the Gulf on Sat with the canoe. See my next post for details & pics

 

[Sunshine-Shot4]

Matanzas sounds frustrating with the crowds. Try New Smyrna Beach instead for quieter inlets. Shrimp bait works great there. I caught reds and snook last trip without the chaos.

 

[Ninering62]

Matanzas sounds frustrating with the crowds. Try New Smyrna Beach instead for quieter inlets. Shrimp bait works great there. I caught reds and snook last trip without the chaos.

Yes, it certainly was frustrating from a fishing perspective. I won't be fishing there again.
It was a rare trip that we took to go somewhere differen't for a mutual friend from out os state to go together.
It was 160mi trip back.
Thanks for the insight on New Smyrna.
We'll be sticking to the Shell Mound & Cedar Key areas for a while. Lots of really good fishing opportunities in both places & having the mobility of a canoe is a bonus. Now that the Cedar Key pier is back open, we will hit that on days its not a good idea for taking the canoe out. I've been going to the CK pier for 3 yrs now & I've been pretty surprised at the variety of fish that I've seen & heard about being caught from there.
Around Shell Mound, we don't have to go far from the boat ramp to get into the Reds, Blacks & the trout.
I hear about flounder being around, but I've yet to see any.
We go after sharks from time to time as well, but only from the pier or shore. We draw the line at shark fishing from the canoe.

 

[Ninering62]

Matanzas sounds frustrating with the crowds. Try New Smyrna Beach instead for quieter inlets. Shrimp bait works great there. I caught reds and snook last trip without the chaos.

I'd like to catch tarpon & cobia, I like big fish, I can not lie

 

[Sunshine-Shot4]

Yes, it certainly was frustrating from a fishing perspective. I won't be fishing there again.
It was a rare trip that we took to go somewhere differen't for a mutual friend from out os state to go together.
It was 160mi trip back.
Thanks for the insight on New Smyrna.
We'll be sticking to the Shell Mound & Cedar Key areas for a while. Lots of really good fishing opportunities in both places & having the mobility of a canoe is a bonus. Now that the Cedar Key pier is back open, we will hit that on days its not a good idea for taking the canoe out. I've been going to the CK pier for 3 yrs now & I've been pretty surprised at the variety of fish that I've seen & heard about being caught from there.
Around Shell Mound, we don't have to go far from the boat ramp to get into the Reds, Blacks & the trout.
I hear about flounder being around, but I've yet to see any.
We go after sharks from time to time as well, but only from the pier or shore. We draw the line at shark fishing from the canoe.

Cedar Key pier and Shell Mound sound like gold. Maybe try going with live pinfish under a popping cork for flounder near Shell Mound. They hide in sandy pockets near grass flats as far as I know. I caught a nice 18-inch flounder there last fall. Anyway, what's your go-to bait for blacks at Cedar Key?

 

[Sunshine-Shot4]

I'd like to catch tarpon & cobia, I like big fish, I can not lie

Name me someone who doesn't like big fish haha. Good talk sir.

 

[Ninering62]

Cedar Key pier and Shell Mound sound like gold. Maybe try going with live pinfish under a popping cork for flounder near Shell Mound. They hide in sandy pockets near grass flats as far as I know. I caught a nice 18-inch flounder there last fall. Anyway, what's your go-to bait for blacks at Cedar Key?

The go-to baits for the Black Drum are either live shrimp, cut lady fish or half a blue crab