sailfish

NOVEMBER RECAP

Inevitably the North wind had to make its way here and our extended summer had to give way to Winter. Almost all of November was spent nearshore hiding from rough sea conditions. The fishing nearshore was fantastic. Pompano, jack crevalle and lady fish made for great fun using pompano jigs. Pretty much had a bite on every cast. Red drum weren’t as abundant as the previous few years but still provided plenty of action mixed in with a wide variety of sharks. Black tip, spinner, blacknose, fine tooth, hammerhead, sandbar, sharp nose and tiger were all species of sharks we landed last month. The few days we did get offshore the king mackerel were waiting for us along with cobia, mahi, and sailfish in the mix. The bottom fishing was really good for stringer fish along with some nice amberjack and a few jumbo mutton snapper.

Port Canaveral monthly fishing forecast

DECEMBER NEARSHORE FORECAST

Get the pompano jigs, fish bites, sandfleas, cut clam or whatever your favorite bait is for surf fishing because it is going to be fire. The pompano have made a strong show and they are not alone. Black drum, sheepshead, whiting, lady fish, and jack crevalle are providing nonstop action. Get to the beach and soak up some Florida sunshine & catch dinner. Sharks and red drum are settled in for the month so if we don’t get any huge swells or crazy temperature drops, we can expect the great action to continue from those species. Who is going to be the one that catches one of the few jumbo cobia that get caught nearshore this month? We don’t see many in close this time of year but when we get one it is a good one.

DECEMBER OFFSHORE FORECAST

The king is happy and hopefully by now you know what that means. Calm December days should be spent slow trolling. The king mackerel are in full force so the action will be fast and furious. Mixed in with the kings will be sailfish, cobia, blackfin tuna, wahoo and mahi so steer the course and end up with a great catch every time. Wind chop this time of year can shut down the bite slow trolling so turning to the bottom is a good back up plan. May and December are probably our 2 best months for bottom fishing. You have a lot of great options. My absolute favorite days are slow trolling for the first 4 hours in the morning and stringer fish fishing the rest of the afternoon.

Beautiful & tasty lane snapper (pan fry them whole) are abundant along with my absolute favorite eating of all fish, trigger fish. I usually drop someone down with a jumbo grunt while stringer fishing and on occasion get rewarded with a big gag grouper or fat cobia. Dedicated bottom fishing days in the deep are also very good. This is your best chance at catching grouper and amberjack without sharks eating everyone. Definitely keep the chicken rigs going because the vermillion snapper, triggerfish and lane snapper in the deep water can be jumbo plus that helps excite the bottom and will trigger the grouper bite.

This is a great time of year to be on the water with friends and family. The action is good wherever you go so entertaining for the holidays are made easy courteous of the beautiful Atlantic.