Nice Kingfish on the Reef

I hope everyone enjoyed their thanksgiving. The fishing this past week was good overall. This is the time of year when we can get into some nice kingfish on the reefs and this week didn’t disappoint. We focused on 8A and Pelican reefs and it paid off for our clients. The fish have been larger fish so I would recommend increasing your wire leader to a #5 or #6 wire. We normally use #4 wire but have stepped it up due to the fish being larger and super aggressive. When you are out there you will see the commercial boats targeting kingfish — give them their space to work. There is plenty of ocean out there for all of us.

Finding bait has been hit or miss. We have been able to find pogies some mornings but it’s been about 70/30, meaning 70% of the time we are going with frozen minnows because we haven’t been able to find the pogies.

In addition to the kings, we have enjoyed a nice increase in the number of cobia, as well. They are on the reefs and we are catching then while targeting kings and they are coming up while we are bottom fishing. Capt. Joe has been on fire with the bottom bite. No real hero’s but a steady catch of triggers, beeliners, lane snapper, porgies and cobia. This makes for very happy clients when we bring some groceries home!

The nearshore bite has been nothing short of fantastic this week! With the wind picking up towards the end of the week we focused nearshore and man, oh man, what a score! With the cold fronts pushing some of the migratory species past our coast we took advantage of big bull reds, pompano, bluefish, Spanish mackerel and the shark bite has been good. Not only are our clients brining home dinner but they get to lock horns with some big fish as well! Small jigs have been working well for both pompano and Spanish. For sharks, they seem to be into kingfish and Spanish vs. bonita. Make sure you are checking the buoys for tripletail as well. We have had some good reports of decent size fish being caught. Until next week, tight-lines!