February’s forecast is shaping up to be another good month for surf fishing. This uncommon warm weather has the sand fleas coming in on the tides and even an old guy like me can catch them on a regular basis. Look for a continuing bite from blues, pompano and whiting. Now, if you are going to catch pompano you have to use live sand fleas or so I used to say until I met a surf angler named Mario.
I first met Mario in a parking lot on a south Melbourne Beach several years ago as we were leaving. We talked for a while about fishing; baits and our catches for that day. He did not brag, but he out fished me for sure and caught pompano. He seemed like a nice guy and as I drove home I contemplated his remarks about using only white shrimp when he fished. He maintained it was killer bait for all species. I thought that if he wanted to go to the grocery store and buy large white shrimp at $8.99 a pound to fish with, who was I to tell him different? I knew in my heart and soul that pompano loved sand fleas and I was not going to change my proven tactic. Over the years our paths crossed a number of times and with our common bond of fishing we always talked and compared fishing notes.
Last year my older brother came to visit during the winter months and I took him surf fishing. As luck would have it we hit the beach and only one other person was there fishing. We set up camp about 30/40 yards from him and had 5 rods, baited and in the water in no time. I looked down the beach at the lone fisherman sitting on his beach chair with one rod, sand spike and bucket and thought to myself, we might have to give him some fish later on if we caught a lot. During the first hour he caught 3/4 fish to our 1 and I started to watch him more closely. The second hour was more of the same and I realize I knew the man sitting down the beach from us and sure enough it was Mario. I went up and said hi and told him I could see how he was doing and he showed me his large white cut up shrimp. He buys the shrimp, cuts them crossways and holds them in a plastic container in his freezer until he goes fishing. I went back to my sand fleas and clams. He left soon after and on his way off the beach he stopped and gave us his left over bait. We stayed another hour and switched to white shrimp only. During that time we caught several large high jumping ladyfish, my son got two nice pompano and even my New York fly fishing brother and I caught fish. Therefore, my report is as follows: “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” and to Mario, I apologize for being such an opinionated snob. I usually fish with clams, shrimp, mullet and sand fleas but, on the days I fish some of the south beaches I also have a plastic container of large white cut up shrimp. Thanks for the tip Mario.
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