By Capt. Doug Kaska
Happy New Year, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, with that behind us its back to fishing.
Kingfish, Sailfish, and Wahoo that’s what we need to talk about. This is the time of year for these fish to be moving around a lot looking for the bait fish in the water. It’s time to get your gear ready and target these fish; they will be in depths anywhere from 50-250ft of water. Make sure your reels have plenty of line on them if not replace it because you never can tell when that 60lb Wahoo is going to take the bait.
January is here and so is the colder weather. Some of the fish are going to be moving out to deeper waters so you are going to travel further to find that game fish, continue to look for weed lines and other floating debris that the storms have brought in closer to shore.
At the time of this writing the Tilefish season should be back open but check local FWC Regulations if it has changed. They were thinking of keeping it closed. But that is a good fish to go after if you have the right gear.
I don’t even want to talk about the winds, but the bottom fishing bite has been fantastic and I look for that to continue through January. As you remember Grouper season is closed till April catch and release is all we can do. If you are looking to get some Amberjacks you are going to have to run out to the 80-180ft mark. Make sure to take plenty of bait because the sharks will take most of it along with the Amberjack.
Moving closer to the beaches the Kingfish bite has been hit or miss at times, when you do find them be patient as they will bite your bait and then its “game on” not ”fish on”.
In closing I want to remind you all to be safe on the water at all times as this time of year the seas are always rougher.
Capt. Doug Kaska runs a 21’ Shoalwater cat style hull that will handle up to 4 people with ease and comfort with a smooth dry ride. If you are looking to fish the flats or go offshore this boat will do it. He runs the Evinrude 150 E-Tec which is quiet and very fuel efficient.