I eyed a spot at the southwestern tip of the Cameron, Louisiana, jetties and made a cast. My lipless crankbait hit the water.

As the lure sank, I began my normal seven-count before making the first pull. I stopped at three. It felt as if the lure had hit a rock and got stuck, so I set the hook — just in case.

The rod immediately doubled over, the drag screamed, and for the next 15 minutes, a super-sized redfish put my muscles and tackle to the test.

Catching redfish is fun. Catching big redfish is really fun. And one of the best ways to do that in early fall is with crankbaits at jetties.

Gearing Up for Fishing Crankbaits

Endless varieties of crankbaits flood the market, especially for bass fishing, but the most effective crankbaits for redfish are lipless.

As the name implies, these lures feature no protruding lip, a characteristic that allows this kind of bait to be fished at specific depths. Lipless versions can be more versatile because the angler essentially controls the fishing depth.

Rat-L-Trap has long led the industry, but my favorite is the Super Pogy by Bomber Saltwater Grade. It comes with a high-pitch rattle that I’ve found effective. Other options include the Nobondo Lipless Crankbait, Nomad Design Madscad and Biospawn Rattle Bot.

Best colors include chrome, white/black, chrome/pink, and bronze. I use a casting reel rigged with a 30-pound green P-line braid tied directly to the lure because I fish in dingy water. In clear water, add a 36-inch fluorocarbon leader if needed.

I like a medium-heavy action, 7 1/2-foot rod but have a particular preference for its composition. I learned about this while fishing over the years with four-time Bassmaster Classic champion and living legend Rick Clunn.

Super-sensitive rods actually work against you when fishing with crankbaits, Clunn told me. A fish actually pushes the lure in pursuit; if you’re fishing a super-sensitive (graphite/composite) rod, you’ll set the hook before the fish actually has the lure.

Clunn collaborated with Wright & McGill a few years back to create the S-Glass Series of rods that incorporate traditional fiberglass technology with a modern flare. I use these rods for crankbaits and have had serious success everywhere from the Mississippi River near Venice, La., to the Cameron jetties.

With glass rods, I have had far more hookups than misses because I can’t feel the bite until the fish takes the lure. You’ll find numerous fiberglass crankbait rods on the market, and they can make a massive difference in the pursuit of redfish.

Location and Technique

Around the jetties, start fishing near the boat cuts [Ed’s note: Texas jetties feature breaks in the rock wall about halfway out that allow small boats through] to take advantage of reds foraging on baitfish moving between the channel and Gulf side of the jetty rocks. “You get shrimp, shad and crabs pushing through, and the reds will move in and feed,” says veteran jetty angler Bill Killian.

Anchor up-current of the cut and work the lure against the flow. “Throw it out toward the cut, let it sink a few seconds, and then reel it in as fast as you can. The pressure of the current will allow the rattles to work really well,” he says.

Also look for jetty reds in the deep holes usually found around the southern tip of the rocks and northward about 50 yards. At these spots, the current wraps around the jetty structure and carves out large holes. Reds congregate around large boulders that have fallen off the main wall into these holes.

Read Next: More Redfish Fishing Tips

Throw out the crankbait, let it sink to the level of the rocks, and rip it. I pull a few feet and then reel a couple of cranks. Repeat that three or four times and recast. The reds usually hit just after the first pull and sometimes on the fall.

While it might sound counterintuitive, if you see dolphins feeding in the area, that’s a fortunate sign.

In my logbook, I’ve noted dolphins feeding in the vicinity every time I’ve caught lots of bull reds. The times we had fewer fish, I saw no dolphins feeding. The presence of dolphins often indicates menhaden, a primary forage species for big reds.

Releasing for the Future

As everything from algae blooms to bycatch in the menhaden fishery puts pressure on redfish populations, catch-and-release becomes increasingly important — particularly for the big, breeding-size reds that inhabit jetty systems.

Scientists say the discard mortality rate for all sizes of redfish averages around 8 percent, though the type of terminal tackle used plays a major role. In general, lures deep-hook fewer fish than J-hooked natural baits.

In fact, one fish Killian caught at a nearshore gas platform off the Sabine Pass, which I tagged for Texas Sea Grant, made a reappearance three weeks later two miles away at the Sabine jetties. As the super fat bull redfish surfaced, Killian netted it. We quickly noticed a tag covered with slime.

I removed the growth, and my heart raced as I realized the tag said Sea Grant.

After examining our data, we realized it was the same fish Killian caught a few weeks before. It taught me firsthand that releasing big fish pays off, and I will carry that and deep respect for these bulls with me for the rest of my life.

The post Fishing Crankbaits for Gulf Jetty Redfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Sunup at Ferry Beach, near Scarborough, Maine, had us excited to catch striped bass. The Scarborough, Nonesuch and Libby rivers dump into the Gulf of Maine, and that’s where we wanted to be as the sun popped above the horizon. Summer warmth kept us comfortable as we launched our kayaks and headed toward the pass.

Nearby, we heard a huge splash from a mystery fish that no one was able to get eyes on. The whole group turned toward the sound. “Probably a sturgeon,” guessed nearby kayak angler Daniel McFetridge, Old Town kayaks’ e-commerce and digital marketing manager.

Fighting an incoming tide, most of us were using the ePDL+ drive that propels Old Town kayaks via a lithium battery. Of course, anglers can assist and pedal with their feet for extra power. Ryan Lilly, marketing director at Old Town, was the first one to the spot which was chock-full of underwater boulders and feeding stripers.

A strong incoming tide made the area really hard to fish. We had to hold position in the cut and make pinpoint casts. A kayak with a spot-lock trolling motor might have been able to handle it, if the motor was strong enough to stay in position in the heavy current. Maine regularly experiences 8-foot tides, with little slack tide between the rising and the falling.

With his ePDL+ nearly at full power, Lilly locked his rudder steering in place to slice into the current. He was then able to stand up and make long casts close to shore. Prospecting with a topwater, Lilly hooked up on his third toss. And then a couple casts later.

The rest of us couldn’t replicate what he was doing. Some of us didn’t quite have the battery power to fight the current, which then required us to pedal sitting down. And sitting down meant we didn’t have enough casting distance to reach the fish. I didn’t risk moving closer to the fish, fearing I might run into submerged boulders. Soon the tide began to slow, the bite shut down, and Atlantic sturgeon were jumping around us so frequently I thought I’d become a pancake.

It was one of the most unique ways I’ve seen someone stand and fish from a kayak. Lilly obviously had experience standing in a kayak, which is necessary to fish an inlet. But I never thought I’d see standing — not sitting — kayak anglers fishing inlets and jetty rocks during a roaring tide. The experience made me think of two other instances on that recent summer trip to Maine when standing in a kayak was better than just sitting.

The Path Forward

On the backside of an island in Casco Bay, Maine, we dissected a shoreline in a way that any veteran Bassmaster would appreciate. Joe Albanese, editor in chief at Wired2Fish, and I cast plugs, Z-Mans and Slug-Gos at fishy-looking grass edges and rocky shorelines in the lee of the island.

We stood in our Old Town Sportsman BigWater kayaks, recognizing the higher elevation was a huge asset in this type of fishing. In the background, gray storm clouds blew up like popcorn near the Sandy Point Bridge. We needed every bit of sunlight and height to find the spots we wanted to land our lures. Albanese struck pay dirt first when he landed a striper off some vegetation. The striped bass were definitely selective in the heart of the afternoon.

Here’s how I handled it:

1. Standing in the 3-foot-wide kayak wasn’t a problem. Most wide kayaks with a wide-flat hull are plenty stable to stand up in. Standing is more of a confidence issue than anything. When you trust your footing, you don’t overcompensate and cause problems. Utilize a wide stance and loose knees to ride the swells, just like in a bigger boat. I’ve fished a ton in kayaks; be wary of kayaks that are too long-and-skinny or seemingly too lightweight for their size. Those are the ones most likely to dump you in the water while standing.
2. Next, I set the ePDL+ drive on its lowest setting to slowly creep along the shoreline. Every once in a while, I had to make an adjustment to my course, but it was as simple as making a rudder correction with the hand knob.
3. Finally, the other key element was skip casting. This was not as technical as casting underneath mangroves or docks, but I still used that underhand motion to land lures close to structure without making a huge splash. Executing a skip cast while sitting in a kayak isn’t easy.

Later that day, fishing a different part of the same island, we had success casting topwaters at a sandy beach and nearby shallow-water point. Out in open water, it was much less about precision casting — instead we were fan-casting a general area, looking for bait school marks on the side-scan sonar. Of course, we were standing and stretching our legs while casting.

In the Marsh

Sneaking back into the marsh was a blast. A certain type of angler from Texas to Maine really digs exploring a maze of shallow waters in search of surprisingly large gamefish. I’m that type of angler. Ideally, kayakers should allow a flood tide to push them into the labyrinth. But first, always make a stop at the entrance. That’s what we did and landed a couple striped bass off a flat. I let the current and wind drift me along a fishy stretch to maximize fishing time. 

Then it was onto the creeks. We had a short window — as we were fishing the outgoing tide — before the water left the creeks entirely. I had luck with an oversize Z-Man DieZel Minnow soft plastic. It looked like a hearty baitfish, or maybe an eel. And I didn’t have to sit down to re-rig or retie. Just grab what you need and pop right back up. Even releasing smaller striped bass was easy while standing.

The exploration was productive. Standing in a kayak in the marsh allowed me to see what was coming next, such as a creek mouth, island or shallow flat. In many cases, we were able to look over the marsh banks and reeds to prep for the next cast, which is something you just can’t do while sitting. With the water dropping, stripers were exiting quickly in the deepest water they could find. We had to lift up our pedal drives to float out, paddling over the shallowest points.  

Standing in a kayak takes getting used to, but most anglers become comfortable quickly. Start with a quality kayak in shallow water, and work your way up. Soon enough you’ll be fishing moving water in passes and inlets with the best of them.

The post A Balancing Act appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

I had just cracked open a drink when the fish came up. I set the brew on the bait tank, buckled in as a tuna slurped the bait, lifted the 80-wide Tiagra out of the holder and went to work. My beer was still ice cold when we gaffed the 192-pound yellowfin.

That short, effective fight depended on the 200-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader, 40 pounds of drag and a true winch of a reel. But the gear doesn’t matter if you don’t use it right, and that means using its power to hurt tuna instead of yourself. I’m a big guy and I’ve caught hundreds of tuna over 100 pounds, but size doesn’t matter. I’ve seen little old ladies use the right techniques and catch fish much bigger than I ever have. My friend caught a 300-pound yellowfin on stand-up gear when he was 78.

Use a Harness and Pad to Fight Big Tuna

The key is a good harness and pad, and the ability to use it. One of my favorites is from AFTCO, designed by Greg Stotesbury. Stotesbury’s stand-up experience, like mine, is grounded in the San Diego long-range fleet. No offense, East Coasters, but most of you don’t know how to use a harness. Here’s how it works.

If you learn anything here it should be this: When fighting a fish, you should feel all the force transferred by the harness from the point of your hips down. You want the belt around your butt, not the small of your back.

In preparation, wear the harness before the bite. Wait until the fish is solidly hooked and pulling drag before you put the rod in the belt and clip in. Many fish are lost early when folks fumble with their gear instead of fighting the fish. Once you are fastened to the fish, attitude is everything. Stay calm and relaxed. Don’t let adrenaline and bad form hurt you.

How to Fight Tuna in a Fishing Harness

Proper form means good posture: Put your left hand on the reel to guide the line, with your right hand on the handle. Keep your back straight, and bend your knees enough to distribute the pressure across the tops of your quads and your backside.

Modern composite rods do all the work when kept at right angles to the rail. When the tip comes up, wind it back down. If you can’t turn the handle, switch the reel to low speed. Can’t keep up? Go to high speed. Don’t impart wild pumping motions. Instead, focus on the rod tip. Call out deep color when you see it, and wind the fish up to the gaff.

Safety Tips for Fighting Big Tunas

A couple of safety notes should be added. Every tuna is an individual, and where the hook ends up influences how the fish acts. Yellowfin tuna hooked in the upper jaw by the snout are notoriously squirrelly. You have to be prepared to react to the predictable and unpredictable, and that often means getting out of the harness.

Use S-hooks instead of clips to attach the harness to the reel lugs so you can get out quickly if necessary. And remember to back off the drag ­(gradually, don’t dump it into free-spool) when you need to get the rod out of the gimbal pad for maneuvers such as keeping the line out of the props.

How to Gain Line When Fighting Big Tuna

When you sit back and put on a lot of pressure, a fish will often run out high in the water column. Enjoy the fact that now the fish is on the losing end of the energy equation. This is the only time you can take a breather. When the fish stops, bear down on it. Try to get a turn on the handle, going to low gear if necessary.

Tuna will often respond to the ­pressure by diving in the direction of the boat, which provides you the opportunity to win back a bunch of line with no more effort than turning the handle. Be ready to go into high gear when the fish sounds, and take that easy line.

Once the fish goes into the final stage of the fight — straight up and down — it’s time to really put on the heat. Stay in one spot and keep the rod straight out from the rail. The tuna’s tail beats are reflected in the pumps of the rod tip as the fish circles — the more pressure, the tighter the circle. The tip of the rod will come up as the fish leaves the inside (closest to the boat) of the circle. That’s when you get those precious feet of line with several quick turns of the handle to bring the tip back down and keep the fish moving up. Don’t waste energy by stubbornly trying to turn the handle when you stop gaining line.

Most important, stay relaxed so you reserve the burst of energy and sharpness of mind that is usually called for at the end of the fight. Sometimes, a truly mean fish will say to hell with this and bust a big move. The telltale is an irritated shake of the head. You have to be ready to respond and follow. It’s usually over soon after that — one way or another.

The post Tuna Fishing with Stand Up Gear appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Our panga wallowed in a hefty Pacific swell just a few hundred yards off a rocky peninsula while the skipper used the engine to hold us in a position. The trick was to be safe yet close enough so that we could cast our lures into the sweet spot behind the heaving mass of green water. Balancing precariously on the raised foredeck, one angler launched a popper, an industrial-size lure subscribing a graceful arc. The second it splashed down behind the breaking crest of a swell, he snapped the spinner’s bail shut, and with stiff popping action, began plunging the cup-faced lure over the wave.

Moments later, the surface to the right of the popper boiled as a rusty brown shape suddenly appeared and inhaled the lure. The line came taut, the rod bent and — despite a nearly-locked-down drag — a cubera snapper of trophy proportions effortlessly ripped out yards of line on its first blistering run directly toward the reef.

As the angler reared back against the fish, a resounding crack reverberated around the boat. The rod had snapped about 12 inches from the tip, the line breaking in the process. Hero to zero in a fraction of a second. In disgust, the fellow threw his broken rod to the deck, loudly chastising its manufacturer for a poorly built product.

I’ve witnessed similar scenarios at numerous destinations around the world, noting that anglers often apportion blame on the manufacturer. Most often, though, I’ve been convinced that this has not been the case. But of course, suggesting that the fault might lie with the angler — who just lost a good fish, even perhaps the catch of a lifetime, and broke an expensive rod in the process — is not a good idea.

Admittedly, on a few rare occasions, I’ve felt that rod breakage probably resulted from some manufacturing defect. For example, many years ago during a trip I hosted to Norway, five anglers had each purchased identical four-piece travel rods specifically for the trip. Yet within a few short hours of fishing on the first morning, four of those rods had snapped. Each had failed in the exact same place, leaving little doubt that the rods were at fault.

Like most anglers, I have my own ideas and theories about how and why rods break when fighting fish, but rather than speculate, I sought the insight of leading industry insiders and ­experienced fishing guides on what causes rods to break under stress.

Three Reasons Fishing Rods Break

Trey Epich, a former product-planning manager with Shimano, cited the three causes of rods breaking in use:

1. The rod has been somehow damaged in transit or handling (in a way that doesn’t show);
2. High-sticking while fighting a fish;
3. Mismatched tackle, as when an angler fishes too large a reel or with line too heavy for a given rod.

Epich elaborated: “When fighting fish with an appropriate tackle system that matches the intended species, an angler should never have to wonder, If I pull too hard, will my rod break?” Epich mentioned important points to consider when choosing tackle. “Make sure your reel’s drag setting, line weight and rod ratings are all in alignment. For example, you shouldn’t try to fish a large saltwater spinning reel at a full drag setting on a rod that is rated for up to 30-pound-test. Also, I see anglers who have loaded relatively small reels with very thin, very strong braided lines that are way above the maximum rating for their rod.”

Too often, even knowledgeable anglers, in the excitement of battle (especially toward the endgame), hold rods skyward, an action known as high-sticking. Perhaps more rods break at that point than in any other in-use ­situation. To avoid that, Epich said to keep your rod at an angle between 45 and 60 degrees when hooked up.

The biggest cause of rod breakage invariably is misuse or mishandling, according to Justin Poe, formerly of Shimano and Accurate Fishing, but currently director of rods at Pure Fishing. “Oftentimes rods are broken before they’re broken.”

As examples, he cited a rod hitting a ceiling fan, being dropped against an immovable object, or allowing a sinker or jig hooked in a rod keeper to bang against the blank during the long run to a fishing spot. “While none of these things might leave a rod broken in an obvious way, as soon as the fibers expand or contract at the damaged spot during a fight with a good fish, that rod snaps.”

Christopher Cathcart, engineering manger at Pure Fishing, explained that “you’ll typically see a manufacturing defect show up pretty quickly, either when casting or fighting a fish. If a rod has been used for several months of fishing and then suddenly breaks, typically that’s related to something other than a manufacturing defect.”

Understanding Fishing Rod Failures

How rod breaks appear, Epich said, can reveal the cause of a break. However, with rod materials, “we don’t see a lot of variance in breakages between materials other than a rod with heavier graphite contents will have a more sheared/shattered break, whereas one with heavier glass content will have a more splintered break.

“When we see rods that have broken into three or four pieces, that’s an indication that more force was applied to the rod than its maximum intended breaking strength. When we test our rods in a ‘hang down’ test for break strength, they almost always shatter into several pieces,” Epich continued. However, “when you see a rod break 12 to 18 inches from the tip, that’s a result of high-sticking.”

It’s pretty easy to identify why a blank has failed, Poe agreed. An impact hit will leave a small crater on the blank. Many rods are clear‑coated, which helps protect the blank from impact and UV exposure, but also helps impacts show up, as a hazy spot, likely to be close to the break. “I’ve never seen a rod break into two pieces in testing or on the water from the pull. When the rod is overloaded, it will break in three or more pieces, unless there has been an impact.”

Adding Strength to Fishing Rods

“Fiberglass rods are typically stronger than carbon (graphite) rods,” Cathcart said, but they don’t have the ­sensitivity or weight savings. Therefore, carbon rods give you some advantages over glass, but they require more care because they are more susceptible to damage and breakage due to the nature of the material. Advanced materials and resin systems help bridge this gap, and we use some of these today in our rods.”

In fact, most rod-makers add ­materials in the manufacturing process to strengthen blanks. For example, Shimano uses what it calls its Spiral-X and Hi Power-X technologies to prevent breaks that might be caused by previous impacts. “In addition,” Epich said, “both of these blank technologies add to the torsional rigidity of the blank and increase compression strength, which lead to less blank ‘ovalization’ and breakage.”

A strategy used by Accurate places a high-modulus carbon tape around the entire blank, forming an “X” pattern. This both strengthens the blank and makes it durable and impact resistant, Poe said.

The Multipiece Fishing Rod Factor

Multipiece travel rods bring up a separate set of precautions for anglers because “if the ferrule joints are not fitted together correctly, it would be like hoping for the best in your PVC ­sprinkler pipe when gluing it in at only half depth,” Poe said. “The ferrule is designed to envelop the joint, giving it all points of contact for stability. Often, if these don’t fit right, when the rod flexes, you’ll hear what we call ‘rod knock,’ which is the male end rattling around within the female end of the ferrule.”

Poe added: “This will eventually wear out the inside of the connection. As long as the ferrules fit well, a multi-piece rod is just as strong as a one-piece—some would even say stronger—provided the ferrules are located at the proper points. Some argue that ferrules create hard spots that hinder the action in multipiece rods, but I think the technology today is so good that most anglers would never know a rod was multipiece [from the action].”

Cathcart agreed that “multi-piece rods have a reputation for being weaker, but if designed properly, they can be very strong.” He cites modern multipiece fly rods and also some saltwater jigging rods that have detachable sections with the rod sliding into the top of the handle sections. “Rods like these see a lot of pressure, and they hold up just fine,” Cathcart said.

Jigging Rods Face Maximum Stress

A rod built strictly for optimal performance or sensitivity, where strength is secondary, might be more susceptible to breaking when mishandled, Poe maintained. But most rods are built with multiple layers that vary in number, thickness, orientation and material, Cathcart said, to improve performance while making them stronger.

Jigging rods in particular seem to be routinely subjected to maximum stress. Cathcart said that “these rods see a lot of stress both when working the lures and also when fighting fish. You need a rod limber enough to properly work a lure, but strong enough to land a fish. For this reason, the design of the rod is very important.

“You’ll see many modern jigging rods with a slower action in the rod blank; this allows the rod to flex more toward the middle and back end when under a load, which helps spread out the load along a longer portion of the blank. It also makes working lures a little easier.”

A Fishing Guide’s Perspective on Rod Strength

Capt. Skip Nielsen started his guiding career way back in 1973, and you can still find in him on the waters in and around Islamorada, Florida. Nielsen’s clients routinely caught 100-plus-pound tarpon along with huge sharks and grouper. So how do today’s rods compare with those used when he started fishing?

“Back in the day, the good-quality one-piece fiberglass rods were pretty hard to break. When graphite rods came out, they broke fairly easily. I was always on a quest for a stick that would not break trying to pump up a large grouper with 50-pound line,” Nielsen says. “Rods tended to break when anglers were fighting fish straight up and down: It’s all about the angle.”

Capt. Rick Stanczyk, of Bud N’ Mary’s Marina, said: “Today’s rods are incredible, but there are still do’s and don’ts. The biggest cause of rods snapping, in my experience, is due to angler error.” Not surprisingly, Stanczyk then cites high-sticking because that “puts the pressure in the tip part of the rod as opposed to the backbone; this causes the more-fragile tip to snap.”

And, Stanczyk points out—as industry insiders noted above—anglers can easily load reel-and-rod combos with thin braid much stronger than is intended for the rod. And the temptation to do so is clear: That line fits on the spool well enough and casts easily on the lighter rod. However, this ­situation can be tough on rods.

The post Why Fishing Rods Break appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

People who complain that South Florida doesn’t enjoy a change of seasons don’t fish the annual fall mullet run.

To anglers from Stuart to Key Largo, nothing signals that fall has arrived like the migration of these baitfish. Silver and black mullet move south in enormous schools along the Atlantic coast, all the while dodging a host of predators such as snook, tarpon, jacks, sharks, Spanish mackerel and bluefish. October marks the prime time to fish the mullet run, both offshore and inshore.

The Live-Bait Game Plan

Anglers never know what they might catch from one cast to the next. They don’t even need live mullet to catch the gamefish species. Half a mullet, topwater plugs, spoons, and soft-plastic bait imitations can be as effective if not more.

Capt. Chris Murray, of Stuart, usually nets several dozen mullet wherever he sees the baitfish pushing water. After catching bait, he cruises around until he spots another mullet school. Then he closely watches to see what the baitfish are doing and what’s feeding on them.

Tarpon often jump completely out of the water, then come crashing back into the middle of the school. Snook hang below the school and suck in mullet with an audible pop. Jacks charge into the school and send mullet flying.

Murray likes to fish live mullet on a 7-foot, light- to medium-action spinning rod with a 4000-size reel spooled with 20-pound braided line. He usually attaches a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 3/0 circle hook and clips an indicator float to the leader, which allows him and his anglers to keep track of the bait.

“I vary my leaders. I like to actually start lighter,” Murray says. “Normally I rig up two that are 25-pound, two that are 30, two that are 40. When I know what kind of fish are there and what kind of heat I have to put on them, normally 40. If they’re short snook, 25 or 30 is fine.”

When drifting or slow-trolling, he hooks a mullet through the upper lip and casts it to the edge of a submerged oyster bar, which snook, tarpon and other species use as ambush spots. Murray then opens the bail of the reel and slowly lets out line.

Jacks Are Wild

On one trip I took in the St. Lucie River with Murray and Anthony Javarone, we cast out, and moments later I felt my mullet get very nervous. Suddenly violent splashes erupted, and whatever had scared my mullet nailed Javarone’s bait.

Following Murray’s instruction to let the fish swim for a few seconds before closing the bail and reeling tight, Javarone hooked up to what turned out to be a 15-pound jack. The fish took Javarone from one end of Murray’s bay boat to the other before it finally tired.

“Those big jacks are great practice for people who want snook and tarpon,” Murray says. “They’re a guide’s best friend. They just give you every chance to develop your rhythm.”

When jacks, tarpon and Spanish mackerel successfully raid the schools for a meal, they often stun and maim a few of the baits, which fall to the sea floor. That’s when fishing a mullet head on the bottom can be extremely effective.

Snook on Artificials

Fishing around the rocks at the mouth of Stuart’s St. Lucie Inlet, Capt. Greg Snyder uses a D.O.A. plastic shrimp to catch all sizes of snook. He fishes the shrimp on a spinning outfit with 30-pound braided line and a 40-pound fluorocarbon leader.

“They use the rocks as a trap,” Snyder says of the snook. “The bait hits the rocks and gets confused, and the snook take advantage of it.”

Let the shrimp drift with the current and be aware of any taps or hesitation in the drift, because that means a snook has taken the lure. “Let the tide do the work, and keep in contact with the shrimp,” he says, “because you need to be able to set the hook when they eat.”

Why would a snook eat a shrimp when mullet are abundant? I posed that question to D.O.A. luremaker Mark Nichols. “During the first of the mullet run, the fish are all over the mullet,” he says. “But after three weeks of eating mullet, they’re ready for something different.”

I witnessed that fishing with Nichols in the north fork of the St. Lucie River on the last half of a falling tide. His flats skiff was surrounded by mullet and rolling tarpon, but after we threw some D.O.A. soft-plastic mullet imitations such as a Bait Buster and a TerrorEyz without a bite, Nichols switched us to D.O.A. glow shrimp.

Standing at the front of the boat, we waited until a tarpon rolled within casting distance. Then we cast the shrimp just ahead of the tarpon. Instead of steadily twitching the shrimp back to the boat, Nichols advises working it slowly.

“You want the shrimp to go down,” he says. “Then snap the rod and jerk the shrimp sharply, but don’t crank the reel and move the shrimp away. You want it to stay right where the fish was.”

Picture it in these terms: Here’s a shrimp, slowly sinking in the water. Suddenly it jumps up, then sinks right back down. The next time it jumps, thinking it might get away, the tarpon eats it. Using that technique, Nichols and I enjoyed about two dozen tarpon bites.

“I think it’s just easy for them to eat a shrimp,” he says. “They have to work hard to catch a mullet. It doesn’t take anything for them to catch a shrimp.”

Read Next: Mesmerizing Drone Video Shows Tarpon Attacking Mullet

Two other advantages of fishing an artificial shrimp around a mullet school: Bait stealers don’t peck at a plastic shrimp like they do a live shrimp, and Nichols can fish his shrimp exactly how he wants.

To make a D.O.A. shrimp more appealing to a fish keying on a school of mullet, Nichols fishes it below the school or on the edge of the school. That makes the shrimp look vulnerable, which makes it an easy target.

“If you’re not catching fish with a shrimp, you’re fishing it too fast,” Nichols says. “No matter how slowly you think you’re fishing it, fish it slower.”

The post Fishing Florida’s Fall Mullet Run appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The most successful offshore anglers never leave the dock without pitch baits. Dead or alive, those baits can turn a fair day of fishing into an unforgettable one.

“Every single day I go in the ocean, if there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of catching a marlin, I’ve got a pitch bait on. All day, every day,” says Capt. Matt Carter, who once ran charters out of North Carolina’s Oregon Inlet and now skippers private boats.

Carter, who fishes from Montauk, New York to Mexico, always keeps pitch baits rigged and ready because many fish show up unexpectedly. The baits also tempt fish that appear in a trolling spread or behind a daisy chain but show no interest in eating.

“If a gaffer dolphin comes in, you need your pitch bait to be able to catch it,” he explains. “If I’m fishing a 9/0 or 10/0 tuna bait, I promise you that if he comes in on a teaser, he’ll hit that pitch bait. And how many times are people tuna fishing and a small blue marlin or white marlin comes in and is all over the spreader bar, and everyone’s looking at it?

“They have the mindset, ‘We don’t need a pitch bait; we’re not marlin fishing.’ What do you do when that gaffer dolphin comes in? Or that sailfish? You know how hard it is to hook a sailfish on a big lure? I always have pitch baits ready to go if a sailfish, whitey or a blue comes in. I want to make the most of that opportunity.”

Have Pitch Baits Ready When Trolling

Pitch baits prove popular from coast to coast. California tuna fishermen, such as Capt. Ty Ponder, a private boat captain from San Diego, use live Pacific sardines. Spanish sardines rank as the No. 1 pitch bait for Florida captains such as Casey Hunt of Key West’s CN-it Adventures. A threadfin herring ranks as his second choice. Carter’s go-to pitch bait is a dead ballyhoo, which matches what he’s trolling.

“All trolling guys, whether they’re fishing for blue marlin, white marlin or sailfish on the East Coast pitch dead baits, and all live-bait guys pitch live baits,” Hunt says. “Most boats are set up to always troll or always live-bait. But if you’re trolling and you have some live bait, it’s a great weapon.”

Whether you pitch live or dead baits, always have a bait ready, and immediately drop it into the water when a fish shows, especially when you already have one fish hooked, captains say.

“If you’re fighting a sailfish, cast [a sardine] toward it, and a lot of times you’ll hook another sailfish right away,” Hunt says, noting that the technique works with other species, most notably dolphin, but also wahoo, tuna and marlin. “Even before you release it, have a guy cast a bait toward that fish.”

When he trolls at 15 knots for wahoo, for instance, he’ll slow the boat once he hooks a fish and ask an angler to cast a live goggle-eye with a wire leader, in case there’s another wahoo around. With dolphin, he waits to pitch a livey until the fish obviously snubs the trolled baits.

If he finds a school of dolphin, Hunt starts casting lures or jigs. When the fish lose interest, he switches to chunks of ballyhoo or bonito. When they stop biting the chunks, he deploys liveys. And before leaving a dolphin school, he drops a live goggle-eye deep, well below the school, in case a larger fish still lurks.

When targeting tuna, Hunt will watch for the first jump, “then just throw everything you’ve got in your spread, because the more baits you have in the water, the better,” he says. “We do a lot of that, or we cast popping plugs. That kind of gets blackfin and yellowfin tunas fired up, then we cast baits.”

Hunt says he also has tossed pitch baits to white marlin out of Harbor Island in the Bahamas. “We’re pulling baits, hook a white, and as he’s getting close to the boat, we flip out live goggle-eyes and hook another.”

Pitch Live Baits to Sailfish

Florida captains use pitch baits most often for sailfish because the sails usually travel in pods. Hunt also keeps at least one live pitch bait handy, hooked to a spinning outfit, for those times when sails pop up in a kite spread or when he spots a free-jumper.

“If you see one free-jumping, basically lock up all your reels, speed up the boat, and pull all your baits over to where you saw him,” he says. “If I know there are a lot of free-jumpers around, I like bridling kite baits through the nose. If we have to pick them up, it’s easier if they’re hooked in the nose instead of the back.

“If you’re running along and see a sailfish jumping, try to get ahead of him and cast three or four baits at him, even if he goes down. He might come back up and bring more fish with him.”

Ready With a Pitch Bait for Marlin

When he’s trolling for marlin, Carter never knows what might show up in his spread, so he always keeps two sizes of pitch baits on his boat. If the big blue appears but doesn’t eat, he pitches a horse ballyhoo on a 10/0 to 12/0 circle hook behind a Mold Craft chugger lure, a tactic that has caught 600-pound marlin. His smaller pitch bait for small marlin, sailfish and dolphin is a naked “dink” ballyhoo on a 7/0 circle hook.

“Every time I hook a fish, pitch baits go in the water,” he adds. “Everybody’s prospecting. We make 20 or 30 pitches every single day. Don’t be scared to throw it. I think a lot of recreational anglers don’t take advantage.”

When a blue marlin comes up in Carter’s spread, he slowly pulls the teaser to the boat. As the teaser comes in, his mate puts a pitch bait in the water. One tip for hooking a blue on a pitch bait: Don’t let it get too far behind the boat.

“You never let the pitch bait get past where the squid chain would be,” Carter says. “People have a tendency to drop back and back. I always keep it near the back of the boat, and I make the fish come to me. If he’s inside the short-rigger distance, then you’re way better off. Too far back, you can’t see how to feed it.”

He recalls one Mid-Atlantic tournament he fished, when he had a white marlin doubleheader on the two flat lines. His mate was hauling in a daisy chain when Carter glanced at the outside teaser and saw a 400- to 500-pound blue marlin.

Says Carter of another trip: “One time in the Dominican Republic, we hooked two white marlin, and as we caught them on the turn, we had the baits going out and hooked a sailfish. “As we were hooking the sailfish, we pitched a bait to a blue marlin. So we literally caught a grand slam in one turn.”

Targeting Tuna With Pitch Baits

Ponder says West Coast anglers typically target yellowfin tuna and yellowtail with pitch baits—although in the past few years, bluefin tuna to 300 pounds also have made the hit list.

When tuna fishing, he runs 10 to 100 miles offshore, where he focuses on known ridge areas or high spots. There he looks for kelp paddies and what he calls floating structure, which attract bait and gamefish. Temperature breaks of 1 to 3 degrees often draw bait to the cooler side; the gamefish stay along the warmer, clearer side of the break. In Southern California, a typical break might transition from 63 to 65 degrees or 65 to 67.

Ponder also looks for dipping or diving birds. During summer, pods of feeding common dolphin can indicate tuna. And he always keeps an eye out for surface-breaking tuna. When he finds promising conditions, he often trolls feathers—real and plastic—as well as deep-diving Rapala X-Rap swimming plugs.

“As soon as somebody gets a bite, the first thing we’re going to do is start chumming,” says Ponder, who tosses out one or two live sardines at a time to keep the school close.

He prefers to rig a 6- to 10-inch live sardine for pitching, although he also uses anchovies and mackerel. Ponder notes that it’s critical to handle a bait with care, taking it out of the livewell with a bait net so that it looks good, retains all its scales, and remains lively.

“When you pitch it in the water, you want it to run away from the boat immediately. That’s going to be ideal,” he says, adding that an underhand pitch works best. “An overhand cast stuns the sardine when it lands, and it doesn’t run. With an underhand pitch, the sardine is more likely to run away from the boat. If it runs hard, it’s likely to get bit.”

If the bait doesn’t swim away, Ponder doesn’t soak it. “I immediately flick it off [the hook], and I go right back to the well and get another bait. I want a bait that’s fired up and swims away to get that reaction bite.”

Feather the line as the sardine swims away to keep in touch with the bait. “I hate to see guys feeding line, and they get a bunch of slack, and they’re not feeling their bait. They feed out 100 yards, and they don’t even know that their bait is sitting straight under the boat.”

Pitch Bait Fishing Tactics

Even when pitching dead baits, keep that connection and you’ll score more hookups. With time, experience and dedication to the details, you’ll perfect that all-important sales pitch.

Capt. Casey Hunt of Key West, Florida, who kite-fishes with 20-pound Accurate conventional reels, suggests a 7-foot spinning rod and any brand of reel that holds 400 to 500 yards of fishing line for pitch-baiting.

He ties a Bimini twist in his 20-pound Momoi Diamond or Diamond Illusion main line, creating 10 inches of doubled line. With an Albright knot, he attaches a 15-foot leader of 30-pound Momoi Diamond fluorocarbon tied to an Eagle Claw 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook. He hooks or bridles live pitch baits through both lips so that the baits don’t fly off when cast.

While Hunt runs along a color change to set up a drift, each of his anglers stands ready with a baited spinning outfit. The prepared baits swim in either a 5-gallon bucket of water or a livewell. If Hunt sees a free-jumper, he can maneuver in front of the fish to let the anglers cast.

A Tuna Pitch Bait

To catch tuna in the 20- to 50-pound class, Capt. Ty Ponder of San Diego uses a 7-foot, 6-inch Okuma PCH Custom extra-heavy, 30- to 60-pound rod with Okuma Cavalla conventional two-speed reels in size 5 or 12.

He typically fishes 65- to 80-pound Sufix braided line with 6 to 100 feet of 30- to 50-pound Sufix Invisiline fluorocarbon leader. He uses shorter leaders to maintain sensitivity to the bite but extends them if fish grow skittish.

Ponder attaches the braid to the fluorocarbon with a John Collins knot, also known as the Royal Polaris knot, which he likes because it’s slimmer and seldom fails. He upgrades his tackle appropriately when bigger bluefin tuna come around.

He uses a San Diego jam knot to attach a VMC circle or J hook, which he matches to the size of the bait. “I personally never set the hook on a tuna, even with a J hook. I just reel the line tight and lift the rod tip.”

Ponder often nose-hooks live sardines when pitching them for tuna and yellowtail. He also hooks sardines in the back, just ahead of the dorsal fin, which makes them “look like a Rapala.” For a third option, he hooks the sardine in front of the anal fin so that the bait swims down and away from the boat.

The All Purpose Pitch Bait

Private-boat skipper Capt. Matt Carter uses 20- to 30-pound-class custom rods with Shimano Talica 20 or 25 conventional reels. He attaches 30-pound main line with an 80-pound top shot to a ball-bearing swivel crimped to a wind-on leader of 60- to 80-pound fluorocarbon. He snells the leader to a 7/0 circle hook baited with a dead, naked ballyhoo.

Carter keeps the rods handy in the rocket launcher or tower-leg rod holders, and the rigged ballyhoo rest in pitch-bait tubes filled with ice and salt water to keep the baits fresh. “Nothing’s worse than fishing all day and having the fish of a lifetime come up, and you’ve got a bait that’s been drying in the sun,” he says. “They won’t eat it.”

Carter notes that the tubes can be attached to a tower rod holder, a fighting chair or a rocket launcher, so they’re always in the right place when the time comes.

“No matter what you do, you have to get in the habit of having that pitch bait in the same location every time,” Carter says. “You don’t even have to think about it. My mate hears ‘right teaser,’ and he goes straight to that rod every time.”

The post The Perfect Pitch appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Although Capt. Shane York is a regular at his local gym, at least a portion of his body-builder’s physique can be attributed to an annual run of bull redfish at an expansive bay near his favorite south Louisiana port. Every year in the late summer stretching through the fall, mature reds invade the flats in the lower Barataria Basin, and absolutely engorge themselves on bait stocks that must be seen to be believed. York is always there to greet them, armed with soft-plastic paddle tails under corks.

“You can throw whatever you want, and they’ll hit it, but that cork makes it pretty much a guarantee,” he said.

York has been kind enough to invite me to experience the bull-red blitz the last two seasons. Last year, we left predawn out of Myrtle Grove Marina, and caught them until neither of us could bear the thought of reeling in another fish. That was at 8 a.m. All the reds were pushing 40 inches.

“The smallest bull we’ve caught out here so far this year was 35 inches,” York said that morning.

Two years ago, I absolutely wrecked my biceps reeling in bull after bull, including my personal best, a 44-inch fish. Although mature redfish conduct their spawning duties in deep passes along the coast, that’s not where York finds the fish when they’re in feeding mode. He hunts for extensive flats of uniform 3- to 4-foot depths that hold bait, and when he finds one, success is almost assured, regardless of water clarity.

“We catch them out here in absolute chocolate milk,” he said.

The run coincides with the migration of white shrimp leaving Louisiana’s marshes this time of year. York releases every bull he catches, but if you were to cut open one’s belly, it would be jammed full.

Bull Red Drum Eat Speckled Trout

“You would find a lot of shrimp, but you’d also find some speckled trout,” he said. “They feast on those little speckled trout.”

In fact, the trout are such a significant part of the bull reds’ diet that York knows he’s in the right area when aggressive specks and white trout are the first to yank down his cork. Many of the specks are under Louisiana’s 13-inch minimum size limit, but some are solid keepers. York doesn’t mind putting those in the box if his clients want to take some fish home.

Often, diving seagulls give away the location of productive flats, so York said it pays to always be observant. He had just recently discovered the flat that produced so many fish for us last year.

“We were fishing one area, and we were moving to another area,” he said. “As we were driving across the flat, we saw two huge blowups right next to the boat. We stopped, put the Power-Pole down, made two casts and immediately doubled up.”

York’s favorite color lure is black with a chartreuse tail, but he also has success with white and straight chartreuse. He will be putting all those colors to use for the next few months. Once the fish show up in late July or early August, they stick around for a while.

“They’ll be out here really good through October or November, but you’ll still have some stretching into December,” he said.

By then, York will surely look even more ripped.

The post Louisiana’s Late Summer Redfish Blitz appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The water along the upper Texas coast usually stays too murky for sight fishing, but on this particular late fall day, it looked crystal clear in the tiny canal that runs along Highway 87 in Bridge City. I saw flounder everywhere. I could see some as sandy outlines on the bottom; others aggressively blasted toward the surface, feeding on shrimp. Certainly, this would be a flounder fisherman’s dream come true. Not so. I offered multiple baits as I walked along the canal’s edge. The flounder refused all of them.

Use Smaller Lures When Flounder Won’t Bite

Having just returned from a crappie-fishing expedition, I still had a medium-light-action spinning rod rigged with fluorocarbon line and a 2-inch curl-tailed grub in the back of my truck. A curl tail is my favorite flounder lure but this one was half the size of my normal presentation.

Out of desperation, I walked back to the truck and grabbed the rig. Then, I waited for one of the feeding flounder to move. The first cast produced nothing. But the second one scored and so did the third. By the end of the day, I had released 17 flounder.

That unexpected windfall happened in late November, just after the peak of the fall flounder migration into the Gulf of Mexico. On that day I learned a valuable lesson that allowed me to score on quality flounder during the run as well as successfully extend fishing efforts into the winter.

A few years back, a gentleman named Ben Jarrett outfished me on a redfish trip by using a tiny topwater when I was throwing a super-size Super Spook. “Elephants eat peanuts,” he said, echoing the familiar expression. To this day that serves as a reminder that sometimes I need to downsize gear to catch big fish.

While big flounder sometimes eat large mullet, they seem just as satisfied eating 100 tiny menhaden. They ambush prey, so they tend to feed on what the currents bring them. In the late fall and winter, that’s often tiny baitfish and crustaceans.

Light-Tackle Flounder Fishing

My favorite rod for this application is a medium-action Abu Garcia combo spooled with 8-pound-test fluorocarbon line. Fluorocarbon features the same refractive properties as water, and is killer for catching flounder in clear water in particular. It also offers better abrasion resistance than monofilament.

For general flounder fishing, I actually prefer braided line, especially when pursuing big fish. I normally use 50-pound SpiderWire on medium-heavy-action rods. However, when using microplastics, I need a finesse approach. Yes, I lose a few with the light tackle but I get far more bites than on the other rigs, starting about the third week in November through Valentine’s Day.

Soft Plastic Baits for Flounder Fishing

My favorite micro lures include the 2-inch Mr. Twister Teenie (in pink for off-colored water or luminescent for clear water), and the Mr. Twister Sassy Shad in the 2.5-inch size and in clear silver-flake/black-back. Mr. Crappie’s Shadpole Curlytail in the salt-and-pepper color and the Bobby Garland Baby Shad in the eclipse or hologram-ghost patterns also work. All of my small lures for flounder come from the freshwater world, which shows we should not limit ourselves to a particular section of the tackle shop.

If the water looks dingy, fish obnoxious colors like pink but if it’s clear, use natural colors. Flounder are very visual fish and sensitive to tiny changes in water clarity and lure-color presentation.

I rig small plastics on a 1/16-ounce jighead and crawl them slowly across the bottom. If you feel a hard “thump,” count to two and set the hook. If you feel a slight tap on the line, wait about 10 seconds and then set the hook. Sometimes flounder simply grab a lure and hold on. Give them a few moments to move the lure inside their mouths.

How to Find Flounder Late in the Season

To target late-season flounder, look for canals and shorelines that provide the fish with quick access to deep water. When temperatures fall, these holdover flounder move into deeper, warmer water but come back shallow to feed as temperatures rise. Generally speaking, the southern half of a bay system and channels leading to the Gulf produce best.

When you start hearing about anglers catching big trout along the spoils in ship channels and around deep-water drop-offs, go to those same locations and look for flounder. Both species seem to move from deep to shallow water at similar times.

When south winds push slightly warmer water in from the Gulf, fish the rising tide for good action. Slight variations in temperature can make a huge difference to flounder. Any south-facing shoreline can also be good on days with strong wind because baitfish push up against the banks.

As fall segues into winter, fish slow. If you think you’re fishing too slow, you’re probably not fishing slow enough. Start with a super-slow approach, and then if you’re not getting bit, speed up. The fish don’t scatter at this time of year, so locate fish and focus on an area with a high probability of catches. Once you establish a bite, fish slowly and be aware of their delicate strikes.

When to Keep Flounder and When to Release Them

Flounder are super popular all along the Gulf Coast, but some issues have erupted for the stock due to rising Gulf water temperatures, commercial pressure, and other factors. In 2021, Texas instituted a closure to all flounder harvest from Nov. 1 to Dec. 14, making the fishery catch-and-release only during this time. I release all flounder measuring 20 inches or more any time of year and recommend other anglers do the same. The greater number of big, breeding-size fish we put back, the better chance for quality flounder fishing in the future.

Due to the incredible taste of flounder, anglers generally consider them a prize for the table and don’t generally release them as they do snook or speckled trout. But flounder deserve the same respect. Keeping the smaller, legal-size fish to eat and releasing the big ones has worked for other species and can help ensure the future of the southern flounder.

The post How to Catch Flounder With Micro Jigs appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Growing up in Virginia Beach, I spent many summer days trolling small spoons a few miles off the beach for fast action on speedy Spanish mackerel. But this summer, it hit me: After 30 years targeting these silver conquistadors, my Spanish tactics hadn’t changed. To gather new intel, I asked four regional experts—from the mid-Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico—to share their strategies.

Spanish Mackerel Troll Patrol

Fortunately, Virginia Beach hosts a dedicated fleet of charter captains who spend every day fishing just offshore of this tourist town’s oceanfront high rises. I dropped a line to old friend Capt. Nolan Agner and he hooked me up to fish with Capt. Luke Jennings and mate Fisher Terry on the 40-foot deadrise workboat Smack Down.

We left the dock at a leisurely 7 a.m. As soon as the big boat chugged out Rudee Inlet, Jennings turned north and pushed the throttles to 6 knots. Terry grabbed a half-dozen 20-pound-class boat rods spooled with 50-pound braided line. At the end of the mainline, he tied a 250-pound snap swivel.

To vary the depth of his lures, Terry attached 3- and 4-ounce trolling sinkers to two rods and No. 1 planers to another two. To the other end of the sinker or planer, Terry clipped another 250-pound snap swivel with 10-feet of 40-pound leader, a 150-pound-test swivel and 10 more feet of 40-pound leader. The long leader ended with a size 00 to size 1 Clark Spoon Squid. “Green is my favorite color,” Terry added, showing me a green-glitter metal lure the size of a minnow.

From the fifth rod, Terry pulled a small bird teaser with a 20-foot leader terminated by another small, green spoon. Terry had rigged the bird on a 16-inch piece of 100-pound mono with a couple large beads on either side and a 250-pound snap swivel at each end of the short leader.

The bird allows Terry to add another rod to the spread without tangling his deeper lures. While the bird doesn’t result in many bites, the teaser slapping and splashing on the surface attracts fish to other lures in the spread.

Capt. Jennings motored along the beach while I watched the early joggers and dog walkers strolling the boardwalk. We often catch Spanish within a quarter-mile of the surf line, especially in the early morning and late evening. We made a circle past the mouth of the inlet, where several other boats had started their day. Temperature breaks and current lines also hold Spanish as do live bottom and bait schools.

Within just a few minutes, one of the planer rods bounced heavily with the weight of a mackerel. Terry coached the angler to reel faster or slower, depending on how the fish surfaced or dived. Jennings slowed the boat while the rest of the crew held their breath, hoping the first fish of the day would not escape to freedom.

Once the planer reached the rod tip, Terry handlined the fish the last few feet before swinging it over the transom and into the box. Jennings bumped the boat back to trolling speed. Before long, the crew was heckling and shouting encouragement as the anglers reeled in one Spanish after another.

Spanish on Lures and Flies

While trolling spoons can be a quick and easy way to have fun, the most exciting tactic for catching Spanish involves casting lures. When the fish fire up and actively feed on schools of bait, I grab a light-action spinning rod and small spoon or jerkbait.

But catching Spanish with light tackle can be tough: The speedy fish have sharp eyesight and finicky tastes. I often encounter feeding Spanish that I can’t convince to eat a lure.

Capt. Jim Klopfer, who charters near Sarasota, Florida, considers Spanish mackerel an unsung hero of nearshore fishing. He targets them with light spinning or fly fishing tackle. “They’re aggressive, fight hard and are one of the fastest fish in the sea,” he says. The green, silver and gold speedsters also taste great when prepared fresh.

To find mackerel, Klopfer heads a mile or two into the Gulf of Mexico and looks for working birds or slicks, indicating mackerel feeding on small minnows. When he finds the fish, he grabs 7-foot, fast-action spinning rods and 3000-size reels, spooled with 10-pound-test monofilament. “I like monofilament because it stretches when a speeding Spanish strikes,” he explains.

Again, the right leader helps ensure success. Sharp-sighted Spanish can spot heavy leader or terminal tackle, but their sharp teeth slice through light line. “I go with 30-pound fluorocarbon and only lose a lure once in a while,” he says.

Lure choice comes down to availability. “I like a 3 ½-inch Bass Assassin soft plastic on a 1/4-ounce jighead,” he says. The soft-plastic bait can be easily replaced after a Spanish attack. To target the fish on fly, Klopfer uses a 7-weight rod, intermediate or floating line, and a white D.T. Special fly.”

Chum Up the Mackerel

On the east coast of Florida, social-media celebrity Darcie, known by her nickname Darcizzle, fishes for a variety of species. When she’s targeting Spanish, Darcie starts the day with a stop by the tackle shop.

“First thing, I pick up the Spanish mackerel starter pack,” she says, laughing. This includes two blocks of glass-minnow chum and a 12-pack of Gulfstream Lures Flash Minnows.

With their razor teeth, mackerel bite off a fair share of lures, “so it is a constant battle to use a heavy enough leader,” she says. Darcie starts with No. 4 single-strand wire. If the fish seem fickle, she bites the bullet and switches to fluorocarbon.

Darcie looks for Spanish at the inlet mouths and along the shore, and on a reef in winter. “You can find the fish because there’ll be a lot of boats in the area,” she says. To target Spanish, Darcie uses a medium-action spinning rod with a 3000-size reel.

Once on the Spanish grounds, she starts chumming with the glass minnows. “I throw out a handful of glass minnows before every cast,” she says. Before long, the fish find the chum and the melee starts. “The only thing you can do wrong is not use enough chum,” she says.

More Mackerel Bites

Spanish mackerel range from the Gulf Coast to the mid-Atlantic. On the North Carolina coast, a few miles from the South Carolina state line, Capt. Jot Owens says the fish are a big part of his business and his clients like the challenge of hooking a speeding mackerel on light tackle.

After a lifetime fishing for macks, Owens has seen anglers make serious mistakes with light tackle. “You can’t work the lure too fast,” he says. To increase hookups, Owens recommends cranking hard on the reel and holding the rod tip low to the water.

“I’m looking for a reaction bite, so the fastest lure gets the bite.” Recently, he started using a high-speed spinning reel with a 7-to-1 gear ratio to work the lure even faster.

Owens tries to stay as far as possible from feeding fish. That necessitates longer casts, which allow the lure to spend more time in the water. “The biggest mistake I see is anglers driving their boat through the school,” he says. Once the fish spook, the school might not reform.

Finicky and fast, Spanish mackerel deliver heart-thumping action, line-sizzling runs, and enough of a challenge to make any angler respetar el pescado (respect the fish) whether trolling, chumming, or sightcasting.

The post How to Catch More Spanish Mackerel appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The exceptional swordfishing off South Florida sometimes gets lost in the hustle and bustle of Miami’s and West Palm Beach’s dazzling lifestyles. But many offshore fishermen want in on the action, and they’re quickly realizing the fishery outshines anything happening on the mainland.

Just miles off the coast are clean blue waters and deep-water humps that attract juvenile and adult swordfish year-round. Even though the swordfish are there, specialized tackle is required to catch them in depths deeper than 1,000 feet.

Before heading out by yourself, consider chartering one of the many exceptional captains that target this deep-water billfish on a regular basis. I asked top pros Capt. Dean Panos and Capt. Jay Cohen to talk about their techniques and experiences offshore. Ever since long liners were kicked out of the Florida Straits, fishermen continue to report increased catches and larger fish on a regular basis. Use the tips below to better prepare for your next trip:

What’s your basic rig for nighttime swordfishing?

Panos: At night, we fish strictly conventional reels. You can go with either 50s or 80s. I use a 2-speed reel and a custom stand up rod with a short bent butt. The reels are loaded with 80-pound monofilament ending with a short double line via a Bimini twist. I then add a 50-foot wind-on leader of 250-pound test. (If fishing strictly IGFA regulations, then the wind-on is cut back to 25 feet.)

At the end of the wind-on is a crimped ball bearing swivel. At the other end of the swivel, we crimp a bait with a short 5-foot section of 250-pound-test monofilament leader. On the wind-on, toward the top, I floss two loops. One is for the weight (usually 32 ounces). The other is 5 feet away from the lead to attach a light.

How many lines do you use at night for swordfishing?

Panos: I fish 5 or 6 rods at night. My first rod is usually a live bait — either a blue runner, goggle eye, tinker mackerel, or speedo. Those are my baits of choice. The live bait is flossed onto a 9/0 J hook. The floss is through the eye cavity, but not through the eye itself. Floss the bait on tightly so the hook doesn’t have room to swing and hook back through the bait.

I drop the first rod down 300 feet. All my rods have floss loops on the line at 100, 200 and 300 feet. At the 300-foot loop, I attach a buoy. On the stick of the buoy. I add Cyalume sticks so I can see the float. I float this rig out at least 150 yards or more.

The second rod is a dead squid rigged with a 9/0 hook and that is dropped down 200 feet, float attached, and floated out about 100 yards. The third bait is a live bait or a dead squid dropped down 100 feet. A float is attached and drifted out about 50 yards.

Next, I fish a “tip” rod in the stern corner with a squid dropped down 300 or 400 feet. The rod tip aims straight off the back corner. (A tip rod is one that does not have a buoy or jug attached to it. The line goes straight from the tip of the rod into the water.) I fish a second tip rod with a live bait down about 100 feet; this is usually hooked with a live bait and is fished off of the bow.

Depending on moon, current and other conditions, I may fish a flatline with only a light, live bait and no lead. I usually fish the flatline when there is no moon and the swords are higher in the water column.

How does daytime swordfishing differ from nighttime trips?

Panos: The daytime fishing is completely different. You basically drop a single bait to the bottom in 1,600 to 1,800 feet of water and reel it off the bottom 50 to 100 feet. The daytime fishery has been better in the past couple of years.

What’s your basic rig for daytime swordfishing?

Panos: For daytime fishing, I prefer to use a Penn Hooker Electric 80 electric/manual combo reel. The Penn Hooker Electric reel has a handle that works both in low and high gear. If you do get a bite, you can manually fight the fish with the handle. On the other hand, the reel also has an electric motor, so if you need to check the bait or relocate, you can use the electric portion of the reel to bring up your rig.

The reel is loaded with 80-pound braid. That is attached to a 150-foot wind-on leader of 250-pound test. At the end of the wind-on, we crimp on a ball bearing swivel. Then, we crimp on our bait that’s on a 5-foot section of 300-pound test and attached to a 10/0 or 11/0 hook.

At the top of the wind-on is a floss loop, which is securely tied to the mono section to ensure it does not slide. I attach a 10- to 12-pound lead weight with a snap onto the floss loop. The lead is tied to 5 feet of 60-pound-test monofilament.

On the wind-on, about 15 to 25 feet from the bait, I use two flashing strobes. These are passed through the line and secured in place with rubber bands. When you do get a fish close to the boat, these lights will slide through the line, allowing you to bring the fish right up to the swivel section. The rubber bands are used to keep the lights from sliding as you drop your bait. I prefer two strobes: one green and the second blue.

The Buoy Rod for Swordfish

Besides the primary “tip” rod, we also use a secondary “buoy” rod. The buoy rod has specific rigging to accommodate the buoy. After letting out 1,600 feet of braided line, we have a wind-on leader rigged, and that’s where the buoy is attached. Some anglers use rigging floss to attach the buoy, but heavy pressures on the buoy and floss can break the connection. So we don’t use the rigging floss.

The downside of the buoy rod is that an angler can’t re-drop or re-deploy the bait, as with the tip rod. But a buoy rod does allow a second bait presentation in a different location than the primary rod. The bait on the buoy sits as high as 600 to 800 feet off the bottom due to currents and boat drift. Let’s say a swordfish is hanging 300 feet off the bottom, it’s likely to eat the bait on the buoy rod.

What are you looking for on the depthfinder when swordfishing?

Panos: In Miami, we fish a drop-off between 1,200 and 1,600 feet of water at night. During the daytime, the depths range from 1,600 to 1,800 feet. This area has a ridge with lots of ups and downs on the bottom that in turn create upwellings and usually hold bait. Bait is usually squid, deep-water sardines and sometimes tinker mackerel. Inshore of the ridge is usually pretty flat bottom and offshore of the ridge it drops off to 2,000 feet.

The key is to keep your bait near the bottom but avoid snagging the bottom. We usually fish offshore of the ridge in areas with less ups and downs on the bottom, but with areas that do have large humps and depressions. You seem to catch more fish in the front and just behind most of the holes or mounds. You need to watch your depth recorder and adjust your bait up and down keeping close to the bottom but avoid snagging the bottom.

What are the top swordfish baits?

Panos: During the day, we use baits that are fairly durable and can withstand a sword’s brutal attack. We often used bonito strips rigged Panama-style with a large skirt over them. We also use dolphin strips, bonito bellies, dolphin bellies, squid tentacles, eels, or dead squid stitched well to the hook.

What’s the average size swordfish caught off South Florida?

Panos: My biggest fish to date is 605 pounds. That was caught during the day. At night, the biggest fish was around 460 pounds. Average size swordfish during the day is 100 to 300 pounds, and average at night is 50 to 200 pounds.

What is your favorite color of swordfish light?

Panos: Although the color of the Lindgren Pitman swordfish lights that we use are really not a factor, I favor blue, green or purple, as well as a tri-color light (blue/green/white) and a two-color light (blue/green) at night.

Backward “Back” Trolling for Swordfish

Cohen: We typically have to fish through the strong Gulf Stream current, so South Florida daytime swordfish fishermen have developed a few specialized techniques. We deploy the rig into the water facing north. As we pay out the, line I will run the boat north at about 10 knots with the current. Once the bait is below the current, about 600 feet down, we stop our forward movement.

Next, we spin the boat around to the south and start heading into the current. The goal is to get the line straight down off the back of the boat. Once we hit the bottom we bring the bait up about 100 feet. Every few minutes we will pay out line to find bottom again, then come back up 100 feet. Sometimes when the current is running fast we will have nearly 3,000 plus feet of line off the reel to hold the bottom in 1,800 feet of water. Eventually you find the “sweet spot,” the amount of line belly that keeps the bait in position.

The ultimate goal is to have the bait trolling just above the bottom at about 1.5 knots. To achieve this we will move the boat south into the current at about 1.5 to 3.5 knots. The net result is the boat and bait will be going north or “backward” at 1.5 knots.

To maintain this all day I like to use my electronics. I will set my chart plotter with a course line and an indicator telling me were I will be in two minutes. This helps me maintain a proper course and speed at a glance. Once I find the right heading that keeps us moving the correct direction against the current and prevailing wind I will engage the autopilot to help maintain course.

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