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St. Augustine Winter Fishing: Reds, Trout, and Drum on the Move
Published 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Description
Name’s Artificial Lure checking in with your St. Augustine fishing report.
We’ve got a cool, breezy North Florida winter pattern settling in. Saint Augustine Shores and the pier cams are showing overcast skies, light chop, and north winds running around 10–15 knots, with air temps in the low 60s and that damp, raw feel that usually fires up the inshore bite. 911 Surf Report and Surf Station both note scattered showers with onshore winds and small surf, perfect for washing bait into the cuts and troughs.
Tides today are classic winter highs and lows with decent movement. NOAA and Tide-Forecast show an early-morning low around 3:45–4:00 a.m. and a strong mid‑morning high pushing in just before lunch, around 10:00–10:30 a.m., at the St. Augustine and Crescent Beach stations. That gives you a nice incoming window from daylight through late morning, and then good draining water mid‑afternoon as that tide falls back out.
According to Dayspedia’s St. Augustine times, sunrise hits right around 7:08 a.m. and sunset about 5:25 p.m., so your prime light‑change bites are a tight window. First light through about 10 a.m. on the incoming, and then the last two hours of the outgoing before dark, are your best bets.
Fish activity’s been solid for early winter. The St. Augustine Daily Fishing Report on Spreaker has been talking about steady slot redfish on mud flats and in deeper creek bends, good numbers of speckled trout on the ICW edges, and mixed drum and sheepshead on structure. Recent trips around the Bridge of Lions and Vilano have produced keeper reds, a mess of schoolie trout, and a few 20‑inch class black drum on shrimp and fiddlers. Surf anglers along St. Augustine and Crescent Beach have been picking at whiting, smaller pompano, and the odd bluefish when the water cleans up between fronts.
Best baits and lures right now:
- Live or fresh‑dead shrimp on a light Carolina rig for trout, reds, drum, and sheepshead.
- Fiddler crabs tight to dock pilings and rocks for sheepshead.
- Mud minnows or small mullet on jigheads for working creek mouths and dropoffs.
- Artificial‑wise, 3–4 inch paddle tails in natural or white on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads, and MirrOdine‑style twitch baits over shell and grass, have been outfishing everything when the water’s a little clearer.
If you want specifics, here are a couple of hot spots to aim at:
- **Matanzas Inlet / ICW south of 206:** Tide4Fishing’s Matanzas chart shows solid current swings, and that moving water around the bars and creek mouths is holding redfish and trout. Work the edges on the first part of the incoming with paddle tails, then switch to shrimp on the bottom for drum as the tide speeds up.
- **Vilano Bridge and nearby docks:** The deeper pilings and rock edges are loaded with sheepshead and drum right now. Bring fiddlers, small shrimp, and light fluorocarbon, drop straight down, and be ready—bites are quick and subtle.
Inside the river, look to the deeper bends off the main ICW, especially any with shell bottom. Slow‑roll soft plastics along the bottom for trout and reds. On the flats behind St. Augustine Beach, fish the last of the falling and first of the incoming; reds have been cruising the potholes where that cooler water pools up.
To sum it up: fish the moving water, keep your presentations slow and close to the bottom, and match your bait to what’s natural—shrimp, minnows, small mullet. The weather may feel a little raw, but that’s exactly what gets these winter fish chewing in and around the Ancient City.
Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss tomorrow’s report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
This content was created in partnershi
We’ve got a cool, breezy North Florida winter pattern settling in. Saint Augustine Shores and the pier cams are showing overcast skies, light chop, and north winds running around 10–15 knots, with air temps in the low 60s and that damp, raw feel that usually fires up the inshore bite. 911 Surf Report and Surf Station both note scattered showers with onshore winds and small surf, perfect for washing bait into the cuts and troughs.
Tides today are classic winter highs and lows with decent movement. NOAA and Tide-Forecast show an early-morning low around 3:45–4:00 a.m. and a strong mid‑morning high pushing in just before lunch, around 10:00–10:30 a.m., at the St. Augustine and Crescent Beach stations. That gives you a nice incoming window from daylight through late morning, and then good draining water mid‑afternoon as that tide falls back out.
According to Dayspedia’s St. Augustine times, sunrise hits right around 7:08 a.m. and sunset about 5:25 p.m., so your prime light‑change bites are a tight window. First light through about 10 a.m. on the incoming, and then the last two hours of the outgoing before dark, are your best bets.
Fish activity’s been solid for early winter. The St. Augustine Daily Fishing Report on Spreaker has been talking about steady slot redfish on mud flats and in deeper creek bends, good numbers of speckled trout on the ICW edges, and mixed drum and sheepshead on structure. Recent trips around the Bridge of Lions and Vilano have produced keeper reds, a mess of schoolie trout, and a few 20‑inch class black drum on shrimp and fiddlers. Surf anglers along St. Augustine and Crescent Beach have been picking at whiting, smaller pompano, and the odd bluefish when the water cleans up between fronts.
Best baits and lures right now:
- Live or fresh‑dead shrimp on a light Carolina rig for trout, reds, drum, and sheepshead.
- Fiddler crabs tight to dock pilings and rocks for sheepshead.
- Mud minnows or small mullet on jigheads for working creek mouths and dropoffs.
- Artificial‑wise, 3–4 inch paddle tails in natural or white on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads, and MirrOdine‑style twitch baits over shell and grass, have been outfishing everything when the water’s a little clearer.
If you want specifics, here are a couple of hot spots to aim at:
- **Matanzas Inlet / ICW south of 206:** Tide4Fishing’s Matanzas chart shows solid current swings, and that moving water around the bars and creek mouths is holding redfish and trout. Work the edges on the first part of the incoming with paddle tails, then switch to shrimp on the bottom for drum as the tide speeds up.
- **Vilano Bridge and nearby docks:** The deeper pilings and rock edges are loaded with sheepshead and drum right now. Bring fiddlers, small shrimp, and light fluorocarbon, drop straight down, and be ready—bites are quick and subtle.
Inside the river, look to the deeper bends off the main ICW, especially any with shell bottom. Slow‑roll soft plastics along the bottom for trout and reds. On the flats behind St. Augustine Beach, fish the last of the falling and first of the incoming; reds have been cruising the potholes where that cooler water pools up.
To sum it up: fish the moving water, keep your presentations slow and close to the bottom, and match your bait to what’s natural—shrimp, minnows, small mullet. The weather may feel a little raw, but that’s exactly what gets these winter fish chewing in and around the Ancient City.
Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss tomorrow’s report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn
This content was created in partnershi