Many years ago, Kona skipper George Parker made ­headlines around the world when he caught the first certified, world-record grander Pacific blue marlin. Since that 1,002-pound giant in November 1954, Hawaii’s lee eddies have churned up a stream of 1,000-pound blues that continues today. Kona waters usually average two or three granders per year, along with more Pacific blue marlin IGFA records than any other sport-fishing hot spot. That parade of records continues. In March 2013, Alex Nuttall boated a 958-pound blue marlin with Capt. Chip Van Mols on the Kona charter boat Monkey Biz II to claim the IGFA women’s 130-pound-class record.

Kona’s consistent billfish success sparked a worldwide revolution in big-game fishing because these big fish were caught on lures pioneered and developed in Hawaii waters. Meanwhile, big-game fishermen elsewhere had been saying you could catch billfish only with bait. Even those doubters caught the Kona wave and started catching marlin on Kona-style lures. Kona is also the perfect starting point for novices who have never caught a fish in their lives. It happens every day, 365 days a year. Newcomers are well served by a well-maintained fleet of top-of-the-line boats and expert captains.

Plus, Kona’s big fish hunt in deep, calm waters near shore. The 100-fathom line is a 10-minute run from Kona’s two main fishing fleets at Honokohau Harbor and Keauhou Bay. What’s more, the biggest fish of any week is usually a marlin in the 500- to 900-pound range caught by a complete newcomer on a four- or six-hour trip. On any day of the year, a visitor can find a suitable charter and hope to catch one or more of Hawaii’s mighty four: billfish, ahi (yellowfin tuna), mahimahi (dolphinfish) and ono (wahoo).

Billfish of Every Kind

Blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin, sailfish, shortbill spearfish and broadbill swordfish — Kona’s waters are home to every billfish found in the Pacific. But each has a different story, and you should know those stories when you make plans.

Big blues are the billfish that pay the bills in Kona. Blues of all sizes are here year-round, but they are usually most common during the summer tournament season, from June through early September. Mid-Pacific currents can supply a fresh run at any time, however. For example, sometimes April surprises offshore trollers with fish heavier than 500 pounds on every day of the lunar cycle. Catches like these show that the lunar cycle has little, if any, influence on billfishing in Kona (unlike the effect different phases might have in other fishing areas).

Kona granders have also been landed in January, March and July. March, which might otherwise be considered the offseason elsewhere, has turned up more of Kona’s historic granders than any other month, and that includes the 1,649-pound Kona all-time record in 1984. The 1,376‑pound IGFA record for 130-pound class was caught in May 1982. Indeed, granders have been caught in Kona waters every month of the year. Licensed commercial fishermen are allowed to sell blue marlin in Hawaii, but professional skippers prefer tag-and-release for clients who want to let vital fish go. In any given week, more of Kona’s blues are tagged than kept. Visitors should make their wishes known when setting up a charter.

Hawaii’s Striped Marlin

Striped marlin cruise through Kona water’s year-round, but the big run extends from December through March. The Hawaii state record, 212 pounds, turned up here at the end of March 2011. That’s big for a north Pacific stripe, which is noteworthy because South Pacific stripers max out at more than double the weight of their northern cousins. Striped marlin are most attracted to Kona when winter waters cool down into the mid-70s. During those “chilly” times, the luckiest trollers might get up to a dozen striped marlin bites, and hook about a third of them.

Those same striped marlin ­conditions also attract shortbill spearfish of world-record size. Kona’s frisky shortbills ­presently hold 16 IGFA marks for tackle as light as 4-pound-class, and even on fly gear. Record-seekers troll hookless teasers to draw a spearfish within range, and then present a lure, fly or bait on the most sporting gear available. For most visitors, however, the spearfish is a surprise catch when trolling for blues and stripes.

For black marlin, Kona is outside the normal migration range. The entire Kona fleet sees only a handful each year, and these are much smaller than the giants of the Great Barrier Reef far to the south. Old-timers will remind you that the state record weighed 1,205 pounds, but that once-in-a-generation fish was caught in 1980.

Broadbills are the secret sensations for fishermen who know when, where and how to catch them. Most of Kona’s rod-and-reel swordies are caught at night during ika-shibi (traditional hand line) trips that target tuna. With its giant staring eyes, the broadbill is readily attracted to lights at night and to the squid schools that gather in the glow. The state record 503-pounder took the bait in June 2006 at the start of what are usually the three best swordfish months. Only a few boats cater to the night-fishing trade.

Hawaii Tuna Fuel Jet Revolution

More than fifty years ago, Hawaii troller Henry Nishikawa ignited the jet revolution when he caught a world-record ahi on a metal-headed lure drilled through and through with holes. His 269-pound yellowfin didn’t last long in the record books after anglers in the eastern Pacific discovered a tribe of bigger tuna off Mexico. Yet the IGFA record book is still overwhelmingly Kona on the ladies’ side: Kona catches made by women hold the 16-, 20-, 30- and 50-pound-class marks.

Though Kona waters attract ­resident schools of yellowfin year‑round, ahi are most abundant in late spring and throughout summer. As schools migrate west to east through the islands, the big runs reach Kauai first by Mother’s Day in May and Kona by Father’s Day in June. When the action is wide open, lucky boats can catch as many as 10 a day, all in the 100- to 220-pound range, by trolling or live-baiting with aku (skipjack tuna) or opelu (mackerel scad). During the rest of the year, ahi specialists target them with green-stick gear, and continue to catch a few each trip.

Hawaii’s state record ahi (a July catch) of 325 pounds is unusually large for central Pacific yellowfin tuna. Kona’s biggest ahi each year normally hits 250 pounds (258.5 in 2013). The state record bigeye (277 pounds in July 2013) and the biggest albacore (89.2 pounds in April 2011) both were caught on the Big Island’s windward (eastern) coast. The albacore weighed more than any on the IGFA record list but did not qualify for world-record status because it was caught on commercial-fishing gear. Kona ­fishermen regularly catch albies (tombo ahi) in the 60s and 70s on sport fishing tackle.

Mahimahi, Hawaii’s Gift to the World

Almost 70 years ago, Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club official George Perry set the 130-pound-class IGFA world record for dolphinfish with a 72.5‑pounder. That record didn’t last long, but the name “mahimahi” is Hawaii’s gift to the world, because it replaces the confusing name “dolphin” on restaurant menus. Though Hawaii has no current IGFA mahimahi records, the state-record 82-pounder confirms the potential. That record fish was a September Kona catch, but mahimahi are available any time the current drags a “floater” within trolling distance.

Mahimahi live up to their name (it means “very strong”), and the brightly colored, agile acrobats do their muscular tricks in Kona waters year-round. Occasionally huge schools gather around flotsam and jetsam for a wide-open bite that can go on for days. Then, skippers gear down to match the catch with sporting 20- and 30-pound-class rods. Unless a Kona skipper finds a floater, mahi are incidental catches on marlin and tuna trips.

By the way, the mahimahi record aside, Perry went on to catch the largest blue marlin in each of the first two Hawaiian International Billfish Tournaments (HIBT). The HIBT became an annual Kona fishing feature in 1959 and soon inspired dozens of other Kona tournaments. During the most popular tournament months of June, July and August, events compete with each other every week

Ono Blitzes, Summer Phenomenon

A Guide to Big Fish off the Big Island

Ninety years ago, a mysterious fellow known only as “J.B. Stickney” caught a 124.75-pound wahoo in Hawaii waters to set the world record. That was five years before the IGFA was founded, a time when records were compiled by Van Campen Heilner of Field & Stream and Francesca R. La Monte of the American Museum of Natural history. Ono — what wahoo are called in Hawaii — average 30 to 40 pounds, which makes J.B.’s catch even more extraordinary.

Big ones do show up now and then — state-record-holders Tom Brandt and Sky Mullins surprised their 133.2‑pound ono off the windward coast of the Big Island in December 2000. The major ono run reaches the Big Island in May of each year and hangs around into early September. Some ono are caught year-round, with early morning being your best chance. Kona skippers typically troll the 40-fathom line at the start of each trip to pick up any ono that might be harassing the nearshore bait schools.

To ward off the ono’s sharp teeth, skippers rig their special ono lures with single-strand stainless leaders. Ono slash at heavy-headed subsurface lures like weighted jets and lead-head feathers. On a typical trip specifically for ono, a successful boat might catch three or four fish. In years when ono blitz the summer currents, boats are known to hook as many as 40 on a single trip.

Other fishing areas might see the diversity of big-game fish that Kona has, but few have them in the sizes regularly seen here. In Kona, your next strike could come on any day of the year, in any phase of the moon, at any turn of the tide, on routinely comfortable seas, and be one of the Pacific’s biggest and most exciting game fish.

Shore Fishing off the Big Island

The post Kona Hawaii Offshore Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

You know the saying “What’s old is new?” Well, the older I get, the more sense it makes. I see the kids pegging their pant legs like we did in the ’80s. Star Wars is more popular than ever. And certain old-school fishing tactics are back in vogue.

When I was a kid, my dad would load us and his gear into his 24-foot Albemarle, carry us across the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to the edge of Inner Middle Ground Shoal and throw out the anchor. He’d break out a half dozen Penn setups rigged with fish-finder rigs. After baiting up with chunks of menhaden, he’d cast the rigs around the boat and deploy a bag of chum. Then, we’d wait.

Fishermen are famous for their patience, but waiting for hours while boiling under the hot sun, all the while swatting flies and listening to the waves slap on the hull, would test the resolve of a saint. Not to mention the weird bycatch fish. Skates, car-hood rays and small sharks were more annoying than the green flies.

In those days, cobia fishermen were a special sort of crazy, suffering the worst conditions to catch one of the biggest inshore trophies. On a hot August afternoon, with thunderstorms on the horizon, the shoals at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay were lined with boats and covered in a sheen of menhaden oil. Many anglers tried to catch these finicky beasts, but few were successful.

Those few had turned cobia fishing into a passion, devoting their lives to the pursuit. The payoff came in one of the largest and most unpredictable coastal game fish. These fish can grow up to 100 pounds, bigger than most inshore sport fish.

No two cobia fight the same. They will run, charge, roll, dive and even jump. Often, a free-swimming cobia will follow a hooked fish to the boat. That’s when real chaos kicks in as the crew scrambles to pitch a bait. Then there are the stories of hooked cobia getting wrapped up in the anchor rope and chum line. I’ve seen guys jump off the boat to free a cobia caught up in bridge pilings. After sacrificing blood, sweat and sanity, they were not about to let a cobia get away.

Chumming for Cobia Lost Favor Over the Last Decade

About 20 years ago, local anglers returning from the fabled cobia waters off Florida brought heavy spinning rods, big bucktails and stories of free-swimming cobia. Within a couple summers, sight-casting towers were popping up like tulips in spring. The chumming hopefuls had become sight-casting cowboys. I was one of them.

If I could catch cobia by driving around the bay at 10 knots, to hell with chumming! The choice seemed obvious. Trade in chum, cut bait, live bait, hours in the sun, no breeze and trash fish for cruising around, face in the wind, a bucket full of eels, a couple of bucktails, two rods and no trash fish. I was sold. So were many, many anglers.

It wasn’t long before I figured out that sight-fishing for cobia isn’t easy either. The sun is just as hot, the fish are just as finicky, the outboard burns more fuel and my success rate improved only slightly. After a couple of summers driving around and going blind staring through the bright sun into the empty water, I was ready to catch a trash fish!

Chumming for Cobia is Popular Once Again

I caught up with my old friend Wes Blow to learn more about chumming for cobia. While the rest of us were sight-fishing, Blow was perfecting his bait-fishing tactics.

“I like the chaos,” he explained to me over the phone. Blow often fishes alone. Juggling a spastic cobia while trying to clear lines, pull in the chum bucket and then land the thrashing fish solo makes his blood run hot. Instead of explaining his methods and madness, he invited me to join him on his next trip.

We met at Wallace’s Marina in Hampton, Virginia, hours before sunrise. Blow loaded the boat with a half dozen three-gallon chum buckets and two dozen eels. He grinds his own chum out of fresh menhaden. His recipe mixes one gallon of menhaden oil with 100 pounds of fish. We ran out of Back River, and Blow stopped the boat in a deep channel. He armed two rods with two-hook bottom rigs baited with Fishbites bloodworm and 2-ounce bank sinkers. We drifted down the channel and quickly added three dozen croaker to the livewell.

By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, we were heading toward the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Blow said he starts cobia fishing as soon as the water temperature hits 68 degrees. “The first fish show up off Hampton, at York Spit and Bluefish Rock,” Blow said.

On this slick-calm August day, Blow motored to the shoals on the inside side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. He anchors on a sharp drop or significant hump so the boat is in shallow water and the chum slick is drifting into the deep. “I like the tide and wind going in the same direction,” he said. “That way the stern of the boat and chum slick are pointing in the same direction.”

With no wind and a morning outgoing tide, Blow anchored along the edge of Inner Middle Ground Shoal so the chum slick trailed toward the bridge. Blow keeps the anchor rope tied to a polyball so he can quickly ditch the anchor when he hooks a big cobia.

As the boat settled in the current, Blow dumped a three‑gallon bucket of chum into a five-gallon bucket with holes drilled in it and diving weights in the bottom. He dropped the bucket over the stern and let it sink to the bottom.

Cobia Fishing Techniques

As the greasy slick snaked its way with the current, Blow pulled out four medium-heavy combos spooled with 65-pound braided line. When I noticed that each reel has a different color line, he explained: “If I get a tangle, I quickly know which line is coming from what reel.” I joked, “They must love you at the tackle shop.”

Each rod is outfitted with a fish-finder rig. Blow threaded a plastic fish-finder slide over the braided line and tied on a 250-pound-test swivel. He attached a 2½-foot length of 80-pound Ande monofilament snelled to a big J hook. “I use an 8/0 hook for eels and a 10/0 for croaker,” he said. He likes a J hook because it improves his hookup ratio. “Big cobia have a hard, bony jaw,” he told me. “And a J hook will stick anywhere.” Because cobia often pick up the bait and charge the boat or jump and thrash, Blow feels the J hook has a better chance of finding purchase. “Very few cobia [that I catch] are deep-hooked,” he insisted.

No one is more concerned with the well-being of these brown bombers than Blow, who serves on the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council subcommittee for cobia. He’s fought for years for sensible regulations to protect both the species and anglers’ rights.

Blow clips 8-ounce pyramid sinkers to two lines. The other two lines get a 4-ounce bank sinker. He drops the heavier sinkers right off the stern. “I catch 75 percent of my fish on the baits right next to the chum bucket.” The other two lines are stationed 20 feet behind the boat. “I catch the biggest fish on the longer lines,” he added.

Blow clears the deck and keeps the menhaden oil scrubbed off. The anchor is ready on the buoy. His rigs are fresh and tackle pristine. “Cobia will test every inch of your gear,” he stressed throughout the day. “You have to be ready when that 100-pounder is on the line.”

Hot Cobia Fishing

With the lines set and the chum flowing, we sat back and waited. The early morning humidity was already sitting on us like a wet towel. It wasn’t long before we got our first bite. I grabbed my camera, and Blow grabbed the rod. “It’s a shark,” he announced even before seeing the fish.

I stowed the camera, and Blow brought the 4-foot biter to the side of the boat. “Hold the rod,” he ordered, and I obeyed. He reached down, took a couple wraps on the leader, threaded the line onto a dehooker and, with a twist of the wrist, released the shark. The dehooker easily grabbed hold of the J hook, although a circle likely would have had similar results.

Blow rerigged the leader and replaced the bait in the spread. “I must catch a thousand sharks each summer,” he lamented. “Maybe more.” According to Blow, trash fish are just part of the fun. The key is to keep an extra rod rigged up and ready to deploy while fighting a shark or ray.

It wasn’t long before one of the rods bucked heavily. Then the line went slack. Blow was quick to react, jumping on the rod and reeling the line tight. A 3-foot brown fish skirted the surface of the water 30 feet behind the boat. When the fish turned to run, Blow jerked the rod tip to set the hook. Then he engaged the clicker on the reel and put the rod back in the holder. We worked quickly to clear the other rods. I pulled up the chum bucket and left it dangling at the surface. “With the clicker on, I can listen to what the fish is doing while I prepare the boat,” he explained.

Once the lines were in and the deck clear, Blow returned to fighting the cobia. Brown bombers are one of the most unpredictable fish on a line. This one pulled all the tricks. Their favorite move is to come to the boat quickly. When I reached for the net, Blow barked, “I don’t even try to land them when they first come to the boat.” He’s wise to their tricks. “I hit the fish on the head with the net and it will freak out and run again.”

I reached in with the net and scooped a 30-pounder into the boat. The fish slithered on the deck while Blow quickly removed the hook and measured it. Then he inserted an orange spaghetti tag and returned the fish to the water. He held onto the lip and let the cobia regain its composure. When the fish gave a kick that covered Blow with green water, he let it swim away.

By now, the sun was up in full force and the heat building. Blow’s open center console offered no place to hide, and my light clothes stuck to my skin. I gulped water and moved around the boat trying to find any breeze. The surface of the bay was slick-calm, and the boat hardly rocked. Luckily, the fishing was just as hot as the weather. We landed a couple more brown fish in the 20- to 30-pound range as the tide ripped toward the ocean.

When the current began to slack, Blow moved the boat to the east side of the bridge, where we rode out the incoming tide. We caught more cobia, including one fish that pushed 50 pounds. All of the fish were tagged and released. Sure, we caught a few sharks and rays, but that didn’t rain on the parade. I considered the day a major success.

At one point, I spotted three cobia swimming along the edge of the shoal, 30 yards in front of the boat. I grabbed a heavy spinning reel and 3-ounce ­bucktail that Blow keeps just for such occasions. With all of my might, I heaved the lure at the idling fish. The bucktail landed with a splash a few feet ahead of the pack. I watched their fins slash the surface, I gave the rod tip a jerk and all three fish turned on the bucktail. I let the lure drop. The fish swam down.

I jigged again, cranked a few feet of line, jigged again, but nothing happened. I did everything right, but sometimes cobia simply won’t cooperate with a lure presentation. All the more reason to chum for them.

After hours of action, we’d released a half dozen cobia. Each fish fought its own fight. With one of us on the reel and the other scooting around the cockpit, we were able to control the chaos. I saw Blow’s point about action. Too many times I’ve gone all day sight-fishing without taking the rod out of the holder. That definitely won’t happen when chumming up cobia.

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program

In an effort to track fish movements and monitor populations, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program recruits volunteer anglers to place numbered tags in 11 species of sport fish. Participants are trained on how to insert tags and record data. The resulting information plays a big part in tracking fish numbers and setting regulations. Cobia have been a big star of the program: One fish tagged in Virginia was recaptured in the Gulf of Mexico, off Texas. Wes Blow tags dozens of cobia each summer. Because he receives a notification when one of his tags is returned, the information helps him refine his cobia strategy. To get involved in the program, visit mrc.virginia.gov.

Cobia Fishing Supply List

• Medium-heavy conventional or spinning combos spooled with 80-pound braided line
• 8-ounce pyramid sinkers
• 4- to 6-ounce bank sinkers
• 8/0 and 10/0 J hooks on 80-pound mono leader and
• Fish-finder slide
• Five-gallon chum bucket drilled with ½-inch holes
• Three-gallon buckets of menhaden chum
• Two dozen live eels
• Three dozen live croaker or spot

The post Chumming for Cobia appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Recipes are great for both cooking and fishing — follow this set of instructions, and you’ll get that desired result. Professional chefs, however, understand which flavors combine well to create their own delectable dishes. Charter captains, who fish many days consecutively, through varied weather, temperature and tides, similarly understand how a lure’s specific characteristics — its flavor, if you will — mix with given water conditions to convince fish to take a bite.

With that in mind, I asked 11 striped bass experts to pick their favorite striper lure and explain when and how they fish it. I also asked each why he believed that particular lure to be so mouthwatering to striped bass in those circumstances. Sure, pro anglers typically name as their go-to striped bass lure one made by a manufacturer who sponsors them. But knowing it has proved consistently effective for them, then understanding why — both their “recipe” (what to fish, when and how — as well as their reasoning) — will help all striper enthusiasts increase their success. Here are the best striped bass lures you can buy today.

Quicklook: Best Fishing Lures for Striped Bass

• Hard Baits
  • Gibbs Danny Surface Swimmer
  • Rapala Skitter Walk
  • Sebile Magic Swimmer
  • Rebel Jumping Minnow
  • Shimano ColtSniper Jerkbait
  • Strategic Angler Cruiser
  • Tsunami Talkin’ Popper
  • Yo-Zuri Mag Darter
• Soft Baits
  • RonZ Original Series
  • Lunker City Slug-Go
  • Storm WildEye Swim Shad
  • Berkley Gulp! Shads and PowerBaits (for East and West Coast Fishing)

Hard Baits

Gibbs Danny Surface Swimmer

Where, When and Who Along Long Island on New York’s southwestern coast, from Jones Inlet to Fire Island, Capt. Al Lorenzetti targets striped bass on current edges along inshore sandbars from late May through mid-July, and then again in October and November.

Lure Choice and Conditions “When I’m anchored ahead of a rip, the blunt tip of the Danny, plus that metal lip, gives it a wobble that stripers want to pounce on, even with minimal forward motion through the water. Just the current makes the plug work.”

Read Next: Striped Bass Fishing in New England

How and Why “One angler on one side of the boat just holds the lure right in front of the edge of the rip. Another angler on the other side casts behind the rip and reels right up to it. The most experienced angler in a group of three then throws between the two and reels the plug right along the rip line, just fast enough to make it wobble. It lays over side to side and looks like the slow-moving bunker or shad that frequent those rips.”

Size and Color 3½-ounce in yellow (which is intended to resemble bunker)

Unique Rig Bend the metal lip down, not quite to 90 degrees, to keep the lure on top, where it’s easier to keep an eye on it as well as see spectacular striper surface bites.

When to Switch “Casting into the wind, the line tends to foul the Danny’s front hook, and if I can’t get close, like at a breaking inlet bar, it doesn’t cast far enough.” At such times, Lorenzetti goes with Gibbs’ Polaris Popper. “It doesn’t foul, and I can throw it a country mile.”

-Lorenzetti is a pro staffer for Gibbs.

Rapala Skitter Walk

Where, When and Who North Carolina sounds — really, one huge, shallow inland sea — provide stripers year-round, with “dynamite action from late April through November,” says Capt. Gary Dubiel.

Lure Choice and Conditions If he knows where to cast, and stripers are either in shallow water or actively feeding on top, Dubiel says the distinct, loud rattle of the Skitter Walk attracts bigger fish than most other lures will.

How and Why “Use a lot of rod tip and reel slowly” — the classic walk-the-dog, Dubiel says. “Rock the bait aggressively side to side to move that big rattle inside, and keep it moving toward you with slow momentum. The rhythmic noise and motion seem to trigger fish.”

Size and Colors 4 3/8-inch with a white or chartreuse belly, or — in particularly dark, tannic water — a model in orange hues

When to Switch In choppy water that muffles noise, or when fish are deeper or more scattered, Dubiel prefers the louder sound and heartier surface action of Storm’s Rattlin’ Chug Bug, a cup-faced popper, which he says is also easier for many anglers to fish properly.

-Dubiel is a pro staffer for Rapala.

Rebel Jumping Minnow

Where, When and Who Beginning in May, striped bass show up on bars and along marsh edges on the Merrimack River, just south of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border, says Capt. Chris Valakatgis.

Lure Choice and Conditions “On a calm day, you see the Jumping Minnow on top, even if it stops, and you hear the rattle. That helps get you into a rhythm and adjust your retrieve until you find the cadence that entices bites.”

How and Why “Start with a slow walk-the-dog motion, then use slow twitches of the rod tip to make the bait swing out wider to the side. If stripers are breaking on the surface, try speeding up the cadence and tightening the zigzag.”

Size and Color 4½-inch in bone

Unique Rig Replace original hooks with larger No. 1 or No. 2 trebles to handle 40-inch fish, but crush barbs to aid releasing smaller schoolies.

When to Switch “The Jumping Minnow is so light, it’s hard to cast in any wind, and if it’s choppy, you need a lure with more surface commotion to stand out,” Valakatgis says, so in those conditions, he switches to the rear-weighted Cordell Pencil Popper for better casting and heartier action.

Sebile Magic Swimmer

Where, When and Who After spawning in the Hudson and Delaware rivers, stripers return to the coast beginning late in March and hang there through June, says Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, Capt. John Luchka.

Lure Choice and Conditions “When adult bunker are around, the fast-sinking Magic Swimmer targets fish on the surface, midwater and all the way to the bottom,” Luchka says. Stripers are drawn to the vibration the jointed body creates and, the guide says, it looks like an injured fish once the fish get close.

How and Why “They’re not super ­aggressive until they’ve had a few meals. Cast the lure outside the edge of the bait school so it looks like a wounded bait separated from the school. Let it sink, then bring it in slowly a couple of cranks and pause, a couple more cranks, and pause. They crush it on that pause.” A faster retrieve entices those same fish after they’ve eaten and become more aggressive.

Size and Colors 7½-inch, 3-ounce fast-sinking in bunker, or the brighter American shad color in murky water

When to Switch When smaller prey are prevalent, Luchka prefers “Sebile’s Stick Shadd, which is a bit rounder, and better matches the body shape of peanut bunker.”

-Luchka was a pro staffer for Sebile, back when the company was producing lures.

Shimano ColtSniper Jerkbait

Where, When and Who Chris Fox’s flexible schedule gets him on the lower Chesapeake Bay as regularly as many pro captains where, from October through early December, he parlays that expertise into frequent striper, trout and redfish slams, all from one lure.

Lure Choice and Conditions Near the mouth of the York and James rivers, green shrimp — which are actually white — show up thick in shallow water near man-made structure such as old pier pilings. “The ColtSniper‘s lip drives the lure underwater a foot or two, where the long, skinny body and white color match the shrimp.”

How and Why From deeper water, “cast it up on a flat and just reel it in slowly. It flashes white as it wobbles and rolls side to side. The fish usually hammer it right at that drop-off,” he says. As the water temperature falls below 50 degrees, “I slow the retrieve drastically, almost to the point of boredom,” he says — until a 40-inch striped bass piles on.

Size and Colors 140 mm (5.5 inches) in bone color with pink highlights underneath

When to Switch When the fish hang deeper than the ColtSniper will reach, “I switch to a sinking version of Hayward Tackle’s Genesis and twitch it for a walk‑the‑dog action.”

Strategic Angler Cruiser

Where, When and Who Along Cape Cod’s eastern shore and north past Cape Ann, Massachusetts, from mid-May through mid-July, tremendous currents from 12-foot tides over bottom with minimal structure to hide behind force striped bass into huge, roaming packs. They’re “more like open-water pelagics” — not their normal ambush hunting style, says Capt. Dom Petrarca.

Lure Choice and Conditions For about an hour on either side of slack tide, Petrarca says, “the stripers push the mackerel to the surface and attack from underneath. The long, wide Cruiser makes a lot of surface noise and offers the mackerel profile that bass are keyed in to.”

How and Why “Every couple of cranks, give a light twitch to the left [for spinners with the handle on the left side]. The wide body is weighted so the narrow nose digs in and it kicks out to the side, then comes back in an S pattern,” Petrarca says, which mimics the quick lateral movements of ­mackerel fleeing predators.

Size and Color 10-inch in a blue- or green-mackerel pattern

Unique Rig Owner Stinger 3/0 treble hook plus a Gamakatsu 8/0 live-bait hook at the tail

When to Switch During ripping currents between high and low tides, striped bass change hunting tactics. “They stack up, looking like a long wave on the fish finder in the middle of the water column.” That huge wall of striper mouths swimming with the current sucks up any unfortunate prey it rolls across. “Get in front of the school, and drop a 3- or 4-ounce jig.”

-Petrarca is a pro staffer for Strategic Angler.

Tsunami Talkin’ Popper

Where, When and Who Capt. Scott Leonard starts his season in May on Long Island, New York’s central south shore, and he moves to Montauk and beyond as the fish migrate east from July through September.

Lure Choice and Conditions “The Talkin’ Popper fishes really well when it’s flat or fairly calm — 12 knots of wind or less. It casts well too when stripers are up tight to the beach and hard to get to.”

How and Why “Cast along the outer edges of the bunker school, where big bass tend to be. Pop it, let it settle, then pop it again, while reeling nice and slow. The slower the better for bigger fish,” he says. “The way it splashes, it looks like a wounded bunker separated from the school, and stripers climb right onto it.”

Size and Colors 3½-ounce in yellow, to mimic ­prevalent bunker

When to Switch “When conditions are rougher, with a lot of surface commotion already, I’ll go with a surface swimmer like the Gibbs Danny.”

-Leonard is a pro staffer for Tsunami.

Yo-Zuri Mag Darter

Where, When and Who Capt. Carter Andrews fishes far and wide for The Obsession of Carter Andrews television show, but he often returns to New England during peak early‑summer striper fishing.

Lure Choice and Conditions The Mag Darter fishes really well in strong New England currents. “It doesn’t roll to the side like a true lipped lure,” he says. “With the magnetic weight-transfer system, super-long casts maximize my opportunities farther from the boat.”

How and Why “With just a slow, steady, straight wind, it darts really well side to side,” which he says entices striped bass in most conditions. To spice it up, though, “on every second or third crank, I give it just a little twitch.”

Size and Colors 6½-inch in bronze or bone, or, at times, holographic pink

When to Switch “When I’m up the rivers, in calmer conditions with less current, I can throw the 5-inch Mag Minnow like a dart,” he says, to more accurately target specific points and pockets of marsh grass where striped bass might lie.

-Andrews is a pro staffer for Yo-Zuri.

Soft Baits

Hard baits require specific angler actions to convince stripers they’re a natural food source. “Soft baits already look and feel real,” says Rhode Island charter captain Jack Sprengel, who offers several hot tickets.

RonZ Original Series

Early in July, as fish move into deeper water off Block Island, Sprengel says, “they’re often using current breaks behind structure to carry feeding opportunities to them. The original RonZ series lure’s tapered body swims just from water moving across its body.” Simply drop a 6- to 8-inch lure from a drifting boat, choosing the weighted head based on drift speed. Alternately, “cast into the direction of the drift and let it sink to the bottom, then slowly jig it all the way back to the surface.”

-Sprengel is a pro staffer for RonZ.

Lunker City Slug-Go

Beginning in May in Narragansett Bay, “when they’re in shallow water and easily spooked, it’s tough to beat a soft-landing, slow-moving bait like the original Slug-Go, presented at or just below the surface,” Sprengel says. A 6- to 10-inch bait should be rigged with a single-hook head. “Less is more. Don’t botch the presentation by adding too much input. If the strike doesn’t come right after it lands, retrieve any slack, give it two sharp twitches, pause, and repeat.”

Storm WildEye Swim Shad

Regarding another favorite of Sprengel’s, he says: “Near a jetty or pier, a weighted paddle-tail shad with tight but erratic action, such as Storm’s swim shad, sinks quickly down into the strike zone along and between structure contours.” Start small, 4 to 6 inches, or as large as 9 inches to target large stripers. “Reel slowly and let the paddle tail do its job.” Sprengel favors these swim shad in bright colors on bright days and darker colors on dark, overcast days. “Hold the lure over your head,” he suggests, “and see how it contrasts with the sky — as fish will see it.”

Berkeley Gulp! Shads and PowerBaits (East and West Coast)

With a West Coast spin on striper fishing, widely known Northern California fishing journalist Steve Carson says: “On major rivers, the 8-inch black PowerBait Maxscent Kingtail rigged on a ½- to ¾-ounce jig head replicates local eels. In the California Delta, Berkley’s 4-inch Havoc Sick Fish and 4- or 5-inch PowerBait Ripple Shad are good for blind-casting at known holding areas, or cast the Gulp! 5-inch or 6-inch Saltwater Jerk Shads into visible boils. Carson adds, “Shad- or trout-replicating colors are usually best, though chartreuse can be very effective in dirty water.”

-Carson is a pro staffer for Berkley.

Back on the East Coast, pro tournament fisherman Capt. Seth Funt (@teamthreebuoys) says, “The fish in Long Island Sound in March and April are tuned in to worms and small sand eels,” so he opts for a ½- or ¾-ounce Spro Prime Bucktail Jig in pearl, tipped with a 4- or 6-inch Gulp! Power Worm in pumpkin color. “It gives them a big, fat sand eel to get excited about. Just twitch, twitch, pull, and then let it fall a little. Worms and juvenile eels don’t swim along like baitfish; they just move with the current, so present it the same way.”

Try Them Out for Yourself

No matter your preferred striper lure, the key is to match it to the seasonal patterns and feeding behaviors of the striped bass you’re targeting. With the right lures and some well-timed casts, you’ll be hooking into plenty of these hard-fighting fish in no time. So get rigged up with some proven striped bass lures and get out on the water — the next trophy is waiting for you.

The post Best Striped Bass Lures appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Tarpon: No word uttered on the Texas Gulf Coast stirs as much excitement for anglers. Yet, while virtually all of the region’s fishermen know about the presence of the silver king, relatively few pursue them.

“There’s a real mystique about tarpon,” says South Padre Island guide Capt. Brian Barrera. “Some people think the possibility of catching them is out of reach. But the reality is, especially down here, there are lots of tarpon, and anyone who studies up on them, puts some time in and has a little bit of luck can score on these awesome sport fish.”

Tarpon Time

The Gulf shoreline of the Lower Laguna Madre from Port Mansfield down to Port Isabel and into the Brownsville Ship Channel ranks as prime tarpon country. When waters calm from late summer into early fall, Barrera directs his focus to tarpon.

“We often start off at the Port Isabel jetties throwing lures like a D.O.A. Bait Buster. We’re optimally looking for rolling fish and sight casting to them,” he says.

Bait Busters are a jigging-type lure that also work as swimbaits. The shallow version comes with a single upright hook and operates at a medium sink rate so you can fish it near the surface, mid-range, or on the bottom. The deep runner weighs ¾ ounces and comes with a 5/0 Mustad hook with line-entry on top of the head, which keeps the lure sub-surface for bottom bouncing.

“I’ve caught a lot of tarpon on the Bait Buster. Throwing it is a great way to start the day,” Barrera says.

Look for tarpon facing the current outside and inside jetty walls; they also hang around large eddies and deep-water current breaks caused by displaced jetty rocks. A big fish behind the rocks just off the main wall — probably a tarpon.

Tarpon take everything from Coon Pops to Rat-L-Traps and certainly well-placed flies. But sometimes only live bait lights up the bite.

“I bring a cast net and let the water tell me what to fish. Sometimes when the pinfish are thick we’ll put one on. Other times, it’s mullet. But I’ve also seen tarpon sitting in the current sucking up blue crabs funneling out of the jetties. The angler that pays close attention to what’s going on bait-wise and doesn’t have an agenda will, more often than not, do better than those with a rigid fishing plan,” Barrera says.

Jetty Fish

Other areas that hold tarpon this time of year include the jetties near Port Aransas and Port O’Connor along the central coast. My first encounter with a big school of tarpon occurred at the Port Aransas jetties, where 25 to 30 fish in the 4- to 6-foot class fed just a few feet off the jetty wall.

I’d like to tell you I caught one of the six-footers but they didn’t take anything we threw at them. We tried everything in our tackle box. That’s simply the nature of tarpon: aloof one day and super aggressive the next.

Surprising numbers of tarpon can also be found from High Island, just north of Galveston, down to Surfside, near Freeport. Anglers affectionately call this “Tarpon Alley.’’ Fishing a mile to 5 miles from the beach can prove productive, if you can get past the sharks and rough seas. Anglers often drift live or dead bait — usually mullet, pinfish or sand trout — through schools of menhaden that dominate the area during summer.

“This year we’ve had some periods of calm days already so maybe that speaks of good things for the upcoming prime tarpon season,” says Galveston guide Capt. Derek York.

Tarpon Studies

Aaron Adams with Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) says that while many mysteries still cloud tarpon migration and life history, studies such as those one conducted recently by Lucas Griffin and Andy Danylchuk provide some fascinating answers.

The researchers have attached acoustic receivers to the ocean bottom throughout the tarpon’s range. These receivers detect signals from acoustic tags surgically implant into tarpon. In Texas, listening devices have been positioned from the Louisiana border to the Mexico border on the outer edge of every major bay system.

“The transmitters are the size of a AA battery and have a lifespan of five years, meaning not only can we implant them in a wide size range of tarpon, including those around 15 pounds, we can also track them over multiple years,” Griffin and Danylchuk wrote. “As the tarpon swims past the network of receivers, a unique ID code and date and time are saved on the receiver.

“With thousands of these receivers deployed across the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern United States, we can now track tarpon across the Gulf and adjacent waters and build a more detailed understanding of what really makes a tarpon move or, in some cases, stay,” the researchers say.

Early results show a southern migration of Texas tarpon toward Mexico each fall. The Mississippi River Delta appears to divide east and west populations.

Massive Monsters

Barrera says he sees bigger fish arrive off South Padre a little later than smaller ones. True monsters show in August and September. He sight-fishes for these behemoths, spending as much time on the water as possible to decipher their patterns.

Read Next: More Tarpon Fishing Tips

The current state record, caught by Michael Shane LaRue II in 2017, measured 90 inches long and weighed 229 pounds.

“The biggest fish I’ve had in my boat was easily over 200 pounds,” Barrera says. “It was an absolute monster. Its scales were as big as my hand. In Texas, we can keep one tarpon 85 inches or larger, which lines up with a potential record fish.

“I didn’t know if it was a record or not. It was on the bubble. It was a true monster but to me it was better to see that fish go back to maybe even get bigger and thrill another angler.”

That kind of conservation ethic as well as support from groups like BTT appear to be generating a tarpon renaissance of sorts in Texas. As more anglers learn that they too can enjoy the tarpon action, fishing dreams will come true and appreciation for this already legendary species will grow. And that’s good for Texas anglers and the silver king.

The post Tracking Texas Tarpon appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

I remember seeing my first free-swimming cobia. I’d heard reports about Florida and North Carolina anglers bringing their sight-fishing skills to my home waters of the Chesapeake Bay. I had to try that technique.

Since we needed full sun to spot a fish on the surface, I didn’t even launch the boat until 9 a.m. The summer day was glass calm, hot and humid. I stood at the helm of my 20-foot Jones Brothers bay boat; my brother Roger took the bow position, holding a heavy spinning rod baited with a 2-ounce bucktail. We zig-zagged at 6 knots up the Chesapeake Bay on the lookout.

With perfect sight-fishing conditions, we quickly spotted a fin cutting a V wake across the mirrorlike water.

As I worked the boat closer, we saw a 4-foot long brown fish swimming just below the surface. I slowed the boat; Roger launched a cast, and the lure landed a few feet ahead of the cobia. The fin swirled, and the brown fish pounced on the lure. Roger came tight and hooked the fish.

Easy, right?

Judging by that first try, sight fishing seemed easy. But if that was true, why do 10 percent of cobia anglers seem to catch 90 percent of the fish? To improve my game (and yours), as the cobia linger through late spring and early summer, I called three top pros and asked for some of their secrets. With new tools now in my box, I’m looking forward to looking for cobia.

First Find

Sight-fishing for cobia requires driving around a big ocean looking for a small brown dot. To narrow the odds, scan for bait pods, color or temperature changes, circling birds, turtles, sharks and rays. Cobia also hide around structures like buoys or pilings. Basically, anything out of the ordinary could hold a curious cobia.

But consistently finding the fish takes more knowledge and effort. Guides who are on the water day after day track trends year after year. To truly target cobia, they have to predict the unpredictable.

Off of Destin, Florida, often considered the Mecca of cobia sight-fishing, Cameron Parkhurst, co-captain of the Instigator Fishing Team, says the season has seemed shorter in recent years, and it tends to wax and wane.

Parkhurst theorizes that cobia ride ocean currents from Brazil into the Gulf. Any disruption in the current could result in fewer cobia passing northwest Florida.

With current playing a big part in cobia behavior, Parkhurst pays close attention to the direction and speed the coastal water moves. “Cobia are lazy and will use every advantage to migrate,” he says.

Parkhurst prefers current-against-wind conditions. “This seems to bring the fish to the surface,” he says. Choppy seas also make it easier to spot the fish riding the face of a wave.

On Florida’s east coast, Capt. James Dumas of Drum Man Fishing Charters has also seen tougher cobia conditions. “The last few years have been horrible,” Dumas says bluntly.

For Dumas, manta rays hold the key to finding cobia. As the giant winged fish glide down the beach, cobia follow in their wake. One ray can have a dozen cobia in tow, he says.

To start his search, the captain first puts water between himself and other anglers. South of St. Augustine, the next navigable inlet lies 40 miles away. Fishing the area in between, which Dumas calls “the desert,” gives him easier access to unmolested rays.

Cautious Approach

Just because you see a cobia doesn’t mean you’ll get a chance to cast. Every time I spot a cobia, buck fever begins. I scream and point, ordering my friends around the boat while trying to get in position for a cast. In contrast, cobia pros remain cool and calculated in their approach.

Capt. Donnie Davis of DOA Charters, who fishes the North Carolina Outer Banks for cobia and red drum, maneuvers his boat to match the fish’s speed and parallels its direction. He carefully closes the distance until he moves just inside casting range. “I want to make the longest cast possible,” he adds.

Davis positions the boat so that the fish swims directly off to the side or slightly behind him. When the fish takes the bait, Davis can motor ahead to help drive the hook home.

As the angler fights the fish, Davis keeps the boat in gear so the fish stays off the stern. “If I lose a cobia in the motor or under the boat, it’s my fault,” he says

When it comes to hooking a cobia, Cameron Parkhurst advises captains to develop a strategy. Parkhurst keeps two live eels, two 2-ounce bucktails and a live pinfish or ruby lips ready to deploy. “First we throw the eel and then follow-up with the live bait,” he says. When Parkhurst finds a cobia school, he uses the bucktail to entice smaller fish away so he can target the biggest cobia with an eel.

When Dumas spots a ray holding cobia, he approaches carefully. “If the ray goes down that’s it,” he says. Dumas used to turn off his outboard and drop the trolling motor, but he says the change in pitch spooks the fish.

Tackle Time

While anglers often describe cobia as curious and aggressive, these fish can also be frustratingly picky. The trick to teasing a fussy cobia into taking your bait comes down to the details.

The typical cobia rod and reel comprises a medium-heavy to heavy action spinning rod paired with a 5500- to 8000-size reel. Use the heavier set up for heavy jigs and big live baits; the lighter combo best casts a live eel.

Spool the reel with 30- to 50-pound braided line tied with a line-to-line knot or a 250-pound swivel to a 2-foot, 40- to 80-pound fluorocarbon leader. Clearer water and finicky fish call for lighter leader.

Starting with this base set up, each pro adds his own personal touch. Davis likes a shorter, 6-foot, 6-inch rod. “I hate to lose a fish close to the boat,” he says. A shorter rod offers more control when the fish is near gaffing range.

To pull a cobia off a ray, Dumas uses large paddletail swimbaits such as the Z-Man Mag SwimZ. “I think the thump of the swimbait’s tail gets the cobia excited,” he explains.

When cobia grow finicky, he switches to a 6- to 8-inch jerk bait on a ½ ounce jighead. “I can cast the jerkbait 60 yards,” he says.

Read Next: Sight-Fishing Cobia off North Carolina

For Parkhurst, the secret to suckering a cobia is downsizing the leader and hook size. He likes to hook a live eel with a No. 4 4X treble hook. He pins the bait through the back just behind the pectoral fins. The small treble and light line are almost undetectable to sharp-sighted cobia.

Little touches like that separate the cobia elite from the masses. This summer, consider tracking migration trends, developing a strategy for approaching the fish, and using the right tackle to up your odds.

The post Pros’ Tips for Sight-Casting to Cobia appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Striped bass anglers stick to tried-and-true patterns when it comes to trolling. Very rarely do you see a new method that’s both effective and revolutionary. But New Jersey angler Chuck “Tyman” Many has been trolling live eels with floating planer boards for nearly a decade now and has dialed in the wicked tactic to both find bass easier and convince them to hit.

“Striper anglers are used to fishing on the bottom around structure—trolling spoons, dragging Mojos and deep-diving plugs near the sea floor, and that works. But there’s a good majority of feeding bass that are active and will aggressively hit baits nearer the surface,” Many says. “A bass always has its eyes upward, and migratory fish are hanging in the low to middle water column, willing to come up for a meal. That’s the reasoning behind the floating planer board success.”

The planer-board technique started down in the Chesapeake Bay but has recently been implemented in Northeast waters as anglers grow more comfortable with the tactic. Late April through June and October through December rank as prime times to fish planers off New Jersey and New York, while December through February heats up off the Virginia Coast.

In Motion

Anglers used to put eels under big bobbers, fishing 5 to 30 feet below the surface, Many says. They assumed that bass would rise from the bottom to feed and suspend in the water column. “But we were always drifting with no direction to control where we went,” he says. “The floating planer board allows me to cover more water as we troll, thereby covering more fish schools. It gives me freedom to fish below the surface while moving around.”

Many’s rig consists of a Gamakatsu 8/0 inline circle hook, 3 to 4 foot of 30-pound fluorocarbon leader, and a 150-pound barrel swivel. He threads a bead onto the running line, which is always 30-pound hi-vis monofilament. Many chooses mono because braid trips the planer board and causes much unnecessary frustration. Hi-Vis line allows the captain to maintain and monitor the spread.

He then attaches the Trophy Stalker planer board. Holding the main leader by the barrel swivel, he takes the snap swivel that’s attached to the bottom of the planer board and clips it onto the main leader behind the barrel swivel. Once you let the leader and line out behind the boat to the desired distance, you clip the main running line into the plastic release clip that’s on the top of the planer.

V Spread

Many goes big, setting out 12 rods—five on each side with planer boards and two off the stern without planers. He weights nine with 1/4-, 1/2- and 1-ounce pinch-on rubber-core sinkers. Rods include 6 1/2-foot Shimano Northeast Terramar medium to heavy conventionals matched with Shimano Trinidad 20A or 30A reels.

He inserts the hook up through the eel’s bottom jaw and out the top jaw. Many wants the baits lively, so he does not smack them to stun them like most eelers tend to do.

Set out the farthest lines first, 100 yards behind the boat. The next lines should be 70 yards, then 50, 30 and finally 10 yards back. “Pull out the line on the planer metered like you do with tuna chunking, doling it out 10 to 30 feet back, then set the line in the planer,” he says. “The floating planer pulls to the side, so the farthest back baits are farther out to the side because of the resistance.”

Stack the rods accordingly in one big “V” shape spread. The farthest lines swing 75 to 100 yards to the side of the boat. When the fish hits, the planer trips, comes loose, slides down the line and catches the bead.

Read Next: Fishing for Striped Bass

Covering ground plays a key role in finding bass. This tactic really shines in a wind-against-tide scenario, allowing you to troll in the correct direction with the current. The live bait remains lively, instead of rolling around on itself.

“Trolling with planers is tough to do with a lot of boat traffic, and you need to get away from the crowds,” Many says. He trolls very slowly, averaging 1/2 to 1 1/2 knots, especially when the water is in the 50s. If the water has warmed to around 65 degrees, he might bump it up to between 1 and 2 knots.

Live Alternatives

While eels really produce and can be trolled all day, live bunker can be substituted. Switch out bunker every 20 minutes or so.

“With eels, the bass inhale it. I get more hookups than bunker, and by far, the biggest fish of 40 to 50 pounds always take the live eel.”

Many also prefers eels because bluefish shy away a little more from them than a live bunker.

“When you see monster bass come up to the surface and explode on the eels, blasting them out of the water, you’ll be hard-pressed to troll any other way again for stripers,” he says.

The post Eeling with Planer Boards for Striped Bass appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The familiar thump of a flounder’s strike sent shockwaves up my line and chills down my spine. Nothing hits quite like a trophy flounder, and after counting to three, I set the hook knowing this was a big one.

After making several runs, including under the boat, the thick 22-inch fish slid into the net, making for a perfect start to a late winter morning. Yes, late winter.

Winter continues through March 20. The last four weeks of the chilly season and the first month of spring signal a second prime time for catching flounder along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.

Better known as a fish of the fall, due to its mass migration to Gulf waters to spawn in November, these flounder migrate back in the spring. The action can be red hot if you know where to look.

Early-Flounder Locations

The ship-channel section between a bay system and the Gulf sees the first action, and many flounder inhabit these areas all the way until the fall migration run.

Anglers should seek out flounder holds — small spots where these fish can move quickly from shallow to deep water. The ideal flounder hold is a small spot or shelf on the edge of a steep drop-off into the channel. The hold might be a 20-square-foot area in 6 feet of water that borders a 20-foot drop-off. Such vertical-relief scenarios create a specific zone where flounder can feed on baitfish. These holds produce well on outgoing and incoming tides.

The most popular bait to fish is a live mud minnow or finger mullet on a Carolina rig, but I prefer curl-tail grubs tipped with a piece of dead shrimp rigged on an ⅛-ounce jighead. Crawled slowly across the bottom, any of these presentations can draw strikes.

Another early-flounder spot to try, particularly on incoming tides, is a mudflat adjacent to deeper water. The flounder migrate in on the tide toward the shallows to feed and enjoy warmer temperatures, particularly on sunny afternoons. These muddy zones host tiny crustaceans and other marine life.

I begin my early-flounder fishing with light gear: a 6-foot, light-action spinning rod and a reel with a 5.2-to-1 gear ratio spooled with 10-pound-test fluorocarbon line. I tie on a 2-inch, smoke-colored curl-tail grub or a 2-inch shad imitation tipped with shrimp. Light gear helps because these early fish often barely grab a lure, unlike later in the year when most bites involve a more classic flounder thump. Some fish can be super aggressive, but about half of the fish I catch in spring lightly strike the lure.

If the bite is strong, I switch to a medium-heavy-action spinning rod with 30-pound braided line. The stiffer rod with the braid allows better hook penetration in the flounder’s bony mouth. I keep both rigs available.

The Shift to Marshes and Bayous

As spring arrives, many flounder make their way into the marshes. Anglers can find them around the mouths of cuts. Look for concentrations of small menhaden in the eddies around the cuts. These tiny baitfish we most frequently encounter in spring can’t negotiate strong tides so they look for calmer water.

Consummate ambush predators, flounder wait at these locations and feed aggressively. Target bayous, sloughs, and other drains with concentrations of menhaden and an eddy. When tides run excessively high, seek flounder along the bay system’s main shorelines in stands of roseau cane.

Roseau cane features an intricate system somewhat like a smaller version of a mangrove, giving menhaden a place to linger, hide and dodge large predators. Fish these areas during the first few hours of a falling tide. As the water recedes, the menhaden lose their cover, and the predator action begins.

Don’t expect to catch limits of fish every trip, as you might have done during the main fall run. But you might catch your biggest fish of the year. The relatively few anglers who seek flounder during this period bag some nice ones. And the fishing only improves as the waters warm.

Water Clarity

Water clarity can be a major factor in catching flounder. Murky water makes for terrible fishing.

In most of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, water conditions, except those after major rain events, remain suitable for flounder fishing. In Louisiana and Texas, however, finding good water conditions particularly in spring can be challenging.

Read Next: Top Flounder Fishing Tips

One rule of thumb I use: If you still can see your lure in 18 inches of water, stay and fish. If the lure disappears because of the murky conditions, move elsewhere. The flounder just won’t bite.

Conserving Flounder

In recent years, various issues, including warming Gulf temperatures that hinder spawning, have caused flounder-population declines. The fishery remains viable, but scientists urge anglers to release the bigger, breeding-size fish.

That’s why I released the 22-incher that I wrote about above. Since 2008, I’ve returned to the water all fish that measured more than 20 inches. Every angler should have a chance to experience that big flounder thumping their line. In the world of Gulf Coast fishing, there’s nothing quite like it.

About the Author: Chester Moore is an award-winning wildlife journalist and conservationist from Orange, Texas. He is a lifelong angler, author of Flounder Fever and was named a Hero of Conservation by Field & Stream for his efforts with the southern flounder fishery.

The post Early-Flounder Strategies for the Gulf Coast appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The California yellowtail ranks as one of the most sought-after and prized game fish on the West Coast. This Pacific member of the amberjack family can reach weights in excess of 35 pounds or more, displays amazing power, possesses an affinity for snag-infested structure and makes for excellent table fare. Yet many anglers, including some who reside on the West Coast, mistakenly think of yellowtail exclusively in terms of a summer fishery.

A significant number of yellowtails remains off the coast of Southern California and northern Baja California through winter and early spring. The tricks used to catch them involve knowing areas where the roaming schools will likely visit and using special techniques to tempt these winter brutes to bite. One of the most reliable methods involves rigging squid and fishing them throughout the water column.

Squid Logic

The late fall and winter arrival of dense schools of opalescent squid, which spawn off the Southern California coast and around offshore islands such as Santa Catalina and San Clemente, sounds the dinner bell for yellowtail. Once pods of yellows converge on squid, they become laser-focused on these cephalopods, and generally ignore other baits and most lures.

To find more willing yellows, you must locate the squid spawning grounds, which are usually in depths of about 120 feet. Some of the most common areas include the coastal zones of Ventura County, Santa Monica Bay, Huntington Beach, Camp Pendleton, and Oceanside. Among the islands, look along the southern side of Santa Cruz Island, the eastern side of Santa Barbara Island, the Palisades area on the backside of Santa Catalina Island and Pyramid Cove on San Clemente Island.

Look for Signs

Marine life telltales such as an abundance of sea lions, pods of Rizzo’s dolphins and finning blue sharks can help lead you to squid below. Light-boats and purse seiners in the area also serve as a sure indicator that commercial fishermen have found the squid spawning grounds. All converge to cash in on the abundance.

You can pinpoint schools of squid, the egg-pod nests they deposit on the sandy ocean floor, and the marauding yellowtail with a well-tuned fish finder. Squid display as light blue marks on the screen, while the nests of egg pods show as a light-blue fuzz along the sea bed. Schools of yellowtail look like dark red, sharply angled marks on the fish-finder screen, and those red streaks often move rapidly up and down in the water column as the yellowtail hunt and chase squid.

Grounds for Success

While squid form dense packs to spawn at night, they generally hang around the spawning grounds throughout the day and night during the buildup to spawning, which may last a week, a month or longer. Often, schools of squid arrive in phases, rather than all at once, which helps extend the yellowtail bite for months. You are likely to find yellowtail in the area at any time of the day or night.

You can obtain live squid for bait in two ways. You can catch your own, but that’s a process that requires being on the squid grounds at night and deploying bright lights in the hopes of jigging or netting enough to fill the livewell for fishing. That can be an exhausting ordeal.

The easier method involves buying squid from commercial live-bait fishermen, who sometimes go out ahead of time to catch the squid and then sell them from their boats and at bait barges along the coast. Either method can be a hit-or-miss affair. If you fail to find live squid, fresh dead or frozen squid can work, but not as effectively.

Great Imitations

Lures that mimic opalescent squid can also prove effective. Among the most popular is the Savage Gear 3D Swim Squid in the 5-inch length. It comes pre-rigged with a hook and 1-ounce internal weight. The best colors include Glow and Green Eye. Another squid lure is Chasebaits’ The Ultimate Squid in the 7.8-inch version in the Market Squid color. This lure needs to be rigged with a lead head.

Yellowtail range in weight from 12 to 40 pounds, and they have plenty of power. Use stout tackle, such as a 7-foot rod rated for 30- to 50-pound-test line matched with a lever-drag reel such as an Okuma Makaira 10II or a Shimano Talica 10II two-speed. Spool up with 65-pound-test braid and use a 10-foot topshot of 40- to 50-pound-test fluorocarbon.

Yellowtail tend to invade the squid grounds to feed when a mild to strong current is present. Anchor up in the current over the spawning beds and fish live squid just above the bottom and elsewhere in the water column to produce the best results. Use a dropper-loop rig to fish a bait a few feet above the bottom.

Read Next: California Yellowtail Fishing Tips

To make the rig, use a spider hitch to create a 10-inch-long loop in your fluoro topshot, about 3 to 4 feet above the end of the line. Tie a 6- to 12-ounce torpedo sinker to the tag end of the topshot. Tie a 5/0 to 7/0 Owner Aki Twist hook to the end of the loop, and pin the squid through its pointy end, opposite the head.

Cover the Column

Once you’re baited up, freeline the sinker to the bottom, then reel up 5 or 6 feet. Fishing just above the sea floor helps keep the bait away from undesirable bottom feeders such as bat rays and guitarfish. Also, yellowtail tend to look upward for prey, and this puts the bait in the target zone for fish cruising the bottom.

Place the rods in forward rod holders and keep the reels in gear, so that when a yellow eats the bait, it’s hooked automatically. In the meantime, freeline or slightly weight a live squid (with a ½- to 1-ounce sinker) in the current behind the boat. Fishing an artificial squid can also be effective. This helps cover the water column in case yellowtail chase live squid closer to the surface.

Find the squid grounds and you find the yellowtail. That’s a perfect wintertime combo.

The post Winter Fishing for California Yellowtail appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Big teeth make barracudas scary to novices and an ugly nuisance to many saltwater anglers. But with the right timing and tactics, even these unsung predators become targeted gamefish. As the water cools, ‘cudas gravitate to shallow-water flats in the lower Florida Keys, where anglers can sightfish for them with lures.

The fish viciously attack plugs, and when stuck, they launch like missiles. In fact, catching these ugly buggers has become quite popular. The Keys hosts an annual all-release Cuda Bowl each year, scheduled around the same time as the Super Bowl.

Read Next: Barracuda: Supersonic Game Fish of the Flats

To get a flavor for this unique fishery, Sport Fishing traveled to the Keys last winter with Rapala’s Dan Quinn to fish with Lower Keys captains Justin Rea of Sting Rea Charters and Tim Carlile. “We had a ball,” Quinn recalls. “There are lots of primo flats like bonefish habitat. When the ‘cudas are shallow, they’re acrobatic.”

The post The Florida Keys’ Monster Barracudas appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Many people aren’t yet ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in airport lines and then spend hours in the confines of a plane, which leaves just one option for anglers Jonesing for a hot and potentially exotic bite: Fuel up the truck and start driving, with or without the boat and trailer.

As more and more anglers hit the freeways in their quest for fishing freedom, choosing the best port within a reasonable driving distance has become a common conundrum. Of course, what constitutes a “reasonable” distance must be left to the driver.

We assessed a number of wintertime hot spots accessible by road, and landed on these five top fishing destinations that offer both inshore and offshore options.

The Florida Keys

You knew the Keys would be on any self-respecting angler’s drive-to list, right? Truth be told, the Keys features awesome fishing pretty much 24-7, but time your visit and choose your captain to enjoy the types of fishing you love most while scratching multiple challenges off your bucket list.

Top Ports

• Islamorada: Drive for about an hour and a half south of Miami, and you’ll find that Islamorada consists of four islands, lays claim to the title “sport fishing capitol of the world,” and is home to the world-famous Bud ‘N Mary’s Marina.
• Key West: About two hours farther down the road from Islamorada, the very last populated island in the Keys, Key West, requires no introduction. Let’s just say that if you can’t catch fish here, it’s time to take up golf.

Top Captains and Specialties

• Brian Cone, Islamorada, mahi-mahi run-and-gun — 305-481-7689
• Nick Stanczyk, Islamorada, daytime swordfish — 305-481-0366
• Ted Benbow, Islamorada, sight-fishing bonefish on the flats — 305-393-0363
• Lenny Leonard, Key West, permit on the flats — 305-304-0154
• Mike Wienhofer, Key West, groupers and snappers in the Gulf — 305-395-3474
• R.T. Trosset, Key West, sailfish, blackfin tuna and other pelagics — 305-797-5693
• Nate Wheeler, Summerland Key (25 miles east of Key West), sharks on light tackle — 305-394-2177

Seasonal Species

• Warm months: bonefish, grouper, mahi-mahi, permit, snook, tarpon,
• Cool months: cobia, mackerel, sailfish, wahoo
• Year-round: blackfin tuna, redfish, sharks, snappers, swordfish

Mississippi’s Gulf Coast

With mile upon mile of Biloxi Marsh in one direction and multiple deep-water oil rigs in another, the Mississippi coast provides wonderfully diverse fishing opportunities. Although this is a relatively small stretch of shoreline, you’ll find multiple jumping-off points, with guides working the waters year-round.

Top Ports

• Biloxi: Biloxi usually gets top billing in this neck of the woods, with the largest selection of charters of any port in the state.
• Gulfport/Long Beach: About 15 miles west of Biloxi, Gulfport and Long Beach both support multiple charter operations.
• Pass Christian/Bay Saint Louis: Head another 15 miles along the coast and Pass Christian offers closer access to the endless marshes of Mississippi and Louisiana, where reds and specks rule.

Top Captains and Specialties

• Bryan Cuevas, Biloxi, inshore and offshore red snapper, and fishing the marshes — 228-861-4627
• Joe Allen, Biloxi, offshore yellowfin tuna at the oil rigs — 228-324-8862
• Sonny Schinder, Bay St. Louis, inshore and marsh reds and specks — 228-342-2295

Seasonal Species

• Warm months: cobia, grouper, king mackerel, red snapper, tarpon, yellowfin tuna, tripletail, flounder
• Cool months: flounder, sheepshead
• Year-round: black drum, redfish, speckled trout

Read Next: Five Hotspots for Winter Redfish

North Carolina’s Crystal Coast

The southern portion of the Outer Banks, ranging from Cape Lookout to Topsail Beach, the Crystal Coast has always been more of a drive-to destination than a fly-in sort of place, since the nearest major airport lies nearly three hours away in Raleigh-Durham. The Crystal Coast also has always ranked high on an angler’s list of must-go places, with inshore and offshore opportunities galore — plus the unusual potential of once-in-a-lifetime fish, when it comes to the winter giant bluefin tuna fishery.

Top Ports

• Morehead City/Atlantic Beach: At the northern end of the Crystal Coast, boats leave through the Beaufort Inlet for intense offshore action, especially along the edge of the Continental Shelf at the famed Big Rock. Many anglers also make this a destination for catching false albacore on the fly in late fall, when the waters are often literally churning with breaking fish as far as the eye can see.
• Bogue Inlet: About 20 miles south of Morehead, Bogue Inlet might require a longer run to the offshore grounds but it also means easy access to endless inshore waterways peppered with countless marsh islands and sand bars.

Top Captains and Specialties

• Dale Britt, Morehead City, billfish and winter bluefin — 252-725-5375
• Stephen Draughon, Morehead City, offshore pelagics and winter bluefin — 252-247-5617
• Sarah Gardner, Harker’s Island (just east of Morehead), false albacore and inshore fly fishing (spring and fall) — 252-982-6330
• Gary Dubiel, Oriental (just north of Morehead across the Neuse River), false albacore and trophy redfish on fly — 252-249-1520

Seasonal Species

• Warm months: blue and white marlin, mahi-mahi, sailfish, Spanish mackerel, wahoo
• Cool months: bluefin tuna, false albacore
• Year-round: blackfin and yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, grouper, king mackerel, redfish, speckled trout

San Diego, California

West Coast anglers looking for a hot bite this winter can hit the road and head for San Diego, where both the bay and ocean have some serious draws. You might be tempted by a multiday voyage to Mexican waters for tunas, perhaps those mystical West Coast bonefish have you contemplating a road trip, or you might even set your sights on San Diego just for the halibut.

Top Ports

• San Diego Bay: Used by bay guides and as home port for oceanic adventures, San Diego Bay features a large charter fleet consisting of everything from bay boats to 100-foot-plus, long-range sportfishing vessels with private staterooms and WiFi.
• Mission Bay: Just north of San Diego Bay, Mission Bay offers many private charters for nearshore and offshore fishing, as well as a number of longer-range sportfishers.

Top Captains and Specialties

• Bill Cavanaugh, San Diego, long-range multiday trips for assorted pelagics — 619-224-4088
• Bill Schaefer, San Diego, bay fishing for spotted and calico bass, halibut, and bonefish — 858-277-8087
• Frank LoPreste, San Diego, long-range multiday trips for monster yellowfin tunas and other pelagics — 619-226-8030
• James Nelson, San Diego, bonefish on light tackle — 619-395-0799
• Dave Trimble, Mission Bay, fly fishing for sharks — 619-296-1120
• Duane “Diego” Mellor, Mission Bay, private day charters for tuna, yellowtail, and especially swordfish — 619-850-7575

Seasonal Species

• Warm months: Warm months: bluefin and yellowfin tuna, barracuda, striped marlin, swordfish, dorado (mahi-mahi)
• Year-round: bonefish, calico bass, barred sand bass, halibut, rockfish, sharks, yellowtail, yellowfin tuna (long range), wahoo (long range)

Venice, Louisiana

Venice has earned a reputation as one of the top fishing ports along the entire Gulf Coast, thanks to its world-class inshore redfishing and relatively close access to numerous offshore oil rigs. Drive a couple hours south from New Orleans, and the asphalt ends in this fishing mecca.

Top Ports

• Venice: Once you’re in Venice, you stay in Venice. Fishing is rightfully the primary focus for this destination.
• Buras: While you won’t see much development on the drive south along Hwy. 23, you will find several fishing operations in Buras — about 15 miles north of Venice — which focus primarily on marsh fishing and seasonal duck hunting.

Top Captains and Specialties

• Damon McKnight, Venice, inshore bull redfish — 985-640-0772
• Louis Rossignol, Venice, inshore redfish and speckled trout — 504-481-7529
• Mike Frenette, Venice, inshore redfish and fishing the rigs for pelagics — 504-782-0924
• Peace Marvel, Venice, Gulf swordfish — 504-858-8862
• Journey South Outfitters, Venice, tuna, redfish, snapper — 504-616-8119.
• Mexican Gulf Fishing Company, Venice, tuna, wahoo, marlin, swordfish, cobia, grouper, snapper
• Cajun Fishing Adventures, Buras, bull and slot reds, speckled trout, flounder — 985-785-9833.

Seasonal Species

• Warmer months: blue and white marlin, cobia, king mackerel, mahi-mahi, red snapper, tripletail, swordfish
• Cooler months: sailfish, wahoo
• Year round: blackfin and yellowfin tuna, red snapper, redfish, speckled trout

The post 5 Drivable Fishing Destinations appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.