[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ell, it looks like things are shaping up to be a pretty good February. With a late and mild winter this year, it seems like there is still a body of fish slowly making their way down the coast from the north.
Sailfish, blackfin tuna, mahi-mahi, and wahoo continue to arrive with every north wind. Large schools of thread fin, sardines and horn bellies have taken up residence over our inshore rock piles and reefs due to its comfortable water temperatures (better late than never), causing our targeted species to slow down and hang out for a while and feed. It’s not uncommon on years like this for the sailfish and dolphin to end up extremely close to shore. On many occasions in early February, sailfish can be caught less than a mile from the beach. The best dolphin, tuna and wahoo action will be along 8 Mile Reef, the Loran Tower Reef and places like the Hill and the Peanut. Even though I’m usually a diehard troller, this is a great time of year to put the kites up and take advantage of the readily available live bait. While drifting or slow trolling around it’s a good idea to put a bait down deep with a light wire leader. This is a good time of year to target wahoo and kingfish. To add to your success while live baiting, definitely try a stripteaser dredge deployed from a Canon 10 TS downrigger. The cycling mode allows you to drop the teaser down to your depth of choice and then retrieve it back to the boat and drop it back down again repeatedly. The extra action that this gives to the teaser brings fish to the boat from extreme distances and also triggers bites from lazy fish. February is also a good month to keep an eye out for manta rays. A RonZ jig on a spinning rod will get the bite from cobia following them. The number one tip… don’t snag the ray!
Whichever species you decide to target this month, I hope your trips are Off the Chain. If you don’t have s boat to get out on, please give me a call. Looking forward to fishing with you soon.
