Floaters
By: Capt. Joel Brandenburg
As we head offshore, I commonly tell my clients we are looking for the following:
- Birds,the bigger and blacker the better.
- An organized weed line.
- A floater which I defined as anything floating on the surface bigger than a water bottle.
- A boat that may have found what we’re looking for and do some “monkey see monkey do.”
I have written about how to read birds and troll under birds. I’ve also written about what weed lines to look for and how to troll next to them. I’m going to now write about floaters. Some of the floaters we find offshore are trees, logs, stumps, migrant vessels, tangled up ropes, and buoys, jugs, barrels, boat debris, plane debris, Wooden pallets, boat cushions, and yes, packages. The reason why a floater is so important to find is when a large object is floating in the ocean, it’s like an oasis in the desert. Schools of bait fish hang out underneath the floater to get shade to eat at barnacle crabs, and crest stations and the floater also serves as a pivot point, so bait fish can pivot away from feeding gamefish. Most large floaters have an entire ecosystem under them from the surface of the water straight down to the bottom of the ocean. This is how I fish most floaters. The first thing I do is a troll ballyhoo and plastic baits past the floater. As long as I’m hooking fish, I keep trolling past the floater. Most of the time, I’ll catch several fish trolling past the floater and at some point, we have either caught them all or the ones that are there are not eating and educated. Regardless of the reason, when the bite stops and I’m not catching any fish trolling past the floater the next thing I do is to stop my boat a few feet off of the floater and chum with ballyhoo or squid chunks or live bait fish. Sometimes that brings game fish up from the deep and we start catching them on hook line as they are feeding on chum. Once the bite stops and we don’t see fish coming into our chum, we start vertical jigging. We jig with a medium size vertical jig with a 6 or 8-inch wire leader attached between our main line and our vertical. 
We drop the vertical jig under the floater and let it sink for count of 80 Mississippi. Once you’ve counted 80 Mississippi, then you start jigging and reeling violently. The more violent the better. We catch a lot of wahoo vertical jigging under floaters. Here’s a couple examples of what not to do. This week I encountered a couple real nice floaters. Both floaters were holding good quality and a good quality of dolphin. Even though those floaters were productive, we did not get to experience maximum productivity off these floaters because other boats came in and took over. Earlier, I mentioned that the 4th thing we look for was another boat who may have found what we’re looking for and do “monkey see monkey do” that doesn’t mean that we find another boat and do a hostile takeover on their floater. In fact, you should stay at least a football field away from the floater until the boat is done fishing that floater. One floater incident this week was a guy who pulled up in a quad engine center console waited until I trolled 25 yards past this 15-foot floating chunk of fiberglass from a boat that had been delaminated, got within 2 feet of the floater started chumming and vertical jigging. I didn’t say one word to him. I just kept trolling around the floater. Then he starts yelling profanities, calling me an idiot, and telling me to get out of here. It was definitely a hostile takeover of my floater that I had been trolling around for a half an hour. The very next day I found a floater that was a giant waterlogged cushion with barnacles stuck to it. I trolled around the cushion, which by the way was bigger than most coolers and caught a dozen dolphin off of it one bull almost 20 pounds and about a 10-pound cow. A known Captain in Marathon and I won’t mention any names comes up and waits until we’re about 25 yards trolling away from the cushion, races up to the cushion has three customers dropped vertical jigs under the cushion and then gaffs the cushion and pulls it up to the gunnel, takes a knife and opens it up to see what’s inside it. I come up next to him and asked him what do you think you’re doing? He said this looks like a money package, then he says, bro don’t worry if there’s anything valuable in it, I promise I’ll split it with you 50-50. All I can say is I felt violated. I just laughed and drove away. I figured out a long time ago by yelling and screaming, it only makes you feel better and usually doesn’t solve any challenges. Here’s an example of the right way to come in on someone’s floater. Last year, I found a floater that was an old barnacled up half sunken kayak in about 600ft of water. I caught several dolphin off of it, chummed it, and vertical jigged it. Chris Still owner of the Tackle Box and local charter captain was trolling around me 3 football fields away and catching a few dolphin and watching us. I eventually waived him in, and he asked me if I minded him trolling next to it. I told him yes, no problem. His first troll past it he caught a nice wahoo. I wasn’t upset and just like the preacher I take fishing says, “sometimes it just be like that”. Anyway, Capt. Chris handled his approach patiently, courteously, and professionally. Keep your eyes peeled for those oases in the desert.
— For a charter with Captain Joel or Jojo Brandenburg of Ana Banana Fishing Company in Marathon Florida Keys call cell 813-267-4401 or office 305-395-4212 or visit www.marathonkeyfishingcharters.com or visit us in person at Ana Banana Marina located at 11699 Overseas Hwy Marathon Florida Keys. Look for the big yellow Ana Banana sign with antlers around it.