Pictured here is Scott Sansone with a slob yellow tail snapper.

 

Fishing overall was hit or miss this week. Whether you were trolling or live baiting around the reef or offshore in pursuit of mahi and swordfish the fishing was tough. I spoke to several guys who did well and plenty of people that got skunked. A few wahoo up to 30 pounds were caught in around 250 feet of water. What is a little weird this week was the barracuda bite. Many of the charter boats were catching 4 to 6 barracudas per trip and releasing them. It is good to see them making a comeback. 

 

We look like we have easterly winds around 10 to 15 knots this weekend making it a little bumpy for small boats. My suggestion would be to go snapper fishing. It is a great time to catch big yellowtail snapper, and the best of the bite has been in northern Boca. I would suggest setting up an around 75 feet of water and anchoring the boat. The one thing I can tell you is I would probably not use chum right now as the sharks can be a problem. I would suggest picking up some quaker oats and using that as your chum. It doesn't smell much but is visually effective when fishing for yellowtail. We usually use a small cut piece of bonito on a small leaded hook. We carry several different sizes of hooks with lead so stop by the shop and we will show you. You definitely want to keep the spool open and allow the bait to fall naturally. If you stand there holding the line the fish will not eat the bait, so make sure the line is free flowing behind the boat. Let out about half of a spool on a small spinning reel and if you don't get a bite wind it back in and start the process again.  In addition to yellowtail snapper lots of anglers are catching mangrove snappers and an occasion kingfish on a flatline fished on the surface back behind the boat. 

 

For an up-to-the-minute fishing report tune in to Big 105.9 the Paul Castronovo Papas Pilar fishing report at 6:20 AM on Friday mornings. 

 

Stay tight!

RJ Boyle