Capt’n Paul Rigs and Charters
Fishbites for the early pompano win!
October has always been the month that officially kicks off our surf fishing season, and things are looking good. The mullet and pilchards are showing, and along with them the snook, tarpon and jacks have been making their presence known. An added bonus has been the light winds, and on the beaches where the pilchards are heading south, the Spanish mackerel have been caught in some decent numbers. The weather, bait and conditions we’ve been seeing are all pointing to a fantastic October on the sand.
I have been targeting early season pompano and have put some nice fish in the cooler that have weighed up to three pounds. If you want to target them as well, tactics and techniques are the same ones that we use during the fall and winter. Get out the long rods, and casts from 70 to 100 yards will produce the bites.
The snook, tarpon, big jacks and mackerel contingency will be zeroing in on the nearshore bait schools as they move down the beach, and there have been times recently where the mullet were only 20 to 30 yards from the edge of the surf. The pompano will move with the bait pods, but stay in deeper water as they continue south. Blacktip, bull and spinner sharks will be on the bait as well, so the pompano will try to keep their distance and not become a snack for these guys. I have been using Fishbites and 13-foot Okuma surf rods paired with Quantum Cabo 8000 spinning reels. My reels are filled with 15 pound test hi-vis monofilament with 10- to 12-foot 30 pound flurocarbon shock leaders. The small diameter mono will allow you to get your rigs out to the area where the pompano will frequent. These rods are light and really load up when you attach a 4-ounce pyramid and your pompano rig. (They are available locally at The Snook Nook on Indian River Dr. in Jensen Beach.) The reason for using the larger Quantum spinning reels spool allows perfect “line lay” due to the slower oscillation design; less friction with these features equals longer distance. Timing is the key when you put all of these factors into the Fishbites rod, and my biggest tip is to let the rod do the work.
Fishbites EZ Flea in the Electric Chicken and the orange and white standard EZ Flea have been catching my early-season pompano. As far as equipment and bait selection for all of you “trophy hunters,” a live-lined mullet on a 5/0 circle hook is the obvious choice. Swim your bait on the edges of the mullet schools because those big predators will be looking for a bait that appears hurt. The tendency for a lot of folks is to cast into the middle of a bait pod, but there they are just another mullet.
If you are casting artificials there are lots of companies and manufacturers producing baits that will get your rod to bend; NLBN has been one of the most popular. Make sure to match your bait to the size of the mullet that are showing. Right now the finger mullet are here, so a 5-inch length will work. Finger mullet are actually juvenile striped mullet and are the first to show. The larger silver, or “black mullet” as some anglers call them, usually arrive in October. Yo Zuri Crystal Minnows have always been a popular lure during the mullet run also. I like the silver color with the black back. One more suggestion is the old school silver spoon. I have caught snook, jacks, ladyfish, big bluefish—and watched a couple of tarpon grab this lure and spit it back at me! I recommend 3/4 ounce to 1-1/2 ounce sizes; 5000-6000 spinning reels on 7.6- to 8-foot spinning rods are perfect for targeting all of these predators.
Be sure to bring your cast net for catching some mullet and a couple of sabiki rigs to put a few pilchards in your bait buckets. The Spanish mackerel will be on the pilchards and you can fish those small silver baits dead or alive on a float or just live lined. The best tip I can give you is to look at the beach before unloading all your gear from your car or truck. You can sit on your beach and hope some schools come your way, but there are so many beach accesses from Jupiter and Hobe Sound to Vero Beach that you can check—the mullet will be on one of them. I like to be proactive and have them in front of me.
It is a great time to be a surf angler here on the southeast coast of Florida as the fall mullet run is an event that, if you hit the right beach, you will be talking all year about the “National Geograhic” bait blow ups that you witnessed. Low light periods, dawn and dusk are obviously the prime time periods of the day and, when coupled with a high tide cycle, the action can be incredible.
Good luck this month and catch’em up.
Capt. Paul Sperco
Capt’n Paul Rigs and Charters
(609) 903-8243
facebook.com/captnpaul
