We were going to tripletail fish out of Port Canaveral Saturday, but there were two or three boats on almost ever buoy by 7:00AM.

There was a huge school of black drum off the beach. They would occasionally hit a shrimp. That meant using a smaller hook that could straighten. They turned off and went down by 8:30AM. This school of fish probably moved south with the cooler weather. If spotted, use medium to heavy spinning gear with large shrimp or crab. Sometimes, they will eat a cobia jig if you rip it through them out of defense.

After seeing a manta ray close to the beach in warmer 70° water, we thought it would be a good idea to look for cobia on the outer shoals. However, 67° water and increasing wind made it highly unlikely.

We went back towards shore because we had seen dozens, if not hundreds of 75-150lb jumping blacktip sharks. The blacktip migration was on. They are an underrated game fish for sure. There were so many that hooking up would sometimes take less than 2 seconds. If your chunk slid up the line, another shark would eat it and break the line. Definitely a trip-saver if and when your targeted species doesn’t show.

The bait of choice is a fresh chunk of a bloody fish such as a jack or bluefish. Hook it to a very sharp, thin but strong, non offset 9/0 circle hook. Trokar makes a great hook for sharks. Use 18-24 inches of 108lb wire leader and 3-5ft of 80lb mono shock leader. I would recommend a heavy to extra heavy spinning setup with at least 250 yards of 40-65lb braid.