NEAR SHORE
Hogfish action is starting to really heat up as things are cooling down and fronts are rolling. Cold fronts really force these guys to congregate around the near shore structures and allow us a better opportunity to target them on hook and line. We are doing well on live shrimp, lighter tackle like 30lb floro leaders and 3-4ot hooks and 1-2oz egg sinkers on a 4000-5000 series spinning reel with 20-30lb braided line. The trick is a super long 10-15ft piece of mono or floro on top of the braid before tying on that knocker rig set up. Keep in mind, we have an in depth video or three on our website too diving DEEP into how to catch hogfish on our fishing tips and tricks page. You can visit Hubbard’s Marina website, click ‘fishing trips’, then click ‘fishing video links’ then click ‘fishing tips and tricks’ to find that video and tons more!
Lane snapper are steady near shore too, and we typically see quite a few while targeting the hogfish. Especially if we go a little deeper, around 50-70ft they start to really fire up and get solid as you go beyond that range too. They love a live shrimp but will also take just about any bait we fire down when they are ready to eat.
Mangrove snapper action is hit and miss overall near shore but we do see some sprinkled in while targeting the hogfish and lanes in that 40-70ft range this time of year. Typically on the live shrimp or the cut threadfin for the most part. I like using a very small chunk of threadfin and a smaller double snell set up with smaller hooks like 3ot for example and around 30lb test leader but maybe even lighter if the bite is slower.
Red grouper action is going decent near shore, but really you have to get offshore for solid numbers of keeper sized fish. Near shore is a lot of the juvenile red grouper, but we do see a keeper sized one here and there, but they are few and far between with the teenagers of 13-19 inches dominating near shore ranges.
OFFSHORE
Offshore fishing has been too rough for us this past week unfortunately, but were looking ahead to this coming week with a lot of good opportunities to capitalize on this upcoming weather window for some deep sea fishing fun. The red grouper should be fired up for us behind this weather. Also, now that water is cooling we typically see a bigger average sized mangrove snapper with some big mutton snapper in the mix. Triggerfish and scamp should be mixed in for us too with the occasional yellowtail at night and around dawn and dusk too.
The pelagic action was on fire for us before the weather and were hoping it will be waiting for us to return once the wind dies down. We were seeing pretty steady wahoo on the long range trips and a few tuna and kingfish too.
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