36Tango

My daughter may be doing a 3 year surgical residency in Jacksonville starting this next summer and was wanted to get some "intel" on the area. Can a guy buy a $250k house in a decent area? What area would that be? I would probably bring my fishing boat there from South Florida, what marinas would any suggest that we be close to getting out to the Atlantic? How is the offshore fishing? How far out does a guy need to go? I may also plan on taking down the Skater from LOTO in the winters. Is there an active "go fast" group there? What are some of the "on the water" attractions to boat to?

Thanks for any info. We will not know until March, but a guy needs to plan!

speicher lane

You might want to reach out to Cash bar as he has been organising the Jacksonville run.....and is a realtor, so he could likely be a good starting point to get oriented in the right direction with your line of questioning.

JaxBoiler

I live about 30 min south of Jax in St John’s county. $250k doesn’t go far in most parts of town. Can get a townhome or condo in some decent parts of town for that.

It seems like a lot of medical professionals live in Ortega or San Marco parts of town. Both are nice areas and close the the major hospitals. Families with kids have been migrating to St. John’s County, much better schools than Duval.

St Augustine is your best bet for keeping a boat at a marina close to an inlet for offshore access. If you’re wanting to keep a boat in Jax, either Beach Marine or Palm Cove Marina are within 15 miles of the Mayport Inlet. Morningstar Marina has rack storage right at the mouth of the St. John’s in Mayport.

Pelagic fishing is all in the 30+ mile range of both inlets. 60 miles is common for a lot of trips. Bottom fishing can be productive inside of that. No natural reef line like you get in South Florida. A lot of small obstructions, and man made reefs.

This is a great location for performance boats. The St. John’s River is hard to beat for wide open, and usually calm water you can run hard on. You don’t see nearly as many true performance boats around here like you get down south.
When an event like Cash Bar’s poker run, or the Toys Tour that was today you get a good turnout of locals.

We are lacking waterfront restaurants and bars. Downtown Jax has none, there’s a few options south on the St. John’s, and a handful up and down the Intracoastal. Not as many as you’d think for all the waterfront real estate.
Downtown St. Augustine by boat gives plenty of options for stopping.

Hope this helps.

JPEROG

Go on Zillow and look up Mandarin FL. This is close to downtown Jax and has some really nice areas-stuff sells fast as it is "a nice area"--waterfront on the river has all gone out of reach for average guys. We run the boats to up Julington Creek and Doctors Lake from Astor quite often but rarely go North of the 295 (Buckman Bridge) other then to stop at Hooters on Goodbys creek. Boating is all South of there on the St. Johns river- We have 6 waterfront stops between Astor and Palataka but its nothing like the lake. We had great runs Friday and yesterday.

Joe

Cash Bar

Jacksonville, and the river south of it, are great boating. I sell south florida more than anything else so I'm not a Jax whiz. The guys above had great info.

Definitely one of my favorite areas to boat. That is why I was happy to keep the run alive. We will be at it again this May.

Gboat

Another vote for Cash bar, you'd pretty much have all the information you need after talking to him.

36Tango

Where is the fresh/salt water break on the St Johns? It would be a nice deal to be able to mainly run the Skater in fresh water, but still have the availability of salt water fishing. Kind of the best of both worlds.

Thanks for all of the info! It really helps to have a resource like this. She finds out her residency location in March and starts in July, so I am doing some prelim homework because time will be tight to make any decisions. Right now she is in St. Louis, which would also not be a bad gig, as it is close to the lakehouse at LOTO.

PARADOX

36. I'll get you some info later this PM. I live just South of Jax, been doing business her for years, did a bunch of the runs, Toy run this weekend, I'll get you some no BS info.

badmonkey

Paradox, wife and I were at the Toy Run and also have interest in buying somewhere in that area. Would love your insight also.

thanks, Chris

36Tango

That is great, I appreciate any info that you can share!