After what seems like an entire week of wind and rain, fishing conditions have finally started getting back to a more typical early summertime pattern. Even with the deluge, water temperatures have finally reached into the lower 70s, a sure sign that things should start picking up in the very near future. As can be expected, though, very few, if any reports for the past few days; but no worries, those too shall also start making a comeback and the fishing before the storm wasn’t all that bad.
The Spanish mackerel fishing was fairly good last week before the winds ran everyone off the water. There were a couple of days the fish developed lockjaw for some reason, more than likely the switch of the wind to more easterly, forcing anglers to take note in the old saying: “when the wind is from the east, the fish bite least.” That was short lived and the fish showed back up in good numbers and decent size, with some fish reported being up to 4 pounds. Most anglers were successful trolling No. 1 Clark Spoons on planers in water depths between 30 and 60 feet while others chose to find schooling fish stacked up on bait pods and sight cast small spoons and Got-Cha Plugs. There were plenty of bluefish in the mix as well. The Atlantic bonito were somewhat scarce but there were still a few fish found. We’ll have to wait until some boats get out in the coming days to find out if those fish are still here or have moved off. Anglers are also reporting numerous large schools of menhaden off the beach, which means it shouldn’t be long before the larger predators start showing up in numbers.
Fishing off of the piers, anglers had been seeing some decent catches of Spanish mackerel also on Got-Cha Plugs along with plenty of bluefish. Most of the Spanish were running in 1 pound to 1½ pound range with the bluefish running from small to around 2 pounds. Those anglers fishing for other species with fresh cut shrimp were reporting some Virginia mullet and an occasional black drum. Some fishermen had already started looking for something larger and setting up live baits on the end of the pier. While the live baits didn’t bring any strikes, with water temperatures warming into the 70s it shouldn’t be too long before there’s the first report of a king mackerel or cobia being landed, as piers to our north and south have already reported.
Inshore, the fishing for red drum was steadily picking up and once water clarity improves, that fishing should get back to normal fairly quickly. Anglers were also reporting decent catches of some keeper flounder on both live mud minnows and scented artificial baits, such as Gulps, in the creeks and around the inlets. Bait fishing with shrimp around the bridges and docks was also producing black drum.
