Cobia fishing – continue to look around the 50-foot range for rays and leatherback turtles holding fish. Free swimming cobia will be abundant. If you find some type of color change, weed line or temp break in that depth be ready. Buck tails and live bait will do the trick. If they won’t fire on the buck tail, follow it up with a live bait of some sort. This is also the time of year that they will come in very close to the beach. Don’t hesitate to start or end up in the 20-foot depth. Cover your ground.
Kingfish will start showing up in April too. Live bait will be a great choice for the big ones that migrate through. Soon the 30lbers will start showing consistently. Fish your local reefs and any structures that hold bait. Ship wrecks and any other structures work great. You can also sabiki these structures for baits.
The bait pods off the beach will show up any day. The water is warming, and the fishing will only get better. Start looking for birds and flipping pogies. Get yourself a good cast net. Get a little extra lead on it to sink faster.
Bottom fishing for grouper and throwback reds will be good. (check your local regs) use live bait with 3-ways and knocker rigs. (whatever works best for you) 80/100lb leaders. 8/0-10/0 hooks.
To keep the kids busy you can chicken rig all the reefs for triggers and the mighty sea bass. Use squid and small chunk baits. Triggers tend to hang a little higher off the bottom so once it hits crank it up a few feet.
Mahi are close by so get that gear ready. Good luck out there, Captain Chris Cameron.
