By: Capt. Greg Poland
After a recent phone conversation with an old client from the State of Maine, as he was describing to me about what he has to do to clear out the snow from his driveway just to get to his office, I was explaining to him that I had to throw the Castnet a few extra times to get the bait needed for today’s trip and he acknowledged it may be the time to move!
Years ago, I spoke with a local captain that made those car window scrapers with his contact info and sent them out to clients as Holiday presents, and proceeded to mention that year he filled his book with clients wanting to get away from the cold winters up north. Having lived my entire life in South Florida and The Florida Keys, I must say we have the perfect winter weather and there are so many species of fish that just this week I have been fishing for everything from snook to sailfish. If you are looking to get out on a charter I have plenty of open dates on the calendar and would love to get you out on my new Contender boat or if you have a boat but want some local knowledge let me assist you.
The bite in the Gulf for spanish mackerel is strong and it’s the perfect family trip where everybody is going to bend the rod and catch a few fish and watch the occasional cobia swim by. Randy Town from Islamorada Fishing Outfitters in Tavernier set me up with a kite rod and a new light wind kite which I have been testing out while fishing mackerel and I must say it’s been working well. The best thing about this kite fishing outfit is you can use it with or without a power supply. We have been catching small blue runners and putting them out behind the boat in the chum slick and have found it to be really productive. The vibration of the runner has proven to get some big strikes from kingfish and cobia, but the most fun we have had was when a large hammerhead shark swam up our slick. We pulled the bait up in the air then dropped it back down just to tease him until he finally zeroed in on it and crashed it on the surface for one of the best bites I had ever seen!
To switch gears a bit, I have been fishing around the shorelines in the Everglades even though the Gulf has been so good it’s hard to not fish out there this time of year. I have been tipping a jighead with a shrimp and the smaller redfish and snook fishing has been pretty good once you find them but it’s been quite a bit of looking to find the spots they have been at holding at. Hope your fishing has been good and looking forward to seeing you out on the water.
— Contact Capt. Greg at 305.393.3327 or email gregpoland@icloud.com