We got offshore out of Port Canaveral Friday and had a great trip. We knew the day before that the water was really cold and dirty out to the at least 180 ft, so we planned on jigging a spot in the 200-250 range than trolling east. This was our first time adventuring this far out, so it was definitely a learning curve.
The first spot yielded one amberjack head. As we were getting ready to troll, a nice mahi-mahi showed up. I threw a DOA swimming mullet, and the fish ate it. Unfortunately, it threw the hook because this was my inshore rod and had braid.
We trolled our three rod spread east, and got a netting size mahi on wire rigged ballyhoo in 375 ft. This depth was productive. Because we don’t have or want outriggers on our 20ft center console, we were using these sideways facing outriggers, They cost us a huge 40+ lb bull on a blue mono-rigged skirt. We decided these outriggers were doing more harm than good. We managed to get a barely legal mahi 20 minutes later using a red skirt on mono. 45 minutes later, we got a nicer one on the blue skirt. The bite turned off afterwards.
On our way in, we stopped at a different amberjack spot in over 250 ft. I hooked one on a jig, but it got off. I decided to try one more drift, but this time with a frozen sardine on a 16oz sinker. It produced a small amberjack. On the actual last drift, I caught a huge almaco jack. I didn’t know they grew that big! The current was ripping on both spots, but somehow the bait would stay right below the boat. If we spotlocked, the jig and bait wouldn’t go down. If you maneuver the boat properly, you can often pull the fish away from the wreck, and up quickly to avoid it from getting eaten by sandbar sharks.
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Nice fish Kurt.