Easy 2 Hook on Knot 2 Kinky Line; Spring has Sprung!

Well, you know Spring has sprung when everything from small sharks show up at El Jobean to big Black Tips and Kingfish are starting to make a presence at Sharky's on the Pier, in Venice. We have been fishing everywhere this week with the exception of the freshwater action; to which we will do some ultra-light spin tackle Bass fishing on Tuesday morning and kite angling from the beach on Wednesday. Last week, Ed & I were slaying the Snook and caught two in the thirty-inch plus class but could find no trout. I even posted on Florida Sportsmen to which, one of the others showed me a picture of one and a little advice. Hm, got to try that too! Mean while, we angled the canoe through the skinnies of the upper harbor in catching baby Black tips, hordes of dancing Ladies and Ed caught a small one foot Tarpon to make it a bonefish triumph for that day in Tippy Canoe Bay. Setting up a trolley, earlier this week on the pier, as the water temperature was hovering around sixty-eight degrees, we use a live Ladyfish with a 3/0 no tie hook, Easy 2 Hook, plus stinger, tied to three feet of knotable, Knot 2 Kinky nickle-titanium leader wire, at 25# test, tied to 30 pound Cajun red with the new evolution of fishing swivels, the invisible, 'invisaswivel' ,which is the greatest concept since the wheel. It can go through your rod guides with no harm, no foul. Sinks slower than the line it is attached to and the fish cannot see it, so no more cut offs at the swivel! It is also great in tying two different lines together, leaders, like braid to fluorocarbon; using your favorite knot in a not undo mess and loss of that fish.

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“FISH ON!”

Positive Mentoring through Fishing

Beach Macks Are Back!

Armed with Strike King sunglasses and our circle hooks, tagged to a free spooled live Greenback minnow, Ed was sure in hooking it up with a Spanish darting through the black bait balls moving in abundance about the sides of the pier. Along the outskirts of a large balled bait pod was a barracuda of at least four if not five feet in length, cruising in a circular motion around and around the pod causing it to become tighter and tighter and then in a burst of speed, a flash and slash, the pod dispersed and the Cuda made its kill. Awesome! Like watching the Discovery channel in prime time live action as his line also tightened and “fish on!”
The afternoon started as Edwin searched the surface for sizable Greenies, in the three-inch range and I worked an MR-17 in search of topwater action from anything trout, reds, snook or mackerel. Working the shoreline, I managed a couple of rats, a keeper trout and a couple of spit-off snook. Keeping none, Ed was motioning he had the baits and I met him out on the boards. Changing over to a 2/0 circle hook, on a forty pound test leader of around three feet long, I too was ready for macks. Hooking the greenies just below their gills, in front of their gut line, they were tossed out to frantically swim and drift with the prevailing currents or wind on the lose line. Watching for that first twitch or straighten of the line gave hint to a strike, though with my Strike Kings on, usually I saw the flash at the bait just before the strike.
Even though the water temperatures are in the high eighties or even nineties, fast moving storms and uplifts over the waters in the form of fast moving lows will produce fish to turn on and if bait is present, it is frenzy. As was the case today. Keeping an eye to the sky for boomers is necessary and a need to remove you from harms way but other wise it is a refreshing change from the doldrums of August. The fall run on the mackerel should be a good one this year and I predict an early one, Kingfish included as the Spanish we kept for the grill were full of roe and they are starting to school up.
A new thing to remember this year here in Florida is all need a fishing license on the beach as of August 01, of this year. The new shoreline licenses cost $9, while saltwater fishing licenses are $17, for residents. Non-residents need regular licenses to fish from the shore or a boat. The new law allows exemptions for resident anglers fishing in their home counties using live or natural bait, on a line or pole without a line-retrieval mechanism. The exemption does not apply to people using nets, traps, gigs, spears or who gather seafood by hand.

To purchase Florida fishing license click here
or call
888-FISH-FLORIDA (347-4356).

Spanish Blues

As that cool brisk wind slapped you in the face with a Northwest blow and the whitely caps churned about as far as the eye could see against the Blue sky, I knew this could be a day for a great bite on a King or at least a novel day with the Spanish to tarpon as the sun set to the west on this hot mid eighties May day here in Sunny south Florida. Armed with a small Aqua Float on an eight foot Star with thirty pound Cajun Fire on my ancient Mariner, I drifted out a small Spanish caught earlier on my first cast with a yellow and white Gotcha from atop the boards here at Sharky’s on the Pier in Venice Florida, in hopes of tempting a cruising King Mackerel from out of the blue water and onto the shallows of the sandbars. With a trailer hook a dangling, the mackerel proudly displayed a thrashing under the float on the thirty-five pound steel wire with a flashy DE nickel-plated attractant above it in wait for bigger prey to come. As the wind increased in strength so did to the abundances of a blow up of Spanish to Tiny Tuna or Bonita as they may be, in schools of the hundreds; though they were not on a bite of most any tackle. Those caught snagged, as the grouping was so thick it was the only way. The mackerels were charging into the wind, onto the surface, across the wave tops like that of surfers catching a curl and riding the tube in an attempt to catch tinny minnows invisible to the eye unless grouped together in a ball and then only forming a grey like color under the ever so clear water below. Schools of Jack Crevalles guided by, with a few taken by trolley to show a presence at the “T” on the end of the pier, but overall the day ay the end was pretty much just a bunch of blow. After awhile a lone smoker took a likeness to my bait under the Aqua Float but by now, it was dead meat and the King went on by in search for a more lively prey. On the end, just before the sun set to bed, a youngster hooked it up with a small fifteen or twenty pound king to proudly take home as a prize to all to see. We went home for pork chops and tatters and to get ready for another day out on the water to play. Remember to Keep’em Wet, CPR and “Fish ON!”

Anderson Florida Fishing Shorts: Saturday, March 28, 2009

Zippity Do DA, Zippity Day, My Oh my what a windy ole’ day; Winds continue to be heavy, setting back any coming of kingfish by at least a week। Anglers should be using a variety of baits, such as white bait to straws in bagging bragging rights to some of the biggest Spanish mackerel seen in years just off the beaches of inshore Florida। Larger mackerel have invaded the artificial reefs 5 to 7 miles offshore along with scattered kingfish. During the daytime, pompano and nice-size sea trout are being caught in the holes adjacent to the flats, and Reds are found tailing falling tides along side channels to docks.

Kahula Fishing Kites Catch Fish!

Kingfish Fever

Remember the Acme Yo-Yo and doing the “walk the dog” trick as it went up and down? That trick and all reminds me of our passing cold fronts, up and down temperature readings, along with baits trying to make it to the beach line. As each day the water temperature tries to hit that magically delouse number of 68 to 72 degrees, only to plummet as March continues to roar in like a lion. Yesterday, the temperature at the pier in Venice, Florida was a hot 71 degrees (water) and the mackerels abounded everywhere within the Spanish to Cero lines. Couple this with a westerly wind and we will begin to see smoke as that big daddy of them all will appear just off the beaches as King fever begins its migration north as spring temperatures prevail and the baits pod along the bars in a smorgasbord of delights to all in a feeding frenzy to Kingfish fever. The “schoolies” are the first on the scene, showing up as schooled mackerel falling within the small to fifteen-pound class. All Kingfish under twenty-four inches, measured from the fork, must be returned back to the water as they are undersized and against the law to possess. Kingfish must be 24 inches or longer if kept, with a limit of two. It is all in the tails folks, from the dorsal to the tail and you too can tell the difference between a regular mackerel (Spanish or Cero) and the Kingfish. Some of you experts say it is in the color or spots and sometimes that works but sometimes all mackerel look similar and it can be confusing even to an expert just by judging it spots. All fish have a lateral line on them. Some colored in scale others in an actual line, like the Mackerels. By looking at this line, you can save yourself the embarrassment of a ticket and be an expert too. King Mackerels have a break or sudden drop in their lateral line in the shape of a slanted “L”. Spanish and all the other mackerels have either a wavy or dropping lateral line with no slanted “L” shape. In addition, Kingfish minimal slot is 24 inches at the fork to keep with a possession limit of two per person. All other mackerels are minimal slot 12” at the fork, with 15 fish in possession per person. Stupid is not looking for that slanted “L”. Large King fish are considered Smokers because they can burn up a drag on a fishing reel and Smokers are caught out at the end of Sharky's on the Pier, with the "T-Gang”; those angling the trolley system.

Wind Equals Bait Direction, Yields Fish in the Box!

Windy, cold northeaster conditions have stopped the boats and most pier anglers from venturing out to the wave tops this week but that is not where to be but to go down and jig off the bottom in a fast and irregular sweeping and dropping of your rod tip as the bite occurs on the drop. From baited, tipped jigs to casting small spoons in your favorite color, it is of the same sweeping motion that yields a sure fire wham bam fish on! The smokers are on again off again with a few caught right off the beaches of Casperson’s on surf gear under mini-balloons, Caught in Flight Kites and Aqua Gem Floats with live threadfins or needlefish. Boats trolling one, two or four ounce rudders with there favorite island lure or any which leads a bubble trail has been doing pretty well on the King Mackerels, with an occasional one pulled on to the boards in Venice, Florida, on their City Pier. If wind should shift slightly, and the temperatures not drop too sharply, this Halloween weekend ought to be hot on the Kings in Venice, Florida! As the winds change direction, the baits, like a magnet, change direction with them and make a move towards the next area of hard bottom in that direction. AS the wind blows from the north or south for a couple of days, the bait will follow the wind; a key point to know if angling from a vessel.
“FISH ON!” ©