The beginnings of January started off with nothing less than some of the best fishing we’ve have seen in a long time! The weather even cooperated for the most part. We seen great catches of king fish, cobia, mahi and a great amount of sailfish. Several days we all got lucky with some black fin tuna too.
Bait wasn’t the easiest though. Some days all we had to roll out with was dead minnows but they didn’t really seem to mind. I also seen a few days where they bit the dead bait a little better than the live. BUT as a rule of thumb try to get the live bait. A good place to start fishing is the local reefs. Find the clean water and put em out. I’ve notice that this time of year the water color is more critical than summer time for some reason. Riggin your baits can make all the difference in the world. Some days they will eat 3 day old mushy minnows out the back of the boat but other days you need to go to fluorocarbon and small hooks with a light leader and no swivel. Also try sending one bait way out and one bait close to the back of the boat. Sometimes they will chew the long bait only or just the close. Don’t forget trying that downrigger as well. Start at 30 feet and gradually go deeper. There’s many days that all I get hit on is that down-ball.

This report has been brought to you by Captain Chris Cameron of Fired Up Fishing Charters, your premier fishing guide charter of shark fishing Cocoa Beach, offshore fishing Port Canaveral, near shore fishing Cape Canaveral, Orlando charter fishing and split fishing trips.