There was a change of plans for us yesterday while heading out of Port Canaveral. Due to cloudy conditions and cold water temps from an upwelling, sight fishing for Tarpon, Cobia, Jack Crevalle etc. was out of the question. The surface temperature out there was as low as 68 degrees and the bottom temps in some areas were reported at 59 degrees! These cold water temps can really throw the nearshore fishing off especially the Tarpon that is targeted this time of year which prefer warmer water. We decided to do some bottom fishing this day so we hit a few bottom spots until we found one that was non stop action. I was jigging a D.O.A. Terror Eyz while the others on the boat were using a bottom rig with cut squid. While the cut squid was catching mostly small Sea Bass, I was pulling up all of the keepers so it wasn’t long until everyone on the boat switched over to D.O.A.’s. My brother Trung and Adam were using the Swimming Mullet while Shane and I were on the “Big One” Terror Eyz. The brighter colors seemed to work the best. The most effective trick that I learned is to not jig the lure, just let it fall to the bottom and let it drag with the current lifting up on the rod slowly and letting it fall back down to the bottom again until you feel the “THUMP”. Using this technique, we caught Sea Bass, Trigger Fish, Sharks, Grunts, Lizard Fish, and Red Snapper. One Cobia was caught using a live Pogie on the bottom but the D.O.A.’s did catch more and bigger fish than using live or cut bait. We were fishing in bottom from 50-70feet so if you plan on using these baits in the deeper bottom spots, you might want to add extra weight with an egg sinker “knocker style” to get it down faster. Go ahead and give D.O.A. Lures a try out there, you may be surprised….I know I’ve made believers out of this crew on the boat today.
-Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
nativeflycharters@gmail.com
