Ring in the new year with the best offshore fishing the Treasure Coast has. Sailfish season is in full swing, and dolphin, blackfin tuna, wahoo and kingfish claim winter residence along our six and eight mile reefs too. Prevailing northwest winds bring new bodies of fish with every blow, and when they locate the bait that holds along our reef system there is no need to go any further.
Focus on depths from 70-to-170 feet. Most of the time that’s where the action will be, although if you can find a nice color change or current edge out in the 200-to-300-foot range that can prove to be a pretty productive area as well. Trolling is my favorite method of attack this time a year, primarily because you can cover a lot of ground, but there has been a fair amount of live bait out in front of the inlet lately making that approach pretty tempting too. A great plan of attack is the troll until you start getting bites and then set out the live baits. With the exception of the kingfish and wahoo, light mono leaders and small circle hooks are the way to go. Live baiting or trolling, this is the time of year to be pulling at least one dredge if not two for teasers. Use Stripteaser while you’re kite fishing and drifting, a rubber fish dredge while you’re bump trolling and natural mullet or ballyhoo while you’re trolling dead baits. I pull mine from Cannon 10 TS down riggers. The auto feature makes dredge fishing as easy as it can be. While targeting the toothy critters, try a wire leader or a wire trace and a J-hook coupled with a stinger rig that hangs back a little to hook the short bites. A good old drone spoon works real well too. Pull it down deep behind a planar or from your downrigger to get bites regularly.
Check out Capt. Rocky’s report to see how the bottom and reef fishing this will be this month. Happy New Year. I hope your 2017 is Off the Chain!
FORECAST BY: Capt. Scott Fawcett
Off the Chain Fishing Charters
Phone: (772) 285-1055
Email: fishscottyf@bellsouth.net
www.offthechainfishing.com
