When I hear April, two things come to mind, crazy boat traffic and incredible inshore fishing. Inshore fishing is off the charts, but the boat traffic is a nightmare because of so many people are off for spring break. Best times to fish this month is early morning and late evening due to lack of sun catchers, intracoastal cruisers and sandbar chillers. All the boat traffic in the daytime makes it difficult to fish a lot of areas in the bay and ocean inlets which because the bay and inlets get choppy and murky and fish sense the excessive boat pressure. Let’s get to what’s biting.
April starts the spring silver mullet migration. Big schools of mullet are migrating along the oceanside beaches and inlets and all day and night you can see and hear 30 to 150 plus pound tarpon, big jack crevalle up to 30 pounds and monster snook crushing them. Best bet to catch a trophy size inshore fish is to cast net a few dozen mullet. Look for the migrating mullet schools getting blasted on and bump troll or drift the mullet on the outside edge of the mullet school. Places to fish this month are along the ocean side beaches, in and out of Haulover Inlet and Government Cut and alongside bridges inside Biscayne Bay. Keep in mind these spring mullet are larger in size then the fall mullet migration. Bump up your tackle!! I fish 7500 Penn spinfishers or Fin-Nor marquesa conventional outfits on Fairbanks rods ranging from 20 to 30 pound blanks. Reels are loaded with 50 or 65 pound spiderwire invisi-braid to a piece of 60 or 80 pound TFL fluorocarbon leader. Hook of choice is a 7/0 or 8/0 Trokar inline circle hook. If you’re looking for more of a family fun fishing day with hopes of bringing home fish for dinner, go hit one of the few grass flats left in North Biscayne Bay. Find clean water over a grass flat in the 3 to 5 feet or water and be ready for non stop action on seatrout ranging from 1 to 4 pounds, endless jack crevalles, mangrove snapper, and ladyfish. I prefer light tackle for this fishing and everyone on the boat will have a blast for hours. Tackle I use are Florida fishing product Opsrey 3000 size spinning reels matched with 6 to 12 pound class rods. Reels are loaded with 10 pound spiderwire braid attached to 3 feet of 20 to 25 pound fluorocarbon leader. Fish a live shrimp or Berkley gulp artificial on a gettin jiggy 1/4 ounce jig head approximately 3 feet under a popping cork and cast it over the grass flats for best results. Hope everyone has a great time on the water and be safe out there!
Tightlines,
CAPT. RYAN RASBERRY
Tell N’ Tails Charters
(954) 257-9978
Tellntailscharters@aol.com
www.tellntailscharters.com