# Why aren't I catching anything?



## Fedzilla (Jan 13, 2008)

I'm still pretty green, but I've been on some pretty successful trips, all on boats, with people who know what they are doing. My most recent trip was to Louisiana wherewe allmadeour limit on spec and I also got a really nice red. But I can't seem to get anything in Florida. Am I just not fishing in the right spots, or am I using the wrong gear for this area. I've been fishing around the east river.At about 800 this morning I yakked out from the HWY87 boat launch just north of 399. I paddled out to where he river opens up and started casting a 3" Natural GULP shrimp under a popping cork. I casted at the grassline along the river, focusing on "holes" in thegrassline. I didn't get one bite, but Iheard and saw fish all over the place. The closest I got to a fish was casting right on one. I might try the soundside tomorrow around the Navarre bridge.

What colors of gear work the best? I have NewPenny and Natural Gulps, and a variety of different colors of the DOAs (all Shrimp). Or is shrimp and cork the wrong rig around here? What other lures work? Like I said I normally just fish around the east river and the Sound in Navarre. I don't know of any other places. But its really getting frustrating not catching anything.:banghead:banghead:banghead


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## SolarFlare (Oct 3, 2007)

Hi Fedzilla,

I don't have a quick 1-2-3 step easy answer, but even the most accomplished angler is challenged by our current weather pattern!

To start, I would go to inshore reports and read some of the reports over the last 2 - 3 weeks; once you home in on the guys doing the kind of fishing that you want to do, then narrow your search to their posts; You'll pick up a lot of good info!

For what it's worth, the Rivers and upper Bays have too much fresh water and coffee colored water to offer much opportunity right now!

Good luck, you need to do a little homework!


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## Private Pilot (Oct 3, 2007)

I agree with BP.The inshore reports can really help you out.

I wouldtry the docks from Navarre to GB. Bait of choice for meis a rapala skitterwalk, 1/2oz gold spoon, or any gulp shrimp. Go just before sunrise.


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## choppedliver (Apr 4, 2009)

If its any consolation, I can't catch crap on artificials, but Im still trying. Hopefully I break the code soon  Have caught a couple of small specs on DOA, but not a damn thing on gulps. Maybe you and I should go fishing and see who can catch the least! LOL

On the other hand I have caught reds, black drum, sheephead, white trout, catfish, blue fish, sailcats, croaker and pinfishon natural bait, mainly cut mullet and dead shrimp.


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## Fedzilla (Jan 13, 2008)

Thanks for the reponses guys,I appreciate it. I definiately agree with the coffee colored water, I was goofing around seeing what the different colors looked like in the water, and that water is dark. I wasn't really introduced to artificial stuff until my fishing trip in Louisiana about three weeks ago. I was the only one on my boat that was using live shrimp, and I was slayingspecs. The guys I was with, told me to stop using the "primitive sh!t", but I was catching more than they were. I eventually ran out and the guys I was with told me how to use the aritficial and I got fairly comfortable with it, and caught my first red. But I'll continue practicing with it, but I think I'll grab some live from HH if they are open tomorrow, before I head out to the Navarre bridge.


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## dwmeyer98 (May 16, 2009)

Stick with that new penny colored gulp and find a spot on the sound side of Navarre beach with a grass bed and some water that is less stained. You should be able to pick up some good trout and a lot of flounder around the edges of the bed. You may run across a few red's as well. You are probably going to have to stay on that side of the sound for a while until the fresh water filters out. The rivers are all near flood stage at the moment so it will take a while.


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## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

You'r half way there with the area and some of the bait. Try out about 0530 and use live shrimp on carolina rig. Croakers are exellent bait if you cang get them. When the bite is really on, you can switch to the Gulp. Fish On!


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## Spork (Oct 20, 2007)

Are you going the same time of day every time? 0800 is really late for me, I usually have 2 or 3 fish in the boat (not everytime, but most) by 0800. I've caught some of my biggest specks right at first light. Then again depending on the time of year I've caught some later in the day too. I'm not up in the Panhandle now, but down here in the central gulf the temp's are pushing 90 most days by 0930, so usually trout are done by then. Then again it can all depend on moon/tide/current/bananas too! (Bananas are bad luck, if you're bringing bananas on the boat then that's your problem right there).

Then again I caught one of my biggest snook about noon today while fishing for trout. Just goes to show you that the only way you're gonna catch fish is spend time on the water and the best time to go is when you can.

Color, bait, size everything comes with experimentation. Don't leave fish to catch fish (in most cases anyway). The more time you spend on the water means you're closer to the fish biting.


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

This my sound like BS, but it's not.

About 30 years ago, when I first started fishing for specks, a friend and I were on the Bon Secour, catching diddly, when a boat pulled up near us on a small flat and started wearing them out. We were all fishing the same bait, a 1/4 oz red-headed jig and a fluorescent green Mann's Stingray grub, but he was giving the jig a tiny twitch (and I mean <U>*tiny*</U>) once every revolution or two of his Ambassador 5000. 

We started giving ours a twitch and we started catching them too. We were nowhere as good as this guy (still not to this day), but that tiny twitch made all the difference and still does for me.

At any rate, whether you twitch or not, vary your retrieve until you find something that works. For me the twitch still works withGulps. You don't make the bait "jig", just a tiny variance in trajectory and speed. Move your rod tip 2" or less every 12-18" your jig moves towards you.

Maybe it's just because I believe it, but we sat next to that guy for quite a while catching nada until we started copying him.

'Struth.


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

While I'm at it, the year of Ivan we went to Appalachicola because LA was buggered and had something like that experience. Weanchored near a guy from Louisiana who was wearing the trout out on a Cajun Thunder with <U>*dead shrimp*</U>.

All my life I have been told you can't catch specks on dead shrimp but he was wearing them out. Needless to say we ran and boughtsome Cajun Thunders and started catching a few, but again, the action he was giving itstill mattered and we could not quite imitate it (two whacks and a pause). BTW, we also bought a knock-off of the Cajun Thunder and the word from here is "accept no substitutes", at least not if it looks and <U>*sounds*</U> different.

The long and short is that the action you give a bait matters. I'm no expert but I've seen some and I know it matters.


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## Spork (Oct 20, 2007)

> *fred (5/26/2009)*While I'm at it, the year of Ivan we went to Appalachicola because LA was buggered and had something like that experience. Weanchored near a guy from Louisiana who was wearing the trout out on a Cajun Thunder with <U>*dead shrimp*</U>.
> 
> All my life I have been told you can't catch specks on dead shrimp but he was wearing them out. Needless to say we ran and boughtsome Cajun Thunders and started catching a few, but again, the action he was giving itstill mattered and we could not quite imitate it (two whacks and a pause). BTW, we also bought a knock-off of the Cajun Thunder and the word from here is "accept no substitutes", at least not if it looks and <U>*sounds*</U> different.
> 
> The long and short is that the action you give a bait matters. I'm no expert but I've seen some and I know it matters.


Both great posts, and I've caught a couple of my biggest specks ever on dead shrimp. I never heard you couldn't catch them on dead shrimp, I guess the specks hadn't either.


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

> I guess the specks hadn't either.


What can you expect of dumb animals (probably Florida specks, Alabama fish are much smarteroke ). They don't know any better.


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## Jighead (Feb 11, 2009)

Your saying freashly dead not frozen, right?


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## fred (Dec 28, 2008)

> *Jighead (5/26/2009)*Your saying freashly dead not frozen, right?


Nope, thesehad not only beenfrozen they were pink and nasty like they had gotten pretty warm since thawing. 

The guy just had the touch with that noisemaker. :bowdown


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