Winter Fishing

In my neck of the woods, the winter has been a mild one. Winter fishing has been off the charts. When the wind normally howls before and after a cold front, fishing success drops like a rock. So we try to fish ahead of the front as the pressure drops. But this winter – at least so far – the fronts have been few and far between along the southern Atlantic coast. Consequently, we have been able to fish in light winds and moderate temperatures, something the fish really like! We went this past week into the marsh and estuaries of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) on the Georgia coast. While the Georgia coast is only about 100 miles long as the crow flies, it has well over 500 miles of fishable shoreline in and around all the creeks, rivers and barrier islands. Georgia is home to over one-third of the total salt marsh estuary on the Atlantic coast. And the best part of all of that is – there are lots of fish and comparatively not many fishermen! During 2011 there were 61,000 resident and non-resident saltwater licenses sold in Georgia. To put this number in perspective, Florida has more resident and non-resident saltwater licenses sold than ALL coastal states combined, both Atlantic and Pacific. I heard, “Get to the fishing!!” OK, here is what we did. We had a high, outgoing tide in the morning leading up to dead low around noon time. For me, this is an ideal situation. I like to fish the last of the outgoing down to low and then the first of the incoming tide. In Georgia, this is particularly important. The tides can run as much as 8 or 9 feet difference between high and low tide. The fish that are in the creeks and up on the marsh flats at high tide are more concentrated and easier to locate in low water. When you have tides like these, it is easy to get caught up in a creek when the water is dropping. Some creeks will literally have no water in them at low tide. You can be in 8 feet of water at high tide and think you are fine, only to realize that half way through the tide you can’t get out of that creek!

I avoid that mistake by lots of exploring. Oh yes, I have been caught – several times in fact – but over time I have investigated all the areas I usually fish. I go at low tide and find the creeks that I can enter at dead low tide. If I can get into them, then I can get out of them were I fishing there on an outgoing tide!

We always look for bait. It’s not the bait we buy at the tackle shop, it’s the bait we see in the area we plan to fish.

As we idled up to our chosen creek I stopped the boat and shut the engine down. All eyes were on the water at the mouth of the creek. We looked for activity, for movement, for any sign of something alive in the water. A school of small baitfish at the mouth of the creek means we have activity. And, activity usually means fish.

So many times in the past when we fished a creek where we did not see bait, we did not find fish. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to see that the creeks with no bait also have no fish!

A small school of glass minnows “showered” as what appeared to be a flounder struck at them. That was the key we were looking for, so I dropped the trolling motor and began to move into the creek.

Entering a small creek with an engine running, even at idle speed, will do a couple of things. That engine stirs the mud bottom as it churns. But, more importantly, it scares the fish. Some would argue that the fish are used to engines. But, in a shallow, narrow creek, the fish have nowhere to hide, and you will see them darting and running ahead of the boat.

I always use the trolling motor to get back into a small creek. Don’t have a trolling motor? Use a pole and pole your way back into the creek. Noise in the boat – dropping something, slamming a lid, running an engine – is the worst enemy of a fisherman. Total silence is the key. I even find myself whispering or at least talking very quietly when I am back in a creek like this.

After reach the hole or bend I plan to fish, I ease a pole into the mud or pitch a small anchor up into the marsh to hold the boat against the tide. I avoid dropping an anchor where I plan to fish. In larger creeks I may just use the trolling motor, but here in this small creek, I need to be stationary.

With the boat sitting still (and quiet!) we wait. The tendency is to immediately get a bait in the water. But, you need to let everything settle down and get the fish used to this huge object floating over them and next to them. So, I grab a cup of coffee and sit for about fifteen minutes. My party does not understand, but a few fish tales and stories pass the time.

Every noise makes a difference when fishing shallow water in a tight space. Even the splash of your bait hitting the water can spook fish. So, when we cast, we cast softly and try to get as quiet a water entry as we possibly can. Often we use just a hook and a ">live shrimp because it makes so little noise when it hits the water. But, lighter jig heads can also enter the water quietly.

I cast a ¼ ounce jig head with a live shrimp up ahead of the bend we fished. I let it sink into the bend and then worked it up and down one time. The bite was simply a feeling of pressure on my line – a little “tick” followed by a feeling of being hung on the bottom. I set the hook, and a nice two pound seatrout came to the surface shaking its head. I handed to rod off and grabbed another rod to cast. Another cast, another trout. This went on until the tide stopped running.

I told my anglers the fish would quit until the tide started coming back in, and true to form, they did. As much as one teenager fished, he caught nothing during the slack tide.

But as the tide began to come in and the current picked up, the fished turned on and we began catching them again. Only on this incoming tide, we began catching redfish – spot-tail bass. An occasional trout came in but mostly it was reds.

We quit fishing after about 2 hours of incoming tide. It was a toss up as to why we quit – we were running out of bait at the same time we were getting fewer hits. The water had risen enough to let the fish get back onto the shallow flats at the same time we ran low on shrimp. So, we pulled the small anchor out of the grass, dropped the trolling motor, and headed out of the creek – once again without running the engine.

I fish this creek about once every two weeks – no more. I always troll or pole into it and out of it, and I never run my engine there. It has been good to me over the years, so I really protect it as much as I can. I know of no one else that even thinks about fishing in this creek – it’s small and out of the way. And the people I take there to fish are never from the local area – usually not even from Georgia!

Take care of your fish and they will take care of you!

Mangrove Snapper

Lots of people travel to the Florida Keys for a Florida Keys fishing vacation. Some bring their own boat while others opt to rent one when they arrive. However they arrive, they all want one thing – to catch fish and mainly to catch mangrove snapper.

Offshore fishing requires some substantial tackle investments and a relatively large boat. So what can an angler that wants a successfully fishing trip do in a small boat? They can catch fish – and do it with ease.

I have always said, and I still believe that fishing guides are not successful because they know how to fish. Rather they succeed because they know where to fish. Most of us have a working knowledge of the tackle and equipment. We can cast, and bait hooks, and tie leaders. We are even somewhat versed in fighting a fish once its hooked. Where we need help is finding the fish to catch.

On the Florida Keys, I have a sure fire method to find fish and make even your first trip out a roaring success. You can and will catch mangrove snapper if you will follow this simple method, and the only thing extra you need is a good NOAA chart of the upper and lower keys.

Depending on where you plan to launch, there are numerous small mangrove islands that dot Florida Bay. Take your map and follow me as I take you through the paces of finding fish.

First of all remember – they call these fish mangrove snapper for a reason. They do stay in and around the mangroves. And while these mangroves are home mainly to the small to medium size fish, even the larger sizes can be found there. Look on your map for Bahia Honda. The state park there has a launch ramp and we will run north into Florida Bay from the ramp about 3 miles. Look for Friend Key, Teakettle Key, Sandfly Key and Hardup Key. Take note of the water depth around these keys. The tidal currents run around these keys, and although the map does not reveal it, the water will be deeper on one side of these little islands than on the other. Generally a flat will show on one side and not the other. On a high tide, you can idle up to the edge of the mangroves on the deep side of the island (deep is a relative term here – we’re talking about water two feet deep. What the map does not show is that the mangroves are undercut and the water depth drops off from about two feet to sometimes over eight feet under the mangroves.Move slowly and quietly and look for fish movement. Not many anglers get this close because the shallow water flat surrounding these islands hides this deeper water. When you stop the boat look for movement in the water under the mangroves. Nine times out of ten, you will locate a school of hungry mangrove snapper. Live shrimp on a bare hook with no weight is the bait of choice. But we have also caught them using a small red and white nylon jig with a small piece of cut bait on the hook. With the boat anchored a good casting distance from the mangroves, cast right up next to the limbs and let the bait drift down. With a jig, work it up and down more than in a line back to the boat. For more mangrove islands that will hold these snapper look at the Budd Keys north of Cudjoe Key. There is a deep undercut around the western most key, and fish are almost always there.

These are excellent locations, easy to reach and I can almost guarantee that fish will be there. I have fished every one of these locations and been very successful.

While you are catching snapper, don’t be surprised to find a jewfish or two (goliath grouper) in and around the mangrove roots. Juvenile fish up to about 60 pounds along with small nurse sharks are common in these holes. If you catch one, release it. They are currently totally protected from any type of harvest. One more thing – they call these fish snappers for a reason as well. You will see what I mean when you catch your first one. Very sharp teeth with upper and lower canines can really hurt if your finger happens to get in the way. Mangrove snapper are my personal favorite fish to eat. They have a light, sweet, flaky meat that is great broiled, baked or fried. Try it broiled with butter and let me know what you think!

Mangrove snapper on the Florida Keys - no wonder the guides seem to have it so easy! And, oh yes - I do have other good spots (Can't give away all of them now, can I?).

Night Flounder Gigging

In most states, gigging is a legal method for taking flounder or fluke. Usually done at night, it is more for the adventurous angler, but any of you can do this and come home with some great table fare!

Gigging is a nighttime activity, which is the major reason it becomes an angling method for the more adventurous among us. It involves either wading from shore or floating in a small boat over the shallow areas where flounder congregate. It requires relatively clear and shallow water, a good, heavy duty gig head, a high candlepower light source, and just a little schooling on what to look for on the bottom.

Flounder will settle on the bottom, back-flap their fins, and essentially cover themselves with the surrounding sand. The only visible part, short of a slight outline of their body, is their two eyes sticking up just above the sand.

The process is rather straightforward. Find an area where flounder gather at night, and light up the bottom. As you wade or float over the bottom, look for a pair of red glowing eyes sticking up from the sand. Be careful to identify two things, (1) which direction is the fish pointing, and (2) how far apart are the eyes. 

Most states have size limits on flounder and it will pay you to remember how far apart the eyes need to be for a flounder to be long enough to be legal.

Once you locate a pair of eyes and determine which end of the fish is the business end, it becomes a matter of driving the gig home just behind the eyes. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Now for a few words of caution! I prefer a single pronged gig head. That is, it has but one long tang with a good barb. The tang itself is about a half-inch in diameter. This is not a thin wire frog gig. When you drive the gig home, make sure you pin the fish to the bottom until he stops kicking. Only then should you lift him out of the water. The lifting process also requires a bit of caution. Don’t pull the gig straight back toward you, rather try to lift it out of the water as if you were trying to scoop something off the bottom with a shovel. This prevents the gig from backing out of the fish from the water pressure exerted on the side of the fish.

My particular methods for night gigging involve either wading or floating a small boat, as I said. If I am wading, I like to take a ten-foot long, two-inch dowel, on which I hang a gasoline lantern. I place the lantern on one end of the pole, a balancing weight on the other, and wrap a soft towel around the middles of the pole. I then balance the lantern and counter weight on my shoulder, so that they will remain stationary as I walk.

I shield the side of the lantern that faces me so as not to blind myself. Then I wade slowly in the area I plan to fish. The long pole and counterbalance serve to stabilize themselves when I thrust the gig, allowing me to use both hands when required.

One word of caution is appropriate here. Don’t let the lantern touch the water! That hot surface will literally cause the glass to explode when it hits the water. A little practice prior to embarkation is definitely in order.

When I gig from a boat, I use lighting that may be foreign to many of you. I have modified a metal car top carrier bar and fitted it with four sealed beam headlamps, the same kind we use on an automobile. They are mounted so they point straight up if the bar were mounted across the roof of an auto. The connections have all been waterproofed, and the wiring to the lamps is of six gauge, insulated copper.

I take the headlamp arraignment and drop it over the bow with a line attached to each side. I then draw the bar so that it is about one quarter of the way back from the bow and strapped across the bottom of the boat. If you picture this properly, you know that the headlamps are now pointed at the sea bottom.  Once securely strapped in place, I connect the wiring to one of the three auto batteries in the boat.

Bingo! The bottom directly under the boat is lit up like a ballpark. The angle of the light to the front of the boat allows any eyes that are protruding from the bottom to be seen as I stand on the bow of the boat.

Now, all it takes is someone helping you pole the boat, or run an electric trolling motor!

One more word of caution: If you see a pair of eyes that are four or more inches apart, be prepared for a ride! Eyes that wide mean a double-digit doormat, and they are not the easiest thing to handle, especially on the end of a gig! And if you are wading and see these eyes, I would strongly suggest handing the gig to someone who is not carrying the lantern! Otherwise, you can kiss a perfectly good gasoline lantern goodbye!

How about you? Have you ever caught fish using a non-traditional method? Tell us about it on our Reader Submission Page, or on our Saltwater Fishing Forum!

Effects of Water Temperature

The Change

Water temperature plays such an important part in fishing that every angler needs to pay attention and react to even subtle variances. Fish are no different than a lot of animals when it comes to heat and cold. They want to stay comfortable. Consequently, even a small change or “break” will cause fish to move from one location to another.

Offshore

Fishing offshore presents particular problems. Temperatures can and do change from the surface to the bottom. I have fished in water that was 80°F on the surface and below 60°F on the bottom. What appeared to be ideal water was virtually void of fish – at least those that were in a feeding mood. Be aware of temperatures at varying depths and be prepared to react.

With surface temperatures, fish will often move along temperature breaks where warm and cold water meet. These breaks draw baitfish and feeding fish are close behind.

Inshore

Inshore waters are not as susceptible to temperature breaks, but they do exhibit changes according to the weather. Summer water temperatures as high as 90°F absolutely turn the fish off. Winter temperatures below 50°F do the same. Sometimes in summer, daytime fishing can be fruitless when the water is that hot.

Thermoclines

Pay attention to the NOAA weather maps online. Surface water temperatures are plotted and when cold thermoclines invade a coastline during the summer as they often do, you can see where you need to be fishing. Remember – find the breaks.

Finding the Fish

Look for surface temperature breaks offshore. Pelagics like mahi mahi, king mackerel, wahoo and tuna will run these breaks. Look for median bottom temperatures in deeper water. The fish will be in a comfort zone. If it’s too hot or too cold, they will move to that comfort zone.

Inshore, stay with morning and evening fishing in the hot summer, and rely on mid-day fishing in the winter. Stay away from the extremes of hot and cold. There are numerous warm water discharges from power plants on almost every coast. Winter fishing around this warm water can be excellent. Conversely, summer fishing there can be the pits.

Remember – look for the comfort zones and you will find the fish.

Safe to Fish Offshore

When Is It Safe to Fish Offshore I have received a number of questions recently about offshore fishing in small boats. My first reaction to the questions was “don’t do it!” But then I had to stop and think about just what a small boat is and what it is not. There is no standard definition of what a small boat is. Under 25 feet? Under 20 feet? Under 18 feet? Everyone’s perspective is different. To me a “small” boat is any boat under 25 feet in length. To the USCG it may be any vessel under 100 feet. Whatever your definition, a small boat should be thought of as a basic inshore fishing vessel.

Most small boats are built with a very small dead rise (the angle of the hull in the water) and short gunnels (the side of the boat). They are designed for inshore fishing. Bay boats are the first to come to mind when I think of an inshore boat. They are built for bay fishing – and yet on every trip I make I see them as far as 30 miles out into the Atlantic. Inshore boats are almost always powered by a single engine.

These are the boats that are designed to take big water and large waves. They range from 20 feet and up, and they have a significant dead rise, often over 20 degrees. That dead rise gives them the ability to cut into a wave rather than pounding on top of it. And, because they cut into a wave, their bow needs to be, and is, big and deep.

Offshore boats are powered by one or more engines, with the larger ones always having at least two engines. Face it; thirty miles or more out into the Atlantic or Gulf is no place to break down and have no power to get home.

I spoke of bay boats earlier as inshore or small boats. These bay boats are now coming out in lengths up to and over 24 feet. Many people call them, and I have even written about them being called “compromise” boats. No true offshore boat can be used inshore very easily and no true inshore boat can be used offshore. Comes the bay boat – a boat trying to be the best of both worlds. It is has a shallow enough draft to fish inshore and yet has a larger dead rise and somewhat bigger bow that lets it get offshore. But ask the manufacturer about whether you should take that bay boat very far offshore and you are liable to get a big “no!” Should you purchase a bay boat, you will find yourself doing what I and a number of other anglers I know did. We would venture offshore on a good day when the winds were light. As time went on, we would try a day when the wind was a little heavier. They would be rough, pounding days, but we always bragged on the seaworthiness of our boat , and took it out anyway.

We did this, and so might you, until that one day that the weather kicked up so bad that we were caught twenty miles off the beach in five to eight foot seas, wondering if we would make it back in. We headed northwest back toward the inlet as the wind howled right down our throat. Every wave was a challenge, and many of them broke over the bow. It was a day that had all three of us wearing life jackets for the ride back in. It took us almost four hours to reach the inlet, and the inlet was a frothy torrent. The tide was heading in against the wind, and the waves were deep and steep. It took all the skill I could muster to safely navigate the inlet.

That was the last time I took that boat offshore. It was sold within six months, and I no longer take a bay boat – any bay boat - out of the inlet on a windy day. If the weather says anything greater than 2-4 foot seas, I fish inshore. With over fifty years on the water operating a variety of power boats, this captain learned his lesson.

Want to fish inshore? Get an inshore boat! Want to fish offshore? Get an offshore boat! Can’t afford two boats? Do what my son and I did. One of us kept an offshore boat and one of us kept an inshore boat. Since we fish together all the time, it works out just fine! The compromise was not in the boat, but in who owns which boat!

Night Fishing Tips

Tony's dad dropped us off at the docks. It was about 6:30 PM and the charter boat sailed for a night fishing trip at 7PM. The boat was docked at the old Pier 5 charter boat basin in Miami, and to both Tony's and my surprise we had received parental permission to be on this big boat without adult supervision! I found out years later that his dad and mine had called ahead to the charter captain to make sure he watched out for us. I think they even slipped the captain some extra money when they picked us up after the trip. At any rate, this was my first experience at night fishing, and it would be followed by many more over the next few years.

Night fishing can be very easy and a lot of fun, or it can be a perfectly miserable experience. The difference comes in how you prepare for the trip. I have fished more times at night than I can count, and I learned quite a few tricks to make it easy and successful.

First of all, pick a night when the weather forecast is good. It is tough enough moving and finding things in the dark - bad weather just makes it worse, and a whole lot more dangerous.

Second, make sure your boat and engine are in good working order. Breaking down in the daylight is bad enough; you don't want this to happen at night. Trust this voice of experience on this!

Next, go through your boat inch by inch, making sure everything is in its place and secure. Go through each tackle box you plan to take and locate every item you think you may need. This may sound silly, but you need to study the inside of your boat and your tackle boxes. You need to have a visual knowledge of where everything is located. You will be tested on this during the fishing trip, so study ahead in order to pass! There are not many things as frustrating as trying to locate that pair of pliers, or those 8/0 hooks in the dark.

Speaking of in the dark, make sure you have several light sources. My current boat has indirect lighting all the way around underneath the gunnels. Have additional flashlights and a good high candle power beam stored dry and safe. Bring extra batteries, too.

Pre-tie enough leaders and terminal rigs to last you the entire trip. They don't go bad, so tying a few too many just means a few more for the next trip.

Probably most important, if you plan to anchor and bottom fish, is to get out before the sun goes down and get set up. Few things are more difficult than anchoring a boat properly over a ledge or reef in the dark.

As far as fishing methods go, I have two that work very well.

Night fishing becomes a matter of either smell or movement. That means fish must sense either wounded prey moving or they must sense the smell of food. So my two methods involve setting out a good chum line, fishing cut or strip bait in the chum, and fishing a live bait either freelined just outside the chum slick or on the bottom.

Fish frenzy brings on fish frenzy, so if you anchored in a known good area, the better the chum slick gets, the more the fish are attracted. Many fish are predominantly night feeders, like some of the snapper family. Others feed because of the frenzy. Whatever their reason for feeding, they are far more cooperative at night. You will find that the larger of the species will more readily bite at night. They become less wary, and can't see line or leader.

In the areas I have fished, yellowtail snapper, grouper, mangrove (or gray) snapper, mutton snapper, and an occasional king mackerel will be the predominant catch. Of course sharks are always looking for a free meal, and at night you are likely to encounter the larger versions of the that species as well.

Take along a first aid kit. I know we all have one on the boat, but double check yours before you go. Sometimes it's hard to tell the seriousness of a cut or puncture at night. Be prepared for anything.

Night fishing is wonderful if you approach it right. It is just a matter of being prepared.

Oh, about that first trip that Tony and I went on. We caught a few nice snapper. The old timers on the stern caught a boatload! Remember, it was a party boat. The stern was already taken by grown-ups, and the current would not let us get our baits into the chum slick directly behind the boat.

I learn something every time I fish. I wonder if that captain would have put us on the stern if he knew ahead of time that he would be in for a good tip......

Acres of Bait

Sometimes I think we take our bait for granted. Lately, the bait store always seems to have live bait, and schools of bait have been abundant off the Northeast Florida coast.

Cigar minnows, goggle eyes, and Spanish sardines seem to be on every piece of live bottom or artificial reef. In the past, we had to sometimes look for baitfish as we headed offshore. But this year has spoiled a number of us. The only time we worry about bait is when we can't find it!

Inshore, shrimp and mud minnows have been abundant at local tackle shops. Only on a particularly nice weekend, do they run out of live bait. Again, past summers saw some days where local shops were void of live bait.

Shrimp and mud minnows are caught and sold to the shops by local inshore bait fishermen. Offshore, the bait we use is the bait we can catch. We use Sabiki rigs, ten small mylar jigs on one line, to catch the live bait - the cigar minnows, sardines, and goggle eyes. When we think we have enough bait in our live well, the rule of thumb is to catch that many more. Nothing is worse than running out of live bait when a good bite is one.

For our kingfish bait, we use cast nets and find pogies (menhaden shad) along the outside of the breakers on the beach. Once again, when we think we have enough, we catch more. Pogies join the other bait on the list as being particularly abundant this year.

The shear size of the bait schools we encountered was overwhelming. Flipping on the surface and stacked all the way to the bottom seventy feet down, schools of cigar minnows and sardines often covered as much as an acre of water.

The past two years did not provide the amount of bait we have seen this year. One fisheries biologist I spoke with said that they were off years. On the other had, he indicated that this year is actually better than average regarding the amount of available bait.

What this translates to is essentially more fish. Bottom fish and pelagics alike will move with the bait. After all, they have to eat. A large number of sailfish and dolphin (Mahi Mahi) have been caught in water as close in as four miles and as shallow as fifty feet. These fish normally are found closer to the Gulfstream some forty to fifty miles offshore.

It has been a banner year for fishing. Let's hope it continues! Tell us your fishing experiences and reports on the Saltwater Fishing Forum.