FISHING REPORT: You like your ol' chum, but do you want to take him fishing?
Maybe you’ve just never found the right combo of time, place and bait that would bring in some keepers. Or maybe you’re just in a slump.
So while waiting on the kid behind the counter to fill your bait bucket, your eye wanders to the baitshop freezer, where, among the bags of frozen shrimp and squid, you spot that box of chum.
Hmmmm, you think, “chumming the waters” didn’t become an old phrase by mere happenstance. So, should you buy a box, as well as a mesh net, and hang some chum over the side of the boat, or lacking a boat, off the dock?
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General consensus, at least for the intracoastal: Probably not.
“I don’t mess with it at all,” says Capt. Jeff Patterson, a local fishing guide. “Inshore, you can attract more of your scavengers, like catfish.”
However . . .
“If there are a bunch of mangrove snapper around, which happens quite often in the summertime, it could be worth a shot.”
There’s a more indirect reason to employ chum in an effort to catch quality fish.
“With summer coming and you want to load the boat with pinfish and other baitfish, yes, anchor by the inlet and hang the chum and give it time to work,” says Capt. Billy Pettigrew, another local guide.
Before long, he says, you should be fairly surrounded by schools of quality baitfish, which can later lead to quality keeper fish.
“Use a heavy cast-net to make sure it sinks fast enough to catch fast-swimming bait,” Pettigrew adds.
Longtime area fisherman Joe Yarbrough has, through the years, taken kids and then grandkids on the river. The junior anglers generally only care about getting a big tug on the other end of the line, regardless of what’s tugging. So yes, in certain instances, a bag of chum might be useful.
“Chum is my go-to when I have kids on a fishing trip,” he says. “You need a bucket to set it inside when you’re moving between spots, so you don’t get it all over the boat. I like using it when fishing at the mouth of creeks with an incoming tide.
“Of course, it always works for undesirable fish but it occasionally attracts game-fish when the baitfish move in. It increases a chance for a fish — any fish — which is all kids want.”
Over on the west side in the St. Johns, it’s not uncommon to find seasoned fishermen who buy their chum at feed-and-grain store instead of the baitshop.
“They’ll use hog feed,” says Kerry McPherson, who owns and operates the South Moon Fish Camp in Astor. “Most will throw some out, bait up a couple areas, then come back later and fish it.”
Years back, freshwater fishermen swore by gar roe as the best chum available.
“That’s old-school, a thing of the past,” McPherson says. “That’s probably the best bream bait there is. We used to sell 800 pounds of it a year, now I don’t even stock it anymore.”
Halifax/Indian River
Capt. Jeff Patterson has continued his recent trend of hanging out in the “north country,” up beyond Daytona Beach and around the Tomoka Basin area in Ormond Beach.
If you want variety, he’s your guy because he’s been catching the Big 4 — reds, snook, trout, flounder — with live shrimp under a cork as well as free-lined mullet.
“Both have been working great around the shorelines and docks in the intracoastal,” says Capt. Jeff, who operates his Pole Dancer charter boat. “Soft plastics on a jighead have also been working great on these fish … very productive.”
He’s an early riser, by the way.
Gene Lytwyn (The Fishin' Hole, Daytona Beach) says the only good news during the most recent bluster has been the ongoing snook bite in their usual playgrounds around bridges and docks.
Flagler County
Capt. Mike Vickers (Hammock Beach Bait & Tackle) has pulled the pin and said it out loud: Tarpon!
“The tarpon bite is steadily improving throughout the river,” he says.
Keep the filet knife holstered; you don't eat tarpon, just worship them. The tarpon is strictly a legendary game-fish whose fame is built on its fighting ability.
Those who find them regularly will tell you it’s as close as you can come to a saltwater religious experience — this side of the Dead Sea, of course.
“The main theme right now,” Vickers adds, “is getting out of the wind.”
Find yourself a cut, put the spoil island between you and the gusts, and you’re good to go. Well . . . maybe.
The Flagler surf, Vickers adds, has been hit-and-miss due to the gusts, but before the big blows (and maybe after, in the coming days) some holdover pompano are hanging around.
Offshore
Yeah, right.
Actually, however, the Sea Spirit broke free of its Ponce Inlet tether last Friday and brought back its usual haul of an Atlantic sampler platter. More good days just ahead, we trust.
Surf
Along with his main target, Dustin Smith (NSB Shark Hunters) has been seeing a lot of blues and whiting, and some pompano, come to shore on the end of a fishing line.
“All caught on Fishbites,” he says.
Bj Taylor (Southern Bred Charters) elaborates, particularly about the few days before this recent blast.
“This past week we had great surf conditions after the weeds pushed out and the water cleared up,” he says. “The main catch was large whiting and pompano. The hot bite has been at the start of the incoming tide and the lower end of the outgoing tide with the larger fish sitting out deep past the first bar.”
Again, Fishbites, he says, particularly the clam and crab flavors, along with small live crabs on a pompano rig. Taylor thinks the lower water temp, assuming it remains, will have a big upside — “the larger schools of pompano will hang around.”
St. Johns
The wonderful St. Johns is famous for many reasons, including its rare south-to-north flow, from its scrubby launch pad in Indian River County to its grandiose merger with the Atlantic Ocean in Jacksonville.
But once this odd weather front took hold this week, the river gods threw the transmission into reverse. Hard northeast winds were fierce enough to put the St. Johns on its heels and into counter-punching mode.
“Over at the beach, you get rip currents when you get these high-pressure areas off the coast,” says Kerry McPherson from his South Moon shop in Astor. “Over here, the river starts backing up. And anytime the river is backing up, the fishing is tough.”
That should change in about . . . oh, any minute now, actually.
“All my fishermen should be coming in by Friday,” says McPherson, who is preparing for the influx of visitors looking to take advantage of the annual mid-spring bluegill invasion.
About 10 miles south in DeLand, at Highland Park, Capt. Bryn Adams can confirm.
“If you're looking for a big bluegill bite, now is the time to get after them,” she says.
Capt. James Hillman, a Highland Park mainstay largely because he’s a finder of fish, has been hitting his 50-fish limit of bluegills and figures to do so on the coming days.
“Pitching live crickets up against the banks of the backwaters of the river,” says Adams, who adds another enjoyable facet to “bluegill season.”
“This is a fun, action-packed way of fishing, and it’s very easy, making it a great introduction to fishing for the young anglers.”
This & That
• Next Thursday (May 19) is the deadline for you offshore folks to enter the Halifax Sports Fishing Club’s 2022 Offshore Challenge, which has been postponed twice due to crappy weather.
Wahoo, dolphin and kingfish are the targets.
Email President@hsfc.com for more info.
• Also next Thursday, the HSFC’s monthly fishing seminar features some serious local knowledge — Capt. Evan Sanders, who’s big on sharing his local fishing know-how. He’ll fill you in on the do’s and don’ts of inshore and near-shore fishing for all the usual suspects.
Hook, Line & Clicker
We want to see your most recent catch. Email your fish photos to ken.willis@news-jrnl.com.
Please include first and last name of angler(s), as well as type of fish (we're occasionally stumped). All are included with our online fishing report, and some occasionally make the print edition.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: FISHING REPORT: Chumming the waters sounds sexy, but is it worth it?
