I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a safe New Year. The last few weeks have been great near shore and should continue until the weather gets cold. Cobia and triple tail have been hanging close to the beach. For triple tail I like to use a small bucktail tipped with a piece of squid or a live shrimp with just a small shot of weight on it. Tease them with it a little and most of the time they will eat it. Triple tail makes some of the best eating around. You will find them free swimming and holding to pieces of weeds and anything else you can find floating. Cobia have been hanging out in the same areas as the triples, have the bucktail with squid ready. There are many things you can use for them. If they’re hungry they will eat, so to speak. A bucktail from Handler Fishing Supply tipped with a whole squid has been the best for me.
Pushing a little farther out, Pelican and 8A have had some decent kings on them. I have been using many different baits since live bait is a little hard to find this time of year. Have your dead sardines handy? If you can’t find any bunker, try sabiki rigs around the buoys or wrecks on the way out for some blue runners or threadfins. Live bait will definitely be better.
Farther offshore the dolphin, wahoo and sails have been doing much better. Although there’s specific tactics and ways to target each specifically, I use smaller Islander lures with small ballyhoo. All three species can be expected this time of year. Wahoo can be targeted with a little more speed in your troll. This is the time of year they are around in greater numbers. Keep things simple. We catch more wahoo and mahi-mahi while king fishing than targeting them.
