By Stephen Decoulos
May is usually one of the best months of the year for Southeast Florida offshore anglers. All of our pelagic species will be in abundance. Plenty of dolphin, wahoo, kingfish, tuna, cobia, and sailfish will be caught in Miami, Broward and the Palm Beaches. Depending on the size of your bait (pilchard, goggle eyes, etc.) you must decide what hook to use. If you are using smaller pilchard (3-4 inches), 2/0 or 3/0 is the ticket. For larger pilchard (4-6 inches) you can go to 4/0 or 5/0. For goggle eye, I like to use between 6/0 and 8/0 depending on the size of the goggle eyes and what style hook I am going to be using. With all of these scenarios you should use a piece of #5 to #8 wire. The length of the wire should be anywhere from 12 to 18 inches. Tie the wire to the hook using a haywire twist, then tie the other end of the wire to 50# monofilament leader using an Albright knot. Put a swivel on the other end of the mono and you are ready to go. Make a bunch of these rigs up the night before you fish so you are not fumbling around making them when the fishing is hot and you need a new rig.
It is a great month for inshore as well. The tarpon migration north will be in full swing. Snook will be plentiful at the piers and beaches. To touch a little on a tarpon rig will depend on what size tarpon you will be targeting, etc. A standard tarpon leader should be 60 to 80# test (about 6 feet of it), and a 4/0 to 7/0 size hook. One thing is for sure, you want a very sharp hook. Tarpon throw the hook very easily with their hard mouths and head shakes. Either get laser sharpened hooks or sharpen the hooks with a file. I also like to use circle hooks, in particular 5114 Owner hooks. For the snook, a 3 foot piece of fluorocarbon with a 1/0 to 3/0 hook is perfect for most size snook. When you start getting into the larger ones (20#s and up) you might want to go to 60# leader (the bigger the snook, the rougher their sandpaper mouths are). Try to use as little hardware as possible with all of these rigs, (for instance, go line to line as opposed to just tying on a swivel).
Come visit us at the stores and we will be happy to show you how to make these rigs as well as a few more tricks to catching these fish. Until next time, fish where the fish are and be sure to check us out on Facebook for the latest reports. www.facebook.com/pages/Atlantic-Bait- Tackle/148409328862
Stephen Decoulos Atlantic Bait & Tackle in Pompano Beach, FL @ (954) 946-1040 Florida Native Bait & Tackle in Boynton Beach, FL @ (561) 738-2246