by Capt. Dallas Hopper
Springtime is back and with it is some warmer weather, so now we can finally put away the winter coats and come out of hibernation.
With the prevalent east wind that springtime brings, the mahi are starting to show up out past the edge of the reef. You normally do not have to travel too far offshore when targeting these early migrating fish as most of the action is in 150 – 400 feet of water. Our typical trolling spread for this month consists of small trolling lures mixed with rigged ballyhoo, the occasional wahoo finds its way to the fish box so we rig our ballyhoo on #9 single strand wire. Blackfin tuna are a regular catch when trolling or live bait fishing, trolling smaller lures like boone octopus skirts in the 4 1/2” size will keep you in the meat. We like to rig these with an 1/8th ounce lead weight in the head and a 6/0 mustad long shank hook behind, any color will do but our favorites are blue/silver, purple/black and hot pink. Even the mahi will eat these so we rig them on 50lb flourocarbon.
It’s not uncommon to have a late season cold front, it can produce something we call “tailing” conditions. Whenever the wind blows out of the north and there’s a good amount of north current it produces a large swell that runs parallel to the reef. These conditions cause Mahi, Sailfish, Bonita, Cobia and even Sharks to conserve energy by surfing down the face of the waves as they are migrating south. The fish are very easy to spot in the face of the wave and are usually eager to bite if presented a frisky live bait. Live pilchards, threads or goggleye bridled through the nose with a 6/0 or 7/0 mustad circle hook and 40lb flourocarbon will get the job done.
The amberjack are the big bullies hanging out around the deep wrecks right now, ready to devour just about anything that you can drop. Big blue runners, big goggleye and big speedo’s are the best baits to fish, special emphasis on the “big”; it’s true for the amberjack “big bait, big fish”. Looking for dinner? The mutton snapper have been chewing around the wrecks and deep rock piles. Smaller baits like cigar minnow’s or split back ballyhoos will get bit, it’s important to fish long leader as the fish can be very shy of a bouncing weight. We’ll start off with 40’ of 80lb flourocarbon for leader and go as light as 40’ if we are strictly targeting mutton snapper. The almaco jack (smaller cousin to the amber jack) have also shown up on the wrecks good numbers as well.
Yellowtail snapper fishing has been epic and is only going to get better as the water warms up. We find the most consistent depth is in the 70-90 ft. range, but don’t be afraid to go deeper if there is light current. When we have light or no current we’ll fish as deep as 170ft, you definitely need to use a sand, oat and chum mixture when fishing that deep. Balling up the mixture around ballyhoo, peeled shrimp or squid and drifting it behind the boat is the standard procedure. Fishing in shallow we’ll use 15lb mono but when out deep we’ll start with 20lb and sometimes even throw on a few feet of 30lb flourocarbon.
Get out there and cash in on the awesome fishing this month!
Capt. Dallas Hopper
Fantastic II Charters “guaranteed fish”
305-451-2890 • www.charterkeylargo.com