Mid July brought our first shot of cold water on the bottom. Thermoclines can be devastating for bottom fishing unless you change your tactics. Water as cold as 50 degrees accumulate on the bottom 40 or 50 feet of the ocean. It’s so cold that the fish that remain on the bottom become lethargic and are not out and about feeding. Here’s the trick to capitalizing on these conditions. Quite often fish will rise up in the water column to the point where the water warms up, usually around 30 feet down. Snapper, including both red and mangrove, will rise to the surface as you chum. Throw a chum bag over the side and cut some small chunks up as well. Take a spinning rod with about 8 feet of 20-pound test fluorocarbon leader using a line to line knot with a small 2 OT hook and no sinker. Toss five small chunks of bait in along with yours and let them all sink at the same rate. It’s really cool to watch the big mangroves pick off all the other baits before one of them can’t resist it and takes your bait, even though he knows there’s something wrong about it. By the way, put some live baits way out in the chum slick on the surface with a balloon for dolphin, kingfish, cobia, sailfish and other occasional bottom fish escaping the cold bottom depths. We never know how long the thermoclines will last. We can only hope it doesn’t stick around long.
Trolling can still be fun but it’s nothing like it was in April. Steady east winds have stacked up some great weed lines that are holding some nice fish. If you want to entertain guests, toss a two- or three-inch silver spoon with a little bit of light wire for leader, behind the boat as you troll just outside the inlet for countless schools of Bonito and Spanish mackerel.
If you bomb offshore, try the third reef just off the beach for mangrove and mutton snapper! Light line, small hooks and a little chum get the job done.
Amberjack are still available in the deep water. Just mark them on your bottom machine and drop your baits to the same depths and hang on!
[easy-social-share]
