Recent offshore fishing reports from the East Central region.
Sebastian Inlet Wahoo
Florida Sportsman member: Cabanaboy
Short n sweet… We headed out of Sebastian Inlet Saturday am around 5:45 am… We heard the bite has been hot around 120 feet, so with the seas a bit fussy we put it at 100 feet around 7 am. We used our typical spread with 2 trolling weights, 2 outriggers, 1 short line, and 1 shotgun. We landed a barracuda immediately. Ten minutes later the shotgun goes off with the horse ballyhoo purple and black islander with 8 ounce chin weight, yes 8 oz. We had our first wahoo of the season on the deck.
We loose our second engine during the fight.. bad prime bulb i believe…we end up tacking between 95 and 125..weeds everywhere but the winds did not allow any formation…ended up landing 2 peanut dolphin around 24-25″ that got sent back to the ocean Gods…
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Red Snapper & Dolphin
Florida Sportsman member: Sea Hunt
Left the dock about 7:30 – did not see any readily available bait fish , so just went with frozen ballyhoos. Arrived at 8a with maybe a dozen other boats already there. For about an hour we trolled around without a strike, nor did we notice anybody else doing any better. As some other boats left – we headed to the weather buoy. Arriving near the buoy , put out the Ballyhoo with Sea Witches in front. Within 15 minutes we got this Dolphin which apparently was all by himself out there ! For the next hour – all we got was one shark after the other – all in the 2 to 3 feet size range. Decided to get away from the sharks – so set course for the inlet just before noontime. With 15 more miles to the inlet, we spotted a couple flying fish in some widely scattered weeds at about 85 feet deep. We put out the baits again and wound up getting this red snapper on the ballyhoo/sea witch rig ! As we got the snapper coming up near the surface, we saw over a dozen school mates following him up !
Click here for full forum report.
Seabastian Mangrove Snapper & More
Florida Sportsman member: Kapt.Hook
Dirty water! Stated out at bethal trolling with nothing to show for it. then headed up to the 90′ bar drifting the NE current 1.5 knots live ballyhoo on the flat line got nailed but ended up pulling the hook. It seemed like it was a good size king but who knows.. We then anchored up on one of the county sites and got some nice hits at first but the hook couldn’t find the sweet spot, then I finally was able to berry my hook into one of the biggest mangos Iv caught so I guess I could say its my personal best. Black sea bass are everywhere and of good size we didnt catch any under 12 inches. I was unsure of the season dates State vs Federal so they were all released. We were using pogy chunks. Water was green/dirty everywhere we went[...]
Click here for full forum report.
Phins Off Ponce Inlet
Florida Sportsman member: higmister
We left the dock at 6 and headed east. The ride out was bumpy but the seas laid down for us in the afternoon. Started seeing flyers and birds in the 200 feet range and lines out. First knock down on the first bait out before we could even put it in the outrigger. Stayed between 200-280 all day. We took 26 phins and a wahoo home. Released some peanuts and a ton of short strikes. Top skirts was blue/green and white/black.
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Off Shore Dude
Went out today looking for some tripletails and shaking down my brothers boat. To my delight, what I thought was a tripletail turned out to be a cobia. Not a giant fish but after such a lousy cobia season it made my day. Had fun catching him on light tackle. Was using a 1/4 ounce pink jig head with a large live shrimp w/tail fin removed (hooked backwards).
Also, we were out in the Banana river Sunday afternoon and the trout bite was great. I think we caught about 10 trout (upper slot) and some huge ladyfish. Basically fished the biggest mullet schools we could find. Caught them on live mullet and 1/8 ounce jig heads w/soft baits. Released everything.
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Dolphin
Florida Sportsman member: Full Throttle
We started out late, with no intentions of fishing all day.Just wanted to check things out before the tournament was called on Saturday. Ran out and found a sweet rip and weedline at 140 and 190 feet, but water didn’t look great. I tossed two baits out and trolled for about 20-30 minutes just to see. With no luck, we pulled up and ran out deeper until I finally found some clean water finally at 850 feet and 38 miles out found a sweet rip and weedline. I put the full spread out and within 5 minutes we had our first knockdown. We re-rigged and 20 minutes later a big dolphin comes storming the spread from the line. We watched her get behind 2 lures before finally crushing the dolphin colored islander! The fish goes crazy and it is an awesome sight to see! My wife grabs the rod and 20 minutes later we put the 32 pound cow in the boat. Biggest cow I have seen
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Dolphin & Tripletail
Florida Sportsman member: InLimbo
The “gettin-her-wet” fishing trip turned into a camping trip with the RV to Jetty Park and a trolling trip for 5 teenagers for my sons 19th bday. I was happy to ablige. Headed out first light even with the weather questionable but were greeted with decent seas. Hit the edge of the stream wet the first line and was hit with the rod in my hand before I could get into the rod holder. No jumping equaled a bonita but quickly picked up the first small dolphin. After a slow troll and a weakening rip decided to head deeper only to find a great rip, color change and weeds where we had more than 15 knock downs, including a tripletail and 10 dolphin in the box. Nothing huge but the boys loved it and we had some restocking material for the freezer.
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Dolphin & Amberjacks
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
Clearing conditions Tuesday allowed us to find some nice color changes and weedlines that though not teaming with fish did produce. We picked up some Mahi before fighting AJ’s. A lot of Cuda’s and Sharks at the wrecks, but we still filled up on AJ’s. The AJ’s Tuesday were mostly just over the min size, but with hardly a worm in them were great for the icebox. With a couple youngsters onboard not big enough to tackle the AJ’s, we finished the day on shallower structure so they could have some fun. We got Cobia this way, not huge but big enough to take home! Wednesday was much less productive. While we did battle a lot of fish, more short AJ’s, Cuda and Shark that anything.
Click here for full forum report.
Ponce Inlet Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: Docked Wages
Not a great weekend for fishing but we managed to get out for a few hours Saturday morning and again Sunday afternoon.
Saturday we ran out of Sebastian on the Head Hunter to troll for dolphin and found it to be slow due to the cold water. The temps were less than 72 degrees all the way out to 180’ and there we released a few peanuts before landing an nice 18 pounder. We put him on ice and headed in to look for cobia but the 66 degree water inside was not conducive to hold fish so we made and early day of. Back at the ramp the FWC guy checked our fish box and found another peanut on ice with our catch. Seeing no skin on this one he gave us a pass as this fish was regurgitated from the stomach of the bigger dolphin. Just goes to show that everything eats a dolphin, even other dolphin.
Sunday looked like real nice cobia weather until we decided to go at 1 pm. After getting on the water around 2pm the wind shifted and started to increase. We chased some free swimmers around until the clouds moved in. As the afternoon advanced, the winds increased and it began to get sporty and wet for a flats boat. Tough conditions for sight fishing so we made an early afternoon of it and came home for cobia St Patty dinner.
Click here for full forum report.
Ponce Inlet Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: Davidson
Me and my buddy Carlos went out of Ponce inlet Tuesday looking for some of those brown bombers. We headed up and down the beach with nothing to show for it until we came up on a school of what looked like red fish. We motored in front of the school and casted choice live baits at the school and got snubbed over and over. I switched up to a jig with squid and bam! Hooked up I finally wrestled it to the boat and to our surprise it was the biggest black drum I have ever seen, let alone caught.
Click here for full forum report.
First Fish on New Boat
Florida Sportsman member: Final Point
een looking to upgrade my bayboat and after 5 months of searching I finally came accross my new baby….a 2007 Triton 240 LTS! Had to go to Tx to get her but now she’s mine. So after getting her here, I decided to go out and see if the Triton could catch fish or not.
We made quick work of a livewell full of threadfins and hit the inlet. On the first drift we had a double hook-up on jumbo redfish. Mine came unglued but my wife whipped hers into submission[...]
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: Reel Finatic
Put lines in at 160 feet and trolled out to 300 feet with only one wahoo. Which was lost at the boat. Neighbors father was down from Boston, So I wanted to show him what a red snapper looked like. We caught Numerous red snapper and we were rewarded with a nice gag grouper. All fish were vented and swam back to the bottom. Sure wish we could have brought the grouper home with us While bottom fishing we had a school of dolphin come to the boat, we were able to boat 3 of them. Trolled awhile longer and boated one more schoolie dolphin. Then called it a day In by 2:00.
Click here for full forum report.
More Trips at the Port
Florida Sportsman member: codered13
Had a great day out on the water last week with by brother. We were using live shrimp under some floating grass. Caught our limit fairly quick and left them biting before we got locked up. They were everywhere!
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral Tripletail
Florida Sportsman member: QuiksilverIHB
Went out of the port again and caught some nice tripletail. Some on buoys, some on seaweed, and some free swimming/sitting. Got them from 30 feet all the way to 50 feet It’s cool, because I kill the motor as I get close and they hide under my boat. It’s like they think it is floating garbage. The biggest one weighed in at 21lbs.
Click here for full forum report.
Sebastian Offshore Marlin
Florida Sportsman member: togators
A very quite day, only 1 hit. Then in 400 feet at 1:00 port rigger pops and line begins to scream out of a Penn 330 with 30 pound mono with a red/white skirted rigged ballyhoo. Did not want to horse it in because of the light tackle, 2 hours 45 minutes later we finally get it in. Line was wrapped on bill pretty well and the double hooks were set deep in the bottom jaw so we pulled in to clear, photo then released.
Click here for full forum report.
Tripletail Out of the Port
Florida Sportsman member: QuiksilverIHB
Went out of Port Canaveral and we got some nice Tripletail on jigheads with live shrimp. Didn’t see any cobia, but it was still well worth it. The biggest one went for 18 pounds.
Click here for full forum report.
End of the Year Wahoo
Florida Sportsman member: fltekdiver
Had my buddy cancelle this last night due to Christmas Eve family get together.Left Port Canaveral by myself at 8:00am Christmas Eve in my 21 foot Proline WA. Started out at Reef 8A, catching some bonitas, in Hopes of a big king! After the bonitas stripped half a dozen of my ballyhoo, I headed out to the 20 mile weather Buoy. By the time I got out there, wind had picked up ad it was overcast. The seas were about 3 to 4 feet.I switched all the skirts over to Black & Red, Black/Purple/Red etc for Wahoo [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Epic Day Out of the Port
Florida Sportsman member: Cabanaboy
What a beautiful day to fish! Loaded up the 19 footer and headed east. We left the port around 530 am and had the throttle wide open the whole way. We headed east and found some weed at 160′…3 dolphin in the boat,no misses. We kept moving east. We had 4 lines down and 4 dolphin doing arial acrobatics. Landed 2 and lost 2. headed east to 400′ where oh me oh my the debris was everywhere and fields of weed..[...]
Click here for full forum report.
Clean Water, Steady Action
Florida Sportsman member: tonytali
…Water was clear and blue on the east side. There was debri on the edge but it was pretty scattered and did not appear to be holding anything in particular. Action was steady and we caught a few more baracudas, three sharks (triple header), and boated five phins (10-15 lbs). [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Dolphin and Blackfin off of Sebastian Inlet
Florida Sportsman member: inxanth
Started off setting lines and was surprised to hook up with a blackfin. Within an hour and a half went four for six on blackfin, which is a rare treat, especially not that far from Bethel Shoals. Stumbled across a weedline that was about three miles long. Trolled it up and back four times and boated four dolphin out of six [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Three Days off Ponce
Florida Sportsman member: InLimbo
Docked boat at Down The Hatch Thursday night for her three day stay. Out of the inlet at 7 with a net full all three days. Calm seas Friday and Saturday and a little heavy on Sunday. Most fish caught in 100 to 120 and 140. Warmer water in 80 feet then cooled down a bit further out. Lots of bait and activity on the water all weekend. The guests on Friday and Saturday limited on red snapper within about an hour. Several big ones came off so we changed the tackle for Saturday and the overall size increased [...]
Click here for full forum report.
PC Snapper Limit
Florida Sportsman member: donh
Well, I got an itch to get a few snapper Sunday morning after looking at the bouy report so I called my neighbors (Bill and Denise) and they said they were in. Loaded boat and on our way at 10 a.m we stopped got a few gallons of gas, hit sunrise, grabbed a couple dozen pinfish (didn’t want to spend any time catching bait, it was already late), hit the ramp and off we went [...]
Snapper Biting out of Ponce
Florida Sportsman member: InLimbo
Started with a really nice fun trip out of Ponce with the snotty seas that took us over an hour and a half just to get to 80 feet for the first stop. Did I say fun? Very much a roller coaster ride. We new we would see the this and then thought we would probably find that the bottom was all stirred up. It was. Dirty water and a strong current kept the sharks happy when we came off. Winds laid down and following seas for the ride in were nice [...]
Click here for full forum report.
East Central Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: capt mike mann
The sight casting for reds and trout in mosquito lagoon has been pretty good in extremely shallow water. They both have been tailing in the grass and are eating fly, live shrimp and gulp shrimp. There is still some water clean enough to find cruising reds the secret is to move very slow. Offshore the mangrove and red snapper have been eating well [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Solid Offshore Bite off PC
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
Another week fishing, with greatly varied seas and fishing. The fishing has been much like the water temps, hot and cold. The cold water has moved the fish around, and had them biting one day, and tight lipped the next. The fish are also on the move, with big bottom fish often in close and shallow waters [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Port Canaveral: Hot Bottom Bite
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
Another day of fair weather and fishing. Winds were forecast to pick up, and that usually means the seas will follow. We have a nice breeze all day, and the sea’s stayed fairly nice all day. Fishing is still a question mark however, with pockets of cool bottom and dirty water creating issues [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Kingfish at 8A
Florida Sportsman member: Sea Hunt
Had more time to fish today but my early start was a bit delayed by a submarine heading out to sea. We had to go all the way down to the Church steeple to find any Pogeys. They were so close up on the beach – it seemed one wrong wave and we would be near aground ! – Reading a scant 4 foot on the sounder – one lucky toss of the net gave us plenty to fill the baitwell.
Click here for full forum report.
Nice Bull Off Sebastian
Florida Sportsman member: Cabanaboy
Headed out around 5:30 a.m., shot straight out to the west edge where there was a nice rip, but no weeds. Ran out to 500 feet and didn’t see much so we headed back to our rip and found some weeds further north. Trolled it and landed a big bull on a 24oz. trolling weight with a blue and white islander [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
With a guest from China and a fishing T=tackle manufactuer on board, we were hoping to find some nice catches this trip. It turned out just fine! We still have fish being found in places that you don’t typically find them [...]
Click here for full forum report.
Holy Pompano!
Doug Gabbert sent in this report of an offshore fishing treat, a monster African pompano, nice catch!
Fischer and I fished the mullet schools all day Saturday for trout, reds and snook. Fischer said he wanted to catch a “big” fish offshore on Sunday, so, we loaded the boat with four 20 pound Shimano Baitrunners and headed out the Sebastian Inlet early Sunday morning. We found several nice pods of greenies off Disney Vero, filled up the live well and headed towards Bethel Shoal to see what we could find. We pulled up on the #10 buoy on the shoal – there were four other boats fishing around it. Fischer tossed a greenie off the bow and almost instantly a school of large African pompano blew the greenie out of the water. The greenie made a mad dash for the boat, but the fish in the picture was faster and ate the bait right beside the boat. The fish literally hit the side of the boat while eating the greenie!
The fight was on. We chased the fish around for a half hour, it gave us some really smoking runs but Fischer was finally able to get it to the side of the boat. I did not want to gaff it, we did not want to kill it, so I put on gloves and was able to get it in the boat after a couple tries. The fish was gassed, so it did not put up much fight at the boat. We snapped a quick picture, then Fischer revived the fish and watched it swim away. Not a bad first cast and Fischer got his wish for a big fish!
PC Offshore Report
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
So, were used to NOAA’s forecast being off quite a bit, but this is one trip I’m glad they were off. The forecast was fro seas at 3-4 feet and winds around 10 knots. We barely had a breeze all day, and sea’s never got above 2 feet! It was probably one of the nicer days on the water of the year. Fishing however was somewhat slow, but with great weather we did not mind [...]
Click here for full forum report.
PC Dolphin Catching
Florida Sportsman member: Slacktide
I took a couple that has fished with me a few times in the past and one of my main fishing buddies offshore yesterday. We had 2 dolphin in the box at 1230. I was getting bummed. I had 3 dozen hoo’s prepped with not much to show this late in the game. It turned on in the 4th quarter and we were cleaning dolphin until 11 pm. With a slow morning behind us we decided to pull lines n run out a little further [...]
Click here to see the full forum report.
Ponce Offshore Gold
Florida Sportsman member: Fool’s Gold
Ran out to 100 feet and found some scattered weeds and a small rip, put the baits in and was pretty busy for about an hour, went 4 for 7 on fins, 3 bailers and a peanut. Also caught a shark trolling, haven’t seen that one. Slowed down so went out deeper and trolled for awhile, no luck so dropped a bait down on the 28 ledge and picked up the AJ. Went back to trolling to have a triple hook up and not land one of them, 2 short strikes and one shook the hook when it jumped, overall nice day on the water.
Click here to see the full forum report.
Team Bloodstream Trip to Venice
Florida Sportsman member: Docked Wages
This is not a local report but the anglers are. The crew of the F/V Bloodstream loaded up and dragged a new 2011 35 ST Contender on a long haul to Venice LA. The crew making the long haul by vehicle consisted of boat owner and Captain Brian Rimer with Scott Lerhman, Chris Hudson, Billy Fazio and myself [...]
Click here to see the full forum report.
Sebastian Inlet Offshore Wahoo
Florida Sportsman member: jetpilot
Another slow day of fishing. Still no fish being caught most boats gave up and went bottom fishing. There was also the option to go king fishing outside the inlet with the fleet but opted not to.0I decided to look for wahoo back in at 130′ where we caught our last one on Friday. Started out in 170′ worked out to 350′ and then picked up and ran into 130′. Trolled around there for a few hours and Michelle our mate picked up this wahoo. Any wahoo is a good wahoo in my book!
Click here to see the full forum report.
Port Canaveral Offshore
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
Today was a reef trip, anchored up for the day at 8. Seas were choppy, but not too bad, so despite a wet ride out, it was fast and we were soon fishing. Once there, we set a bait on the planer making a pass down the reef until we got to our target bottom site. It didn’t take long to find a fish.
Click here to see the full forum report.
Port Canaveral Dolphins and Hoo’s
Florida Sportsman member: ACME Ventures Fishing
This was a little personal fishing time Saturday. With nice seas, I fish with a friend on his boat and got to both fish, enjoy the ride, rather than the norm, which though fun, is WORK! At 130′ we found a very well formed rip which proved to be a fish highway. Most boats were in shallower looking for Cobia, so we had a lot of space to fish [...]
Click here to see the full forum report.
A Couple Firsts
Florida Sportsman member: TheCollegeKid
Boat in the water at 6:15 a.m. at Canaveral, this was my first trip on a “real” fishing boat. (I’ve only been offshore on party charters until yesterday) We got some pogies and headed out. 1st line in the water, we had a fish within 1 minute. I then fought the largest King of the day for 45 minutes. I also have a cast (broken wrist) on my right hand, so this proved to be difficult. I asked my Doc if I could fish, and he said yes. I’m assuming he thought I was going bass fishing, not fighting 35 lb Kings. We ended up maxing out fairly quickly (8) all over 30lbs [...]
Click here to see the full forum report.
120 Mile Buoy
Florida Sportsman member: TrophyRoomApp
120 Mile Buoy – Bear Trap – Capt Ed Dwyer. Report from March 1st, 2012. Departed at 8am from Port Canaveral, FL. Aboard – Ed & Candy, Jen & Troy, Garret and Kristin & Scott Wilson. Seas – 4-5 x 5 sec.. Winds 15 knots – Cruising Speed Out 34 knots…
Click here to see the full forum report.
February Fillets
Florida Sportsman member: Whitner
Headed out of the port at day light and headed East to clean, warm water. Finally found it at the Stream edge in 400 ft. Sitting there was a nice rip with weeds on it. Weather report called for winds to kick up in the afternoon but they gave us a nice window until 3 or so. We also got stopped by “the man” out 34 miles. We have never seen them out that far before, but they wanted to see what we were up to. They never boarded but just asked us some questions and wanted to see our fish [...]
Click here to see the full forum report.