by Capt. Brian Boxx
The love bugs are swarming and our clocks have jumped forward. It is official, Spring is here! March is historically a windy month for our area, but that should give way to calmer mornings in April. With a calm sea comes clear water offering exciting sight fishing opportunities. Pilchards have been in abundance off the beaches; find the birds find the bait. The king of spring, the Tarpon, are in full migration and have been making their pit stops at area passes gorging on drifting crab.
Spring officially marks the start of Reel Salty Endeavours night time charters, my specialty. Enjoying our waters at night is a great way for anglers to escape the hustle and bustle of our busy waterways. This is also prime time for nocturnal predators like snook and tarpon. If you’re going to run a boat at night, ensure all you lights work and keep spare bulbs and fuses on board.
The pompano have been plentiful in area bays with sandbars, sharp drops in passes, and along the sandbar that runs the length of our coastline. Small jigs tipped with shrimp and bounced off the bottom have been producing well, but if you just want to sit back and relax, nothing beats a live sand flea on a float-style pompano rig. Catching sand fleas can be fun for the whole family. I go at sunset the night before a fishing trip and use a sand flea rake to catch them. Keeping them alive is simple. Personally, I use the double boiler method with two 5 gallon buckets; YouTube will explain. Pompano make excellent table fare and are one of the few inshore species I target for food. TACO, TACO, TACO!
sara