SURF & PIER Fishing Report

What a crazy winter we have had. Back in January, there was a blast of cold water that rolled down from above North Carolina. This cold current raged south all the way past Cape Canaveral to our south, and made two things happen. First, is that the surf and pier fishing, two to four hours to the south of us, went off crazy good! Meanwhile, back here in N E Florida a lot of fish escaped the frigid 60-degree water, by heading inland. Numerous fishermen reported limits of pompano, miles from the ocean. They were trapped inland by a wall of cold water at the beach. Now, here we are in February and those trapped fish are now filtering back onto the beaches. If we do not have another cold blast, we could have a very early pompano run this year. The low end of their tolerance is 64 degrees.

Flagler Beach Pier is already reporting good catches of redfish, sharks, pompano, palometa, and whiting. Since sand fleas are very hard to catch in cool water conditions, my favorite baits are clams and Fishbites. Fresh big clams from the seafood markets are best. However, we now have a couple of alternatives. There are two new players in the bait biz. Pre-salted clams are now available by Dunkin Bait and Native Clam. I have used them both and they work. Pre-salting, makes them tougher, so they stay on the hook ten times better than fresh or unsalted frozen clams.

The fish who escaped the cold water by heading south, will be coming back very soon. if they are not here already. My favorite tool to use when finding the best bite is my computer. Just search sea surface temperature charts. My go-to is sstcharts/Rutgers. It is very easy to use with multiple ways to look at current temps. I really like the color chart mode. Remember 64 and above is go time. Look for this to occur first in New Smyrna then Ormond.