June 5-7, 2003:  North Guana Lake                           

by Stu Valentine  

Amazing 3-Day Trip

As I have often stated,  my favorite saltwater fishing spot is North Guana Lake, located in Guana River State Park on Highway A1A a few miles north of

St. Augustine.  Guana Lake is a brackish lake with thriving populations of redfish and spotted seatrout. 

Our trips this past weekend are excellent examples of how explosive fishing can be for us in North Guana Lake using two rods each and only dead shrimp as bait:

Thursday - Day 1:

Dale Ball and I decided to head to North Guana Lake today to see if we could repeat our success of May 31st.  As is our custom in hot weather, we headed out about 5 PM for about five or six hours of fishing.

Now most folks would be content to catch a half dozen decent fish on a trip.  But we have come to expect the unusual at Guana. 

And in order to properly report our catches, we have purchased a small 'clicker', which adds 1 to the running count when a button is pushed (the count is reset by rotating a knob).

To make a long story short, we pushed the clicker button 34 times today, catching 26 reds (nearly all longer than 18 inches), 5 trout (one about 6 pounds), 2 black drum and 2 small croakers in just over five hours.

Friday - Day 2:

Dale had Friday off, so we headed out a bit earlier today, arriving at Thursday's hot spot at about 1:30PM.  We anchored, baited our four hooks and sat with great anticipation. 

It didn't take long for the reds to start hitting. This trip, the clicker was tallying up MANY more fish.  In no time we had ten reds, then twenty, thirty, forty, fifty (hey, I'm not making this up!).

We ended the day with 54 reds, 3 black drum (one going about 10 pounds),  and 5 trout in 7.5 hours of fishing.

Saturday - Day 3:

Okay now, I ask you...  would you NOT go back to Guana Lake today after the fish which were caught on Thursday and Friday? 

Well, we were not about to stay home, despite the forecast of a 60% chance of rain.  We come equipped with rain suits this time of year.  Through heavy and light rain,  clouds,  and brief periods of sunshine we continued to catch fish again today. 

This time the reds were even more vicious, taking long, extended runs around and under the boat.  The three and four pound fish fought like ten pounders and the one ten-pounder we caught was nearly impossible to get in. 

We credit the rapid weather changes (and the resulting barometric pressure changes) for most of the good fishing.  Each time the rain would start up again, the reds would begin another frenzied feeding session. 

We could scarcely believe today's count of another 32 fish, consisting of 23 reds, 5 trout, and 4 black drum. 

Summary:

Our three day total catch was 128 fish, consisting of 103 redfish,  14 seatrout,  9 black drum, and 2 croakers in just under twenty hours of fishing.

We caught all these fish in pen-water.  We have stopped fishing for reds near the grass beds for now.

Spot Location:

If you follow our write-ups, you know that we have no qualms about telling you specifically where we fish and how we catch our fish. 

Here are the precise directions to this weekend's spot:

1. Launch your boat at Six Mile Landing (10 HP limit) and proceed to the end of the launch canal. 

2. Turn left and continue South for about one and a half miles. You will see a group of small islands on the right (or West) side of the lake which extend almost to the mid-point of the lake.

3. Anchor and fish near the middle of the channel at the southern border of these islands. 

4. Continue to move around in this area as the fishing slows in a particular spot.

Hoping to see you at Guana,

Stu

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