This week’s weather looks to make for fantastic boating and fishing conditions. Light east winds will give you just enough of a cooling breeze, but not enough to make your boating experience uncomfortable with rough seas, so get out there and fish.
The mahi bite has not exactly been on fire this season, but that will change any day now. There have been a few mahi caught, but few and far between with any real size.
The black grouper bite has been good since the opening of the season on May 1, and the permit bite has also been good the past couple of weeks. This time of year, permit congregate on wrecks for spawning. Luckily for them, harvesting this species is prohibited from April 1 to July 31. However, sportsmen can typically knock this species off their bucket list if they put some time in to catch one this time of year. Drifting a crab above the wrecks where they congregate, using a ⅜ oz. jig head and lighter 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader should land you one of these beautiful hard-fighting fish so you can get a fantastic photo.
The scattered sargassum grass has made live baiting and trolling difficult lately, but there has been just the right amount of wind needed to fly a kite. Using a kite to fish gives you more control over the placement of your baits and makes it less likely to have your live baits get fouled by sargassum. Kite fishing is an extremely productive method of targeting pelagic species including, but not limited to, blackfin tuna, sailfish, wahoo, king mackerel and mahi. Several quality blackfin tunas up to 30 pounds were caught this week by the kite fishing method.
Several large schools of cero mackerel have been making their way across reef patches lately, making for a fast action fight that is fun to conquer on light tackle. Typically, when someone hears mackerel, they don’t think of sushi. Instead, they think of smoking it for fish dip because most mackerel species are oily. Cero mackerel happens to be one of my favorite species for sushi since fresh cero mackerel doesn’t have an oily or fishy taste. These mackerel can be targeted by trolling small shiny spoons along the reef or fishing live pilchards on light #3 wire.
The mangrove snappers are staging up and getting ready to invade the reefs in the next month or two. In the spring and early summer, mangroves are the primary snapper species targeted by reef anglers. You can use chunks of cut bait like ballyhoo, but if you really want a quality mangrove snapper, your best bet is to use a live pinfish on either a jig head or knocker rig. A 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 5/0 circle hook usually gets the job done. Use just a heavy enough jig head or sinker to get your bait to the bottom. Using too much lead can have you constantly re-tying your rig after getting snagged in the reef again and again.
Great weather and plenty of options for fish species to target only means one thing: Get out there and catch the fish of a lifetime – and have fun doing it. Tight lines, everyone.
To book a trip with Top Notch Sportfishing, call Captain Bill at 732-674-8323.
