Recapping Last Month
December shot out of the gate hot and it was a absolute fishing paradise for the first two weeks of the month. Both nearshore and offshore — the action was simply phenomenal. There was not a species native to our waters that we weren’t catching. Unfortunately, about midway through the month, the wind started blowing and the seas never let up again. Our only saving grace were the big red drum that settle in just outside the port this time of year; plus, some really cool sharks or the last few weeks. Otherwise, it would have been a total shutdown for us.
NEARSHORE
Targeting the big red drum and sharks will be the sure fire safe bet to bend rods while waiting for the water clarity to improve. Triple tail fishing will be fantastic and it will pay to be the first one out to fish the buoy line in-between the blows because they will stack up without having much fishing pressure. Calmer seas and better water clarity is all it will take for the pompano fishing to break wide open. Your basic pompano rig using sand fleas and cut clams will be the ticket to success. We will have plenty of opportunity from a wide variety of species this month. We just need a little help from mother nature to calm the seas down a little bit for us.
OFFSHORE
We will still have all the great fishing opportunities this month as we did in December, so please refer back to the December report for that information. The only thing different from last month is that groupers are closed off until May, but in return, there will be some fantastic deep dropping opportunity for Tile Fish, Snowy and Yellowedge grouper.
HOSTING SAILS!
I want to change it up a bit to focus on a very underrated but phenomenal fishery we have right here in our back yard. Sailfish! I know everyone is setting goals for the New Year, and I bet catching their first sailfish is a goal for many anglers. January is a great time to target sailfish out of Canaveral — and our fishery for them can be nothing short of world class. Our water temperature rarely dips below or exceeds what sailfish can tolerate so the key to narrowing your search will be to find the bait they are feeding on. Flying fish are for sure the easiest to spot but you will also find sailfish in the same area where the king mackerel are feeding heavy on suspended bait fish or color changes and current edges that always hold a variety of bait fish. Water clarity needs to be anywhere from a clean green to cobalt blue, and in addition to bait fish, you have other indicators that will also help narrow your search for sailfish. Always be sure to keep a look out for free jumping sailfish because they are very common to see if you keep your eyes scanning the horizon. Schools of bonito, working birds and seaweed in small or large amounts, as long as it is in a formed up line.
Once you have located a area that looks promising you will need to deploy your trolling spread. Teasers and dredges are your very best friend when it comes to catching sailfish. You can keep it as simple as you want, or you can get elaborate; however, you absolutely need to be pulling something that draws attention. Truth be told, the more elaborate you go the better your odds at raising sailfish. You have many options to choose from when it comes to teasers and dredges, so do a little research and experiment with different options. Natural bait will always outperform artificial in my opinion, but rigging a dredge sucks, so don’t suck all the fun out of it by going that route until you reach a level where you are trying to record a serious number of sail releases. Starting out, I suggest artificial teasers and dredges to get your first sailfish release under your belt and to keep the frustration level down.
All of your actual trolling baits should be small ballyhoo rigged naked with mono. The one exception is the bait being pulled from the up wind side of your out rigger. This bait will need some sort of skirt to add a little weight so everything tracks correctly. Remember, this is strictly to increase your odds at sailfish. Lever drag reels are preferred so you can set the drag just right so that while you are trolling no line lets out except when you get a hit or snag grass, then the bait falls back easily. The reason for this is that most of the time sailfish will hit the bait with their bill and the bait drops back into their mouth. You might drop and reel back a ballyhoo several times on a strike in your attempt to hook up a sail. You will also pick up the occasional mahi or black fin tuna while doing this style of fishing. If you are continuously getting clipped off from king mackerel, you need to position yourself a little further offshore the reef until you start getting less kingfish strikes. You also have the option to run a wire rigged select ballyhoo on a planar or downrigger for that occasional shot at a wahoo, but if sailfish is the main goal, I would leave the wire and downriggers in the boat.
We look forward to another great year of fishing and hope everyone makes it a priority to spend more time on the water.
Let’s see who is reading this to the end ????. Comment on this post to enter a contest to win a free sailfish trip with Captain Steve Knowles aboard the Sea’s The Day on January 28th. I will do a live drawing on January 10th on Facebook to announce the winner, so be ready if you enter.
We are ready to catch some awesome fish in 2020!
May is going to be awesome and I hope this report gives everyone a better understanding on how fishing really plays out in our area. We look forward to some fantastic catches this month!
Thanks for the great reports
I disagree with leaving the downriggers in the boat. In general I catch 75% of my fish offshore on the downriggers. Since I go out in a pretty small boat, the downriggers allows me to add another line. Usually I run one long line with a ballyhoo, one long line with a high speed plug, a short line 25 ft out with a fly for dolphin/ tuna and a short downriggers ballyhoo out 20 feet with 40 feet of cable out; so down probably 15 feet at 7 mph. The other key to success is lighter rods, with the exception of the plug rod which needs to be stout, lighter 10 ft long salmon rods add elasticity lost when using 30# or 50# braided line. In all likelihood, most of the fish caught Trolling are less than 15 lbs. On the rarer occasion you catch something in the 50 to 100 lb class, a 10.6 ft ugly stick salmon rod with a squall 20 level wind is more than capable.
Great report! I haven’t been able to get offshore in a while with the seas so rough but have had some fun near shore in the bait pods when winds aren’t howling.
Great insight on what’s happening on the water. Always looking for more information on how there biting.
I appreciate your detailed descriptions of your knowledge and experiences. As an inexperienced fisherman, anything that provides good information about my dream catch of a sailfish is very welcomed. I found your article fascinating…who knew there was so much to know!
Hope your 2020 is your best one so far!