In mid-August the thermocline finally started to break up and the bottom bite started heating up. We fished some rocks on the offshore bar, where your baits wouldn’t last two minutes on the bottom. Large Caribbean reef sharks have been patrolling the same reefs and can be so aggressive that you can’t get a snapper off the bottom without the sharks eating them. The only thing about the sharks showing up is that cobia are following them around. For some strange reason the sharks aren’t eating the cobia, but love the snapper and grouper. For over two months we’ve enjoyed incredible fishing for amberjack on the same rocks that we are catching the snapper and grouper. Target natural ledges in the 70- to 95-foot range for your best results.
Kingfish have been pretty consistent on the inshore bar, that’s the 55 foot ledges, about 8 miles out. Live bait is the ticket for the kingfish. Target threadfin herring baits near the beach, just after sunrise, or hit some of the SISA reefs for live blue runners as bait.
Keep an eye out near the beach for tarpon cruising nearshore. They will hit threadfins too! Just get a bait out in front of one.
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