Early Summer St. Augustine: Reds, Trout, and Tarpon on the Incoming Tide

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your St. Augustine fishing report. We’ve got a classic early summer pattern setting in around the Ancient City. First light’s coming quick, with sunrise just after 6:20 a.m. and sunset a little after 8:20 p.m., so you’ve got a long window to work both the low-light and tide changes. Mornings are starting off in the low 70s, afternoons pushing upper 80s to low 90s with that typical onshore breeze and building humidity. Expect a southeast sea breeze to pick up by late morning, kicking the chop up along the beaches but keeping things fishy in the inlet and intracoastal. Tides around St. Augustine Inlet are running a solid mid-range. We’re looking at an early morning low, a late-morning incoming, and an afternoon high that sets up nicely for working current edges and creek mouths. The incoming has been the money tide for cleaner water on the inside, while the first of the outgoing is flushing bait out of the grass and oyster bars. Inshore, the redfish bite has been strong on the higher stages of the tide up on the flooded grass edges and around oyster points. Anglers have been picking off slot and a few upper-slot reds, with some overs thrown in, working soft-plastic paddletails in natural colors, gold spoons, and live shrimp or finger mullet under popping corks. Trout have been chewing the best at first light along deeper shell banks and bends in the ICW, especially around areas with 4–8 feet of water and moving current. Topwaters at dawn—walk-the-dog style plugs in bone or mullet patterns—are getting smoked, then switching to suspending hard baits or soft plastics once the sun gets up. Flounder are starting to show better around docks, creek mouths, and sandy drop-offs near oyster bars. Folks bouncing mud minnows or small finger mullet on jig heads close to the bottom are putting a few nice flatfish in the cooler. Black drum and sheepshead are hanging around bridge pilings and heavier structure; fiddler crabs and shrimp on a simple rig tight to the structure are doing the trick. Nearshore, the beach bite has had tarpon rolling on the bait pods when conditions line up, and there’ve been Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and jacks blitzing glass minnows and small pogies. Shiny spoons, small gotcha-style plugs, and white bucktail jigs are good choices if you’re chasing the schools along the beach. Keep a heavier rod ready with a big swimbait or live bait for when the tarpon slide through. Best lures right now: – Topwater plugs at daybreak for trout and mixed bag. – 3–4 inch paddletail soft plastics on 1/8–1/4 oz jig heads for reds and trout. – Gold spoons for covering water on the flats. – White bucktails or silver spoons nearshore for Spanish and jacks. Best baits: – Live shrimp, finger mullet, and mud minnows inshore. – Pogies and mullet nearshore and around the inlet. A couple of local hot spots to keep on your radar: – The Vilano area and bridges on the ICW: good for trout at dawn, reds on the edges, and drum around pilings. – Matanzas River and its feeder creeks south of town: cleaner water on the incoming and a nice mix of reds, trout, and flounder around oyster bars and creek mouths. Work those moving tides, fish early or late to dodge the heat, and match the hatch with either small baitfish or shrimp imitations and you’ll stay tight to fish around St. Augustine right now. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn