tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22446829665585258022024-03-21T18:46:25.181-07:00"Fish On!" with Captain JohnCurrent Events for Captain John Raasch ChartersJohn Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-82672167330650282182014-11-20T20:32:00.000-08:002014-11-20T20:32:13.040-08:00Getting cooler...<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Hello friends,<br /><br />I
skipped a report (or two) but I didn't skip fishing! We've had great
fishing in the ICW as well as the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. I had to wear long sleeves a couple days but at least we've not 6' deep in snow!<br /><br />As
usual I start my trips with a few dozen live shrimp and whatever my
cast net brings me, last week the mullet were shy but I had plenty of
greenies and sand perch. The baby mutton snapper seem to have moved out
of the ICW (only got one last week) and mackerel, croakers, and jack
crevalle were plentiful. We brought in a few mangrove snapper but only
one was a keeper, the big boys seem to have gone further inshore to deal
with the cold weather. We had a school of ladyfish visit but we only
kept one for bait, surprisingly we did better with cut ladyfish than we
did with the live fish. <br /></span>The North Fork is holding plenty of keeper mangrove snapper as well as some fat <span style="color: black; font-size: small;">croakers</span>,
Sunday one of the croakers my wife filleted plus some steamed broccoli
and rice pilaf made a fine lunch. We also caught plenty of jacks which
will hit the smoker next week on Thanksgiving, since I'll be home
cooking I might as well fire up the smoker. The stinkier the fish, the better the fish dip. <br /><br />As
always we're using 2/0 circle hooks, we miss a few because we don't set
the hooks but since so many species are restricted (size, dates, etc.)
I'd rather miss a few than release floaters. The law might say I can't
keep a small fish but my heart says I should be sure he matures, whether
or not I or another angler get to catch him another day. <br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">Tight lines,</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">John Raasch</span><span style="font-size: small;">(772)323-7773</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Captain John Raasch Charters</span><span style="font-size: small;">www.captainjohnraaschcharters.com</span><br />
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John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-59124448705599438692014-10-16T18:21:00.002-07:002014-10-16T18:21:53.652-07:00Mack attack!<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Hello friends,<br />The
inshore action is stepping up. We're still feeling the effects of all
the rain we had a few weeks ago but the water in the ICW is slowly
clearing, and the river looks more like coffee than chocolate milk. In
addition the the many, many undersized mutton snapper we're still
getting a few keeper mangroves and the Spanish Mackerel have started to
get hungry. The mullet are running and the macks eat them like candy!
You can find plenty of them between the crossroads and Stuart causeway,
and they're not always in deeper water like you might expect. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Snapper are still
hungry for shrimp but the mullet brought us plenty of jack crevalle,
Spanish mackerel, and ladyfish to keep us busy. I aim to have my guests
bring home supper but "junk" fish are still fun to catch.</span><br /><br />I
still start the day with live shrimp and whatever my cast net finds but
instead of the usual white bait with the occasional mullet it's the
other way around. Saturday I actually caught a tiny snook in my net,
probably only four inches long. Before I worried about the bait fish I
got that little guy back in the water, we want him to get nice and fat
and make some angler very happy a few years from now! <br />Tight Lines!</span>John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-60743704660030731862014-10-09T19:05:00.004-07:002014-10-09T19:05:43.722-07:00Rain, rain, go away!<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">The rain finally
stopped but it will take a bit longer for the river to clear up. As
usual we're using live shrimp and whatever bait fish I manage to get
with my cast net along with #2 circle hooks. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">In the North Fork of the
St. Lucie River we caught more junk fish than keepers but it's better
than not catching anything. We had a few keeper mangrove snapper along
with lady fish, jack crevalle, and a baby bull shark that was not happy
to be hooked; he was even less happy when I grabbed him with the lip
griper to get my hook back! </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Fishing near the inlet still produces more
mutton snapper than you can shake a stick at but no keepers, the biggest
one last week was just over a foot long. Big enough to put up a fight,
too small to take home for supper. We also caught a few keeper and </span><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">a few under-sized </span>mangrove
snapper, and a blue runner. Like jacks, the runners can put up a great
fight, making you think you caught a beast until you get it to the
boat. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Tight lines, friends!</span>John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-12273724078721294432014-07-21T19:08:00.000-07:002014-07-21T19:08:50.454-07:00The mangrove snapper are hungry!The mangrove bite is on! Both charters last weekend limited out on mangrove snapper between 10 and 13 inches, both were morning trips in the ICW near St. Lucie inlet with about half incoming and outgoing tide. We started out with live shrimp and whatever I could catch in my cast net (a few pinfish, a few sand perch, etc) and had to switch over to frozen shrimp because the fish were so hungry. There were plenty of smalls in the mix along with a few lane snapper, jack crevalle, and ladyfish... typical by-catch. Saturday's trip lasted until 1pm and even though it was a scorcher the bite was steady, we just had to move to deeper water. Both trips ended with fillets in the cooler and smiling customers, there isn't much that makes me happier.John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-20925964030416082092014-04-01T19:54:00.000-07:002014-04-01T19:54:15.796-07:00News!I've been slacking, I know, I hope you'll bear with me. The photos are in order of the deliciousness of the fish, not the date of the trip. Sheepshead might not give big fillets but I love the taste!<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-16319644769639005412013-10-21T19:22:00.001-07:002013-10-21T19:22:55.792-07:00Reds, Jacks, and Black Drum, oh my!I should have posted these yesterday but I've been slacking. Friday's trip brought in a few jack crevalle, a few under-sized mangrove snapper and redfish, a few ladyfish (all of which threw the hook before we landed them), and a keeper black drum. <br />
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Saturday's trip cancelled, but Sunday we landed the biggest jack I've ever had on the boat. It took a while to land the fish, and for a little while I wasn't sure if he or the fish would win the fight, but at the end the fish was on the boat instead of the other way around.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-7236681036544427412013-09-10T20:21:00.002-07:002013-09-10T20:21:34.674-07:00Some more photosMy better half found a few photos that I neglected to post.<br />
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On this trip the only way to catch a fish was to ignore your line. He caught more fish than anyone by telling stories and only fishing when we yelled "FISH ON!"<br />
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I've never seen someone so happy to catch a pinfish but this was <i><u>his</u></i> pinfish, and believe you me he fought it <br />
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What Manatee Pocket at 5 am in the summer looks like. So calm, so quiet... I wish I had a better camera and the skills to show you how beautiful it really is.<br />
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I could kick myself for not getting pics of the fish but bonito were running in the ICW. Actually there were bonito, blue runners, and ladyfish all feeding at once but we chased the bonito and landed two of them, a small jack crevalle, and a ladyfish. The bonitos were smoked and became awesome fish dip, the rest were released.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-25095298899450617262013-07-31T06:46:00.003-07:002013-07-31T06:47:09.013-07:00Sorry to leave you so long without an update!<br />
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Business is jumping thanks to a promotion we did with Living Social, at this point I have a couple days free in September and most of October's weekends are booked. Fishing has been good, we've caught snapper, pompano, jack, snook, and even a barracuda.<br />
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I shouldn't really count the barracuda, someone else caught him and the line broke, we were just in the right place at the right time to see a bobber moving across the current. Snapped a couple of pictures, revived him, and sent him on his way.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-68828695753868983022013-05-05T12:29:00.001-07:002013-05-05T12:29:16.646-07:00Aкула!I was hoping to catch a fat jack and ended up with a shark on the hook.<br />
"Put down the net and grab the camera!" <br />
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It wasn't a monster but on light tackle we both got a workout. <br />
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"Captain John Raasch, shark exerciser!"<br />
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Then the swivel popped and Toothy McShark hastily swam away.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-16783762611954428192013-04-23T05:07:00.001-07:002013-04-23T05:08:39.957-07:00DOA Shrimp strike again!Sunday was another fine day for Treasure Coast fishing! We ran up the ICW to Bear Point and landed two keepers and had plenty of other action.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-24139690421585006062013-03-25T20:09:00.004-07:002013-03-25T20:09:47.349-07:00Windy but fishableSaturday morning the radar showed enough rain to go from coast to coast and cover us so I crawled back into bed. By the time we got up the weather had cleared and we went kayaking instead of fishing -- next time we'll do both!<br />
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Sunday the weather was clear but the wind was kicking, probably 10 mph as I was loading the boat. We saw some action and I even saw a small school of sheepshead swim under our bow but we only had one keeper, he tasted great on the grill with a side of grilled asparagus. DOA shrimp look good enough I've been tempted to bite!<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-14881791495203720152013-03-18T20:07:00.004-07:002013-03-18T20:07:42.483-07:00Going pro...I was told having a blogspot website was "amateurish" and i should be able to afford a proper domain and web-hosting. At first I was defensive as I thought I did pretty well with a free resource, but I've since accepted the criticism and have stepped up. My <a href="http://captainjohnraaschcharters.com/" target="_blank">new website</a> is up and running, feel free to <a href="mailto:fishonwithcaptainjohn@hotmail.com" target="_blank">contact me</a> if you have any suggestions. I don't have plans to update the website itself very often other than to add photos but I will update this page much more frequently than I have been. <br />
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The weather is warming up and I've been on the water pretty regularly. Two weekends we went up the ICW to the power lines in hopes of limiting on sheepshead but the dolphins were the only ones who made out that day. Last Saturday we stayed in the river hoping for another run of Crevalle Jacks but didn't have any luck there either. This weekend we're hitting the flats in Jensen, hopefully we can bring in some trout and start restocking the freezer!John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-79461045134569890782013-02-05T19:52:00.001-08:002013-02-05T19:58:13.018-08:00Happy New... February!Time to dust off this website, it's been sitting too long. Since my last post I got a bigger boat, a bigger truck to tow the bigger boat, and a bigger gas bill for both of them. I also got a tablet so I can charge credit cards instead of just cash and PayPal.<br />
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I've been out almost every weekend since then but I've yet to take the big boat out the inlet, during the week the seas are gentle and the ICW is flat, once the weekend nears things get hairy and I'm stuck fishing the river or the ICW. The catfish are plentiful and fat, the Jacks are smaller than I'm used to, and I haven't caught a bluefish at all this year. I'm dying to get out to the ocean even if it's just trolling the beaches for Mackerel. I don't have any clients lined up yet but I'll still head out this weekend if the seas cooperate.John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-7135092556552875922012-11-04T14:28:00.001-08:002012-11-04T14:28:51.117-08:00No news is... no news.Sorry for the lack of updates, between the storms and the daily grind I've spent less time on the water than I'm accustomed to. The week before Sandy I took the missus out on the river and she was killing the ladyfish with a topwater lure. She thought they were snook until they started dancing across the surface, they might be garbage fish but they put on a good show! I learned two lessons that day; "Don't stop reeling until they're landed" because they can easily spit out your lure, and "Don't fish for ladyfish with treble hooks" because if they hit one hook they're very likely to get caught on at least one more!<br />
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Today we hit the river and saw plenty of action but the fish weren't picking up what we were laying down. We tried live fingerlings and sand perch and frozen shrimp, all we got were skates and a little snapper. I <i>almost</i> landed a snook but almost doesn't count. There may have been two of them but I'm pretty sure he came back to taunt me again; both times it hit my bait, ran with it, fought me, and spit it out next to the boat. It wasn't a toothy fish because the sand perch was still alive after both attacks.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-48984157362102937442012-09-10T20:29:00.000-07:002012-09-10T20:29:35.084-07:00Hi, Jack. Meet Mike!Hopefully the TSA won't read that as "Hijack" and add me to the FBI's watch list. Then again, I already have my TWIC so really it can only bring me business!<br />
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Yesterday's weather forecast was a bit off, instead of 1 - 3 rollers the seas were 2 - 4 feet with a period of about 3 seconds. I didn't bother looking to see what NOAA said, we drifted out the St. Lucie Inlet and turned back before we got to the breakwaters. We had a few bites, two of them actually bit off a bit of Mike's line but then I handed him the spool of 60# leader, and finally we got a fish on the boat. I have a video which is pretty tame since Jacks hug the bottom, I'll edit it and post anything worth watching later. We suspect this is the bugger that ate three big mullet and a few pinfish bit I didn't check his belly, my wife is the pro with a fillet knife and she only cares about meat and "caviar". I know how much fight a little Jack can put up, it's no wonder we had to pull anchor to chase this bad boy. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike and Jack, home at last.</td></tr>
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-9505414926002850202012-09-04T20:11:00.000-07:002012-09-04T20:11:47.236-07:00<h2>
Cats, cats, and more cats!</h2>
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Sadly this weekend holiday brought just channel catfish. I tried shrimp and cut mullet -- drifting, on the bottom and on popping corks -- only to end up with channel cats. I have a belly full of fish so I can't really complain but some people have more discerning palates. I'm going to blame TS Isaac, normally the river looks like coffee but this weekend it looked more like hot cocoa, you could actually see the dirt and runoff suspended in the water when you brought in a bucket full. <i><b>NO BUENO!</b></i>John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-28505093977921517322012-08-14T19:35:00.001-07:002012-09-04T19:00:12.950-07:00Me and little tunnyYesterday we decided to take a break from the river and visit the big nothing. The weather channel said 1 - 2 foot seas, the Ft. Pierce buoy reported 1.3 feet, but as far as we were concerned it was like rising on a sheet of glass. We didn't notice the swell at all, the big boys heading out 30 miles caused more waves than mother nature did. We came unprepared, we only had one live mullet -- about a foot long -- and nothing was biting on cut bait or live shrimp. The mullet did bring me a workout, that pole only had 20# test mono so I had to be careful not to break off but still not get spooled.<br />
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<br />John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2244682966558525802.post-19301468685104934162012-07-29T18:05:00.001-07:002012-07-29T18:14:37.953-07:007/27/2012<br />
If I saw one tarpon I saw a dozen, too bad we didn't catch any mullet to tempt them. When we hit the water, I threw the net a few times and caught 2 snook and a hand-full of sand perch, the snook quickly were tossed back into the river (I'll eat you in a year or three) and the sand perch (that were found to be delicious). They, and some live shrimp, brought us a jack, 2 mangrove snappers; a nice dinner.John Raaschhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18218761263050993128noreply@blogger.com0