Storm to shake up local waters

*Storm to shake up local waters*

Writing a fishing column with an approaching storm the size of the one heading our way is kind of like what I’d imagine Liz Taylor’s eighth husband felt like on their wedding night. I know what I’m here for, I just don’t know if I can still make it exciting.

What happened in the river, ICW or the Atlantic pre-storm will be drastically different post-storm, so there’s not much sense spending a lot of time detailing the former or prognosticating the latter.

So let’s keep this short.

**The St. Johns River:** Fishing was August normal most of the week, other than the salinity. I took a 5- and 8-year-old fishing south of Palatka on Saturday. We caught bluegill, redbellies, a buck bass, three undersized mangrove snapper and three keeper catfish. But the real bite was stingrays — six of them — two of which the kids slung into the boat on their cane poles. That tends to make a small boat feel much smaller, not to mention puckering an uncle up.

So it’s salty down there, which is great for what everyone is figuring to be a banner shrimp September.

The big effect the storm might have if it dumps the anticipated amount of rain here is it will push the shrimp back north toward the mouth of the river by lowering the salinity.

**The Intracoastal Waterway:** There were slot reds this week that just about every charter guy said bit only on live finger mullet — and rat reds that ate up all their shrimp. Other than that, small flounder are still being caught. Trout are scarce. Captain Scott Shank caught a 32-inch snook on the south jetties on a finger mullet, along with some keeper mangrove snapper and flounder.

If we get 4 inches of rain (and it looks like maybe more) the water will be ugly for days. If you fish at all, the best bet may be to stay near one of the inlets and wait for an incoming tide. That may be the only good water around, but maybe not because …

**The Atlantic:** If we get that much rain, you’ll likely see a long, brown mud line on the beaches extending as far as a mile offshore. So what’s coming into the inlets won’t be much better than what’s going out.

**CONTRIBUTED PHOTO :**Captain Guy Spear of Mistress Charters caught this pretty sailfish with a friend on the Nine-Mile Bottom a couple of weeks ago.

There were still some kingfish on the local wrecks, along with bonito and jacks. The guys bottom fishing 21-fathoms were still icing down good numbers of mangrove snapper, triggerfish, jumbo redeyes and porgies. There were some pogy pods around the inlet, but they could be blown to Bermuda by Saturday.

At any rate, the good news is that …

**The weather:** While difficult to swallow, the NOAA marine forecast says 13-foot seas Thursday will be 2 feet on Saturday with 5 to 10 knot northeast winds. The forecast says the seas will actually be a little bigger on Sunday.

**Jim Sutton** provides a weekly fishing report for The Record.

**Contact him at** [email protected]