Amelia Island Fishing Reports

The whiting are starting to show up in the surf in fairly good numbers. Not many bulls, but some nice sized. Try fresh shrimp or cut mullet for bait. Best tide seems to be a few hours before and after the high tide.

Offshore fishing out of Fernandina Beach is good on the offshore reefs. Catches include sea bass, trigger fish and mostly undersized snapper and grouper. The jetties are holding puppy drum, trout and sheepshead. Weather conditions have made offshore fishing difficult unless you pick your day carefully. Backwater fishing has been producing good catches of whiting, trout and some red fish.

Have a good day,
Captain Steve Hair on the Ole Pirate.

We also have a non-profit organization that can provide funding for those that qualify for a free fishing trip. See our website Anchors Aweigh or call for more information 904-277-2086

Frann and a friend arrived at the pier about 8:30 am. Fish were just not biting, nothing caught but blue crabs and one small bluefish. They also tried fishing for flounder with live mud minnows, but the flounder were just not interested. They did see a few keeper trout, some small trout and thow back small whiting caught by other people fishing on the pier.

Received a report today that the flounder are staring to show back up at Ft. Clinch, but they're picky eaters. Live finger mullet are what they liked today, biggest one caught today was 20 inches. Also a few small blues being caught on the pier.

The beach is still very slow, but the weeds seem to be almost gone. Water is muddy due to a strong SE wind. The slow summer fishing on the beach is definitly here.

Nassau Sound fishing is starting to pick back up since the dredging is over. Reports of a few whiting, reds, and trout being caught but the catch of the day seems to be sting rays.

The last two weeks have been very slow at the Ft. Clinch pier. Flounder seem to have virtually disappeared, and are very hard to find. Small sharks, catfish, sea robins, and the occasional whiting or bluefish are being caught but not on a regular basis. Large batches of floating weeds on some days make the slow fishing even less fun.

Fisherman in the surf report occasional catches of whiting, a few blues, and lady fish. For the last week the weeds have been very bad at the beach, making it difficult to fish.

The main catch at Ft. Clinch in June was flounder and whiting. Regular summer flounder fisherman are unhappy with the lack of numbers and small size of flounder this year. Whiting have been off and on, and not in large numbers when they were around.

Friend of mine called me on his cell phone from Nassau sound today. He'd been fishing all afternoon, near the bridge, without so much as a bite.

They are dredging mud from the bottom of the ICW (west of the bridge) and pumping it thru an underwater pipe to the south point (east of the bridge). According to the guy in the tackle shop at the bridge, when the dredging started, the fishing stopped; nobody catching fish.

You gotta love this beach replenishment baloney...

Whiting are being caught at the pier at Ft Clinch - average size, and not big numbers, but everyone seem to be catching a few.

The ranger station at Ft. Clinch reports that whiting are biting well on the pier.

There have also been a lot of boats fishing off main beach and the north end of the island this week which indicates the big black drum are here.