Its beach fishing time! The bait and fish have been there; however the seas will finally be compatible to launching our kayaks safely. Gonna get the safety thing out of the way now! Take a friend; I too often don’t and that’s not good. VHF Radios, backup water, and a visibility flag are all good ideas. Bright clothing can’t hurt, also. Not everyone has the want or ability to deal with live baits, but don’t let that keep you from these amazing adventures. A large lipped diving plug can be easily trolled behind you as your other rods will be rigged to cast at any visual targets. These plugs are designed to run at certain depths and give you great water column coverage. A spread of two – one close and one way back – will save you from tangles! Add a light river rod, a med-heavy spinner and your quiver is complete. Same rod configuration is used when I am live baiting too! When bait is the choice, I will add a small egg sinker on the close trolling rod to cover the water column.
My med-heavy rod will have a bright cobia jig or DOA bait buster ready for any cobia, tarpon, large jacks, and breeder-reds. My light rod stays rigged for tripletail at all times with a Slayer Inc SST in pearl pinned on a destroyer jig head 1/4oz or less. Any floating object natural or not can hold them, and they will also free float by themselves. Basically never pass up anything floating in the ocean without a solid look! All rods should be tied starting with a Bimini- twist to several feet of double line finished with an appropriate sized leader in the 60lb./trolling, 40lb/ med-heavy, and 30lb/light class.
This is serious fishing and it’s best to be prepared for anything! Stinger rigs and wire on the large plugs is a good idea for the trolling setups; certainly don’t want to lose a trophy kingfish to a cutoff. Bait breakdown: Mullet, croakers, and pinfish can be trolled with the mullet being the best; all these are relatively easy to maintain. I put greenies and pogies in the same category! They are both great to troll and are top on the menu for ocean predators. However they are hard to keep healthy and require large amounts of fresh water. Greenies will hit a Sabiki rig, but pogies will not touch it and must be snagged or netted (filter feeders).
I apologize for the lack of interview with Tom Altif of Kayaks by BO regarding the Refuge Land grab Commercial space issue that we all need to get active and fight. It will be in next month’s issue along with a breakdown of everyone’s favorite – Canal Tarpon.