We went offshore out of Port Canaveral on Wednesday. We closely studied sea temperature charts and assumed that the water was too cold for cobia and tripletail.
On our way out to troll, we stopped at a deep structure. We caught some small amberjack on vertical jigs. These fish were fun to catch on heavy spinning tackle. We used 50lb braid and a short piece of 80lb fluorocarbon. If the big amberjack are around, use very heavy conventional tackle with leader no less than 100lb test. Because the sea surface temperature was only 68°, there weren’t many sharks.
We headed east to hit blue water, and found it very abruptly on a weedline/color change in 475ft. There was a good amount of 10-20lb mahi-mahi scattered through the area. We fished a three rod spread with 20-30 lb conventional tackle. One small blue/white skirt, one ballyhoo, and one pink/white skirt. All are rigged to 60lb fluorocarbon and 6/0 hooks. Small skirts without ballyhoo in blue and pink seem to be the best way to catch mahi-mahi. Always have at least one rod per person ready for pitching. I like to have one with a rigged plastic like a Hogy, and one with a hook for bait.
The water warmed up this weekend, so tripletail and a few cobia returned. This front will probably slow the action down for a few days. I expect cobia and tripletail fishing to get very good by next week if it warms up again.
Great report as always, Kurt! I love hearing the how-and-why specifics, and I’m sure many others do, too. It sounds like you did a lot better than a lot of anglers out there this week — just goes to show that doing the homework pays off!