The dolphin bite is the big news this month! Off shore in Sebastian, as early as mid-February, the dolphin started coming in. We only hope that this March is anything like last year. Most people think that summer is the best time for dolphin, but wait until you experience a truly fantastic day on the water in March outside the Sebastian Inlet. Keep an eye out on the marine forecast. Several days of east winds will stack up multiple weed lines. Stop and gather up some live bait on your way offshore. Trust me the live bait can make the difference between a good day and a great day. Quite often as you bring in one or two fish you’ve hooked, while trolling, others will follow them right up to the boat. That’s when those live baits come into play. You’ve got to have a handful of spinning rods rigged and ready to go. Use sixty-pound leader with a good size circle hook. The circle hook ensures a good chance of a live release of any fish you wish to release. As you troll along you may see fish that just won’t hit anything, but stop the boat and toss a live bait in their direction. It’s a reaction bite we’re hoping for. When the bait tries to get away, the dolphin can’t resist it and now you have a fish on, that otherwise would have let your trolling baits slide right by. As usual, look for weed lines, rips and temperature breaks. The dolphin will most likely be caught in depths starting from 120 foot on out.
The kingfish bite remains red hot and strangely enough this species are not often caught in deeper water, like the dolphin. In fact, the inshore bar, in 60 foot, has been the hot spot for over two months. Get yourself some live blue runners or threadfins and slow troll them up and down the bar until you get a fish and then circle that spot until it fizzles out and then go find them again.
The bottom bite has been pretty good as well. We’ve seen some of the biggest lane snappers coming in that I’ve ever seen. They like smaller hooks baited with strips of squid. The mangrove bite remains strong and we are seeing some very impressive mutton snappers. A smaller live bait with a really long fluorocarbon leader works best for the muttons which have been holding on the 90 foot reefs.
FORECAST BY: Capt. Bill Stewart
Rogue Wave Fishing Charters
www.roguewavefishing.com
Email: roguewavefishing@gmail.com
(772) 388-2950
