With steady northerly winds and Gulf Stream waters cooling off quickly, this November is going to offer a whole bunch of things to be thankful for. Sailfish, dolphin, blackfin, and wahoo are the target species offshore as we enter the winter months. Focus your time in depths from 75-to-175-feet when the clean water is pushed in and spend more time from 125-to-250-feet when dirty water pushes out. Bottom contours, such as The Hill, The Peanut, the Loran Tower Ledge, 6 and 8 Mile Reefs, along with all the artificial reefs, are a great place to find bait and fish. Using a good pair of polarized Costa Del Mar’s, expect to see fish tailing down sea, surfing the waves as they migrate south along our coastline in search of warmer water and schools of baitfish. Do your best to position your boat in front of the fish as they head down sea, once hooking the first, don’t be in a rush to clear your lines, often these fish will be swimming in packs. Prospecting, or dropping your bait back and winding it up repeatedly, works well in these conditions. If you don’t already have a waterproof chart #36 by Captain Bill Shuda, you need to get one. This time of year, we are mostly trolling dead bait. We use dredges pulled from Cannon 10TS downrigger’s and circle hook ballyhoo as baits. We’ve also been put on some robo fish on our dredges that you can buy at Fish Heads or White’s, it’s incredible at trolling speeds for both live and dead bait and is a great substitute for natural bait and especially rubber fish. After going exclusively to circle hooks while billfishing, we noticed a longer softer rod had a much better hook up ratio. Blackfin rods came up with a circle hook Off the Chain rod, which is awesome. The softer tip with a fast taper along with the tangle free guides allows for a much better hook up ratio and landing rate. On the bottom, excellent snapper fishing continues along the shallow water reefs especially at night. The main thing is just getting a decent stretch of weather to get out there. Over the last four or five years our sailfish bite has been a little off; I have a feeling this year we’re going to see a little more consistency and a whole lot more numbers. Please give me a call to book your next fishing outing out of Stuart, Florida. Captain Scott Fawcett, 772-285-1055. Hope your next outing 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
