Inshore fishing has been going well although some days are better than others. Really, when is that not the case though? The primary inshore fishing area has been Cumberland Beach for Trout. Some days have produced quick limits while others are a grind with lots of small fish and a slow bite. The best bite that I have found has been when the first of the incoming tide really starts flowing. When there is no current, the fishing is just as slow.

We have primarily been using live shrimp under Billy Bay popping corks with about 5 feet between the stop knot and the hook. As an alternative, near clear / gold flake DOA shrimp or clear / red flake DOAs have been strong under your popping cork of choice or fished “tight lined”.

In addition to Trout there have been a few Flounder, Pompano, and Whiting caught on the beach. As always this time of year, keep an eye out for Tarpon!

Not too far from the beach we witnessed the Tarpon showing up this week. There have been a few around for several weeks now, but when I say they showed up this week, I mean they showed up in a big, big way. We watched literally hundreds of Tarpon terrorizing pods of pogies. They covered acres of water and I could see them airing it out from over a mile away.

Saturday morning we brought one boatside after sight casting around the bait pods. This fish ate a 10 inch Hogy Original on a Hogy jig head. Later that same day we were watching fish bust through some huge bait pods but we were unable to get a second hook up. Part of the issue was probably that there was just so much bait. Half of our cast would come back with a Pogy hooked in the side. I think we would have had to hit the Tarpon between the eyes to get one to eat a bait. The only thing I can think to do in these situations (other than finding a different school of fish) is to throw baits that look different from the baits there are feeding in (opposite of match the hatch) or fish the outskirts of the bait pods and hope that you make the right cast at the right time.

Shark fishing has been off the chain behind the shrimp boats, but we have also been having a great time chumming them up ourselves. I’ve been “stealing” sharks from the shrimp boats by pulling up behind them as if I am about to start a drift, but instead using my trolling motor to hold me in place while hanging Bonito or Ladyfish over the side as chum. Then I will toss some dead Pogies over and watch the Sharks come in. At this point we just pick one out and pitch a bait to it. This can be either cut bait or artificial, but once you get them in feeding mode they will eat most anything that comes their way.

Offshore fishing has been good as the Kingfish are showing up and being caught as close in as 2B. There are a lot of Barracuda and Spadefish to play with around the reefs at 10 to 12 miles offshore as well.

Tuesday I made the ride to G reef where we found a lot of Amberjack and had one Cobia come up to see us. What I was surprised to see was that there was very little, if any bait to be found there. We checked the liberty ship and the Tampa but there was no bait on the surface and none marking on the bottom machine. Luckily we baited up at the bait barge with some nice Threadfins before heading out.

We didn’t get a chance to bottom fish very hard as the Amberjack pretty much crushed any live bait that hit the water, but there have been some nice Snapper being caught and Cobia are still a legit target although they aren’t as thick as they were.
My advice is to bait up at the closest point possible whether that be catching Pogies near the beach or stopping at one of the closer wrecks or cans before you head out too far.