April is already here. Where has the time gone and where were the March cobia? April is kind of that in between month from the cobia and still waiting on the dolphin run. Usually the bait starts to show up a little better and water is warmed up a bit. This month report is going to be a recap of the last few months; Kingfish and cobia. If you haven’t noticed the cobia run either swam past us during the 2 weeks of 25 knot plus winds or they just have not gotten here yet. The few days we went out and seen a few, the cobia were hungry! A bad cast didn’t matter, they heard it hit the water and attacked the jigs. Still no big fish yet though. Hopefully they will show up sooner rather than later.
If this April is as good as last years we will have a stellar month for the big kingfish. Here’s the trick, you must have live bait! Before you commit to a long run, whether you choose to run north 15-30 miles or south, spend the time to get the correct bait. Pogies have been in the port but scattered. You’re going to have to put your time in to get them. If not, stay home and save yourself the gas. Live bait is almost a must at times. It’s not all the time that you need to have pogies as you can use threadfins, mullet, blue runners, sardines, scallies, pin fish, etc but I usually don’t like to go fishing without some sort of live bait. Pogies usually show up in the port. Most of the time they will be on top flipping but you need to watch your machine. Wait till you mark them good then throw your net. The better net to use is a custom net from Tim Wade. They’re made for catching pogies and like everything else you get what you pay for. Once the water warms a little more you will find them on the beach. The best indicator to locate them is all of the birds diving as they’re much easier to catch in the shallower water. The second indicator is the 20 boats piled up casting on them.
Mahi are starting to slowly show up, they’ve been deep lately and not many numbers. Usually once May comes around the numbers will start to improve. Await next months report on some mahi tactics. Good luck.