Speaking of risk, return, trade-off, it’s getting to be time to start watching for those afternoon boomers. If you’re gonna be fishing out in the deep blue, keep a close eye on the weather or plan on getting back home in the mid-afternoon. Either way, don’t forget the foul weather gear.

The best option with the least risk for weather ruining the day will be fishing the beach. This time of year, the near shore waters like the bouy line area and waters within 5 miles of the beach can offer both excellent action and close proximity to safe areas when threatened by inclement weather. Live bait has been relatively easy to come by and is a necessity for beach fishing. Sometimes the action will be in the immediate vicinity of the bait, sometimes you may have to move a bit farther offshore to find clean water. Once the right area is found, you can expect to catch kings, cobia, jacks, tarpon, bonito, sharks and barracuda. Just slow troll the pogies on stinger rigs and get ready for some fast action. In the event live bait cannot be found, dead sardines with dusters may entice some action, but not nearly as much as the live bait.

If you’re a bit of the gambler type and would like to take your chances offshore, this month, the returns could definitely outweigh the risks. By the looks of things, the spotty trolling in May should continue into June.Though a little hit or miss, there were some pretty nice dlophin caught last month. Not a ton of really big fish like years past, but some quality animals. I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling that we should see some decent trolling for at least the first part of this month. Hopefully, along with the scattered dolphin, we will see a few more wahoo and sailfish than we did in May. The standard ballyhoo and ballyhoo/lure combos should adorn the trolling spread.

As far as the bottom fishing goes, I’m not sure what to say except “HEY NOAA, LET US KEEP SOME F#$%ING RED SNAPPERS, YOU A-HOLES!” It’s sad to say that NOAA has successfully turned the American Red Snapper into a nuisance fish akin to a remora. At least some of our representatives and legislators are finally coming around and putting their foot down on Jane Lubchenko’s neck. For the first time in a while, there’s a glimmer of hope that we may be able to keep red snapper in the not so distant future. In the meantime, we’ll just have to keep weeding through the trash to catch a few grouper and amberjack.

Speaking of grouper and amberjack, the bite in May was what I would consider middle of the road with the ajs biting a bit better than the groupers. If the water would warm up a bit, the action could heat up right with it. From what I’ve seen on the bottom machine, I think there are a fair number of fish out there, but the cool water is preventing them from feeding heavily. When conditions do improve, I would expect to see some excellent action. Live bait should work well, but be sure to stock up on larger baits as the endangerd snapper will likely eat many of the smaller ones. Dead bait and vertical jigs will also take their fair share of fish too. Most of the bottom action will be from the 23 fathom ridge on out to the deeper waters.

Make sure to pack the foul weather gear and get out there and get em!

See ya on the pond!

There may also still be hope for more cobia in April too. As I sit down to write this column (late on the deadline as usual), there’s a strong current pushing the cold water south, back down the beach. This could prolong the cobia run well into April if this cold eddy stays around for a bit. Fortunately, it happened just as the fish seemed to be making the move north around the Cape. There also seems to be more manta rays than ever this year and the south current could keep them here too. The trick will be finding the 68 to 72 degree water with weed edges, rays, bait pods, color changes, free swimming cobia and/or any combination of the latter. Jigs have been working well, but when the fish get snooty, a frisky live bait should do the trick.

Another bright spot last month was the early arrival of some dolphin. The size and numbers were nothing crazy, but it’s aweful early to start seeing them… Could this be a big year for the phins? Being slightly gravity challenged, I’m not going to go out on the limb just yet… I’m just saying that I’m cautiously optomistic.

The strong south current that may help the cobia fishing is not exactly what a dolphin fisherman wants to see, but there is a silver lining associated with the cold green water.. Somewhere offshore, there should be a pretty amazing edge where the southbound green water meets the warm blue water of the northbound Gulf Stream. This could be a troller’s dream if things line up properly, but keep in mind that theory is not always reality. When you do find the Yellow Brick Road to troller heaven, have some ballyhoo rigged on mono and some rigged with lure combinations. Along with the dolphin, there should be a pretty good chance of a sailfish or wahoo too.

But wait, there’s more.. As if all that hope and promise wasn’t enough, the kingfish showed up on the reef again. Toward the middle/end of last month, there were several days that the kings were as good as it gets on Pelican Flats. The only problem is the influx of cold green water will likely shut that bite down for a while. But, when conditions improve on the inshore reefs and wrecks, look for the kings to fire right back up. The live pogies have been relatively easy to come by, but spinning minnows will do the trick in a pinch.

I really should be more careful, this article sounds way too optimistic. I guess I better prepare myself for the taste of flip flops and the look of donkey ears…

See ya on the pond!!!

3/8/11. Left Port Canaveral with a crew of five to go cobia fishing. Fishing was awesome! We ended up catching our limit of ten that averaged out just under thirty lbs. Released several 20 plus pounders too.

3/9/11. Had a crew of six on this day of cobia fishing. We managed to catch our limit of twelve fish and released several that were keeper size. The average fish that we kept was near 25 lbs. Almost all were caught fishing manta rays.

3/13,14/11.  Fished both days with a four man crew. We managed to catch a limit both days with a pretty decent average size. Still havn’t caught a “gift certificate fish” in the Sunrise Marina Tournament!!

3/15/11. Just myself, Jeff Thummel and Jeff Mayhew today. Fished the beach off Patrick AFB and managed to catch a few nice fish. A couple of the cobes were a bit over forty lbs.

3/16/11. Same crew of myself, Jeff and Jeff.  Fishing was red hot late in the day. There were freeswimmers and rays everywhere! We easily had our six fish limit with the average pushing 30 lbs.

3/17/11. Fishing was a little tough for us today.. We ended up catching the six we could keep, but it was a struggle. Several of the fish were 36″ moidels with a couple of 30 to 35 pounders.

3/18/11.  Crew for the day consisted of myself, Jason Hedman, his son Joe and Joe’s buddy Logan Scrach. Trying to avoid the crowd fishing the beach, I opted to try further offshore. As luck would have it, we found a few rays and had them all to ourselves! Young eyes combined with good casting allowed us to catch a limit fairly easily. I think Joe and Logan caught most everything that day!

The biggest problem with deep sea fishing is the decision making capabilities of the idiots at the National Marine Fisheries Service. It is more like a fisheries dis-service. They use extremely flawed data to falsely determine that a stock of fish is overfished. They then use this irrational determination to close healthy, viable fisheries while they hide behind the subtext of the Magnuson Act. We are currently still under the red snapper closure, which everyone knows is a huge steaming pile of sh$#! The red snapper is probably one of the healthiest stocks of fish in the South Atlantic! I have never even seen numbers of snapper like this since I started fishing offshore when I was a teenager (twenty five years ago)! In addition The geniuses at NMFS have closed grouper for the first third of the year citing a spawning closure. Talk about a steaming pile! The gag grouper migrate to Florida waters early in the winter and spawn in April. There is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to fish for them in January and February, it’s just more of NMFS’s b.s. Chances are, in the next couple months, we will be targeting amberjack and triggerfish for the charter fishing. Unless, the cobia start to make an early appearance in late February.