The first week of December is behind us and while it hasn’t been all that eventful other than some rainfall, the inevitable is forecast to happen this weekend with a significant temperature drop. This doesn’t appear to be a very lengthy weather pattern, but it will probably be just enough to slow things down quite a bit for the remainder of the month. Water temperatures are still hovering in the lower 60s and this will be the first jolt that will considerably slow down the action that anglers have been enjoying the past few weeks.
Surf anglers have been experiencing some decent mullet fishing in the sloughs and during the falling tides using fresh cut shrimp and sand fleas. The past few days have limited that action due to rough conditions but once the seas settle down the catching should resume and many anglers are expecting the fishing to get even better. Some old timers think the abundance of mullet hasn’t even arrived yet. Puffer fish have started showing up in good numbers and can be caught on fresh shrimp.
Inshore, the speckled trout fishing has slowed considerably but there are still some fish to be found, you just have to work for them. The small fish haven’t shown up in big numbers yet, which is a good sign that the inshore trout fishing isn’t about to sputter out for the year. Some larger fish have been caught around the jetties and a few have been pulled from the surf when conditions allow. Soft artificial baits are working for most of the trout being found on the inside waters while the larger hard baits are working better for the larger fish in and around the ocean. Red drum are also continuing to be found in decent numbers around the docks and creek mouths.
Fishing off the beach hasn’t been all that productive the past week, mainly because of the sea conditions. Before the blow, king mackerel were being found in good numbers in the 10- to 12-mile range. With the current weather changes, that fishing is more than likely to move off into the 20-mile range once things settle down, although they could migrate back a few miles depending on conditions. The bottom fishing has also been very good starting around 20 miles out but anglers have been experiencing many sharks in the shallower water so moving out another 5-10 miles may produce better fishing.
The Gulf Stream action was looking decent with plenty of reports of wahoo and blackfin tuna being caught and once things settle down and boats can venture out again, the fishing should pick up right where it left off.
