by Tom Greene of Custom Rod & Reel
I really, really enjoy fishing this time of year. It’s neither too cold or too hot, the ocean has some relatively rough days, and we have offshore winds from the cold fronts that are blowing through, but in our immediate area (Boca, Deerfield, Lighthouse Point) we get calmer waters than Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.
The gulf stream comes closest to our shoreline here than anywhere else on the east coast. With the northwest winds and the cold mornings around 55 degrees, the sailfish, dolphin, kingfish, wahoo and all the bait fish bite, and bite very well.
We have a tremendous number of tournaments up and down the east coast of Florida this time of year—there was a tournament in Palm Beach recently and 2 of my boys won it. (for upcoming tourney info visit www.inthebite.com)
You can get up at daylight, catch or buy your live bait, and hit 90-120 feet of water and get kingfish and sailfish, and get into 120-180 and catch a mix of kings, dolphin, and wahoo. The wahoo bite has really come on the past 5 years and average 25-50 pounds and it’s not uncommon to catch 2-3 on an ice cold morning.
Also, you can hit the reef on the reef line that is 45-60 foot on the top and the sides go down 60 feet on the inside and 90-120 on the outside and you can drift that and find a lot of other fish—yellowtail snapper, mutton snapper, mangrove, as well as grouper.
Don’t ever hesitate to pick up the phone and call the shop and ask “what’s happening today or what’s been happening recently”, and we’ll tell you were to go. Recently a guy called and said he wasn’t catching anything, so I redirected him to the Breaker’s in Palm Beach and in one hour he had 7 sailfish caught and released and he was a happy guy! Fish hang out in groups and pods, and we talk to fishermen all day every day so we normally know where the fish are.
Tight lines and good fishin’!!
Call or visit Tom and his Team at Custom Rod and Reel. 1835 NE 25th Street, Lighthouse Point. 954-781-5600. (Tom will likely answer the phone himself)
