Cold versus Cold

Now that the first official cold front has come through and my first official cold for a bunch of years is about finished, I am back at it though with a bit of a dragging tail.  I fished for the first time in a month with a bay side, rock piles and bridge basic 101.  After the first cold front the fish start moving to their winter accommodations but if the front comes early it is hard to tell where they are in their travels.  The bay side water temperature today was around 69.5 degrees which is in the Spanish Mackerel should be around range but they haven't arrived just yet, at least not close in the bay.  The Mangroves appear to be settled into their normal winter spots and the jacks, blue runners and crevalle are fairly thick so the bay is about ready to fire off.  There is a huge difference in what is around with a pretty small difference in temperature though.  Ballyhoo  today  seemed to stick close to a very small temperature break so we had to re-anchor just to get them into the slick.  That is kind of unusual on the bay side as far as my experience goes.  That said, plan on moving a bit more North and West to find bait.

The rock piles were a bit slower than I expected.  Not a bad bite by any means just slower than usual with the porgies on the smallish side, no lanes and the ever present it seems grouper that are close to the size limit.  We had one red that was very close to legal that managed a Palm Beach release since no one was crazy about jumping into the rain to land the fish.  There were very widely scatter showers that happened to be on top of us at the time.

The bridge was a little slow but the porgies were very respectable sized mixed in with decent Mangroves and a Hogfish.  We fished the last of the outgoing tide and there wasn't a lot of bait pushing through the bridge.  Once the ballyhoo and shrimp get thicker near the bridge the action should get more serious.

For the next few days the winds should be close to ideal in the 10 to 15 knot range which will allow a few more options.  On the reef, the deeper Yellow Tail spots should produce a King Mackerel or two with shots at anything from sails to cobia.  I am thinking a longer bay side run will also produce a king or two, possible some Spanish and potentially a cobia also.  I can't really say much for sure, but it looks like the bay side bite should be more like it was before Wilma in 2005.  Wilma churned the bay up back then and really changed the bite on a lot of closer in, less than 20 miles from the house wrecks.   So if my hunch is right, there should be some serious fish back there on some not very heavily fished spots this season.  Those of you that can remember back that far know that it was pretty awesome.  Hopefully, I will have a better report in a few days,

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

 Tight lines,

 Capt. Dallas