Pompano?

[John]

I've been surf fishing for Pompano with no luck. Has anyone really caught any yet? I hear rumors but...

[JB]

What kind of rig/bait are you using? Surf fishing for pompano is hard enough even with the right equipment. Usually, I just end up casting for skipjack when I don't have much luck with pompano.

[John]

I've been using both frozen shrimp and frozen sand fleas. I typically use a ready made double-hook pomp rig, but will occasionally make a hand tied rig. Have also tried some artificial baits.

These have all worked in the past, I just think the Pompano haven't shown up yet.

[kurt]

I've been using both frozen shrimp and frozen sand fleas. I typically use a ready made double-hook pomp rig, but will occasionally make a hand tied rig. Have also tried some artificial baits.

These have all worked in the past, I just think the Pompano haven't shown up yet.

I haven't heard of any yet. Any day now.

[TN2FLA]

I have been out on the beach for a little while almost everyday for the past 3 weeks at either Ed Walline or the Dune Allen access...Have not seen any pomps caught yet, did see a guy catch a sandbar shark the other day. Fished for nearly 6 hours yesterday, with no luck, but the water is warming and I think about 2 weeks and we will be in full swing

[SlowMovin]

They're not here yet. Water temps still slightly low. No bait in the water. When you start seeing the baitfish, that's when the pomp and Spanish start to show.

[chrisv]

Yeah, still too cool.

SlowMovin, good bait pods in Mallet Bayou, caught a nice just-legal redfish yesterday evening off the dock with a DOA shrimp. He fought admirably and will live to fight again.

[Santiago]

Have also been out several times with no luck. I have seen a few being caught though. They are definitely not here in any great numbers yet.

[kurt]

I saw one caught in Seagrove today and heard about several from the other day.

[redfisher]

Saw that the water tmp has warmed up in the last couple of days...anybody seeing pomps in the surf yet?...Red

[TN2FLA]

Caught 6 pompano Wed. and another 2 yesterday...been using a 3 hook pompano rig with head-on shrimp. They have been biting best the two hours up until high tide. Good luck, they were great on the grill, cooked em last night!

[TN2FLA]

Have also caught alot of sting rays, be careful when wading out! Saw a group catch several salt water cats, a guy catch a black tip snapper, and another guy catch a permit.

[Spencer]

Are you sure it was a permit? Kind of odd for our waters. Maybe a big pompano or smaller jack?

[aquaticbiology]

COBIA R RUNNING!!!

just had the phone call!!!!!

http://www.floridasportsman.com/sportfish/cobia/9904-54.jpg

"Where the rays go in northeast Florida, so go the cobia." - http://www.floridasportsman.com/sportfish/cobia/SR_9904_Working/

"Cobia fever hits hard in the Panhandle each year. The fish seem to spend the winter almost hibernating around offshore reefs in 180 to 250 feet of water. Before the spring run inshore begins, there are often reports of cobia being caught by grouper fishermen on the deepwater reefs." - http://www.floridasportsman.com/sportfish/cobia/S_9903_Wads/

"Cobia are usually first sighted off Destin. Then, within days, or even hours, sightings are reported from Panama City to Pensacola. Within the week, they are being sighted around Mexico Beach and Apalachicola. As the temperature warms, the fever intensifies. Several prestigious tournaments take place each year, and 'Class Act' was entered in a pair of month-long events based in Destin." - http://www.floridasportsman.com/sportfish/cobia/S_9903_Wads/

TACKLE
Since this is basically open-water fishing, casting-style tackle is preferable over bottom-fishing gear or the heavy boat rods that are often associated with cobia. A suitable outfit can be made up of either spinning or bait-casting-type gear. The rod should be in the 6- to 6 1/2-foot range with plenty of butt-section strength and a quick tip for the short and accurate casts that are regularly required. The reel should have a good drag and capacity for around 200 yards of 20-pound-test monofilament line, though lighter line can be used in a pinch. In fact, one May morning trip took an interesting turn when a 45-pound cobia appeared near an inshore rip during an outing for speckled trout. We ended up taking that fish on a popping outfit and 14-pound line. That's a bit extreme, but it illustrates what is possible in a pinch.

To complete the rig, a 3-foot length of 50-pound fluorocarbon makes a good leader. Tie it directly to the line with an Albright knot. Finish out with a 1/2-ounce jighead featuring a stout 2/0 or 3/0 hook. Tip the hook with a cigar minnow, a 4- to 6-inch menhaden, or a similar-sized soft-plastic imitation.

JOINING THE BATTLE
Cast the setup about three feet ahead of the cobia and immediately begin a fairly rapid retrieve with short pumps, and it is a good bet you will get a bite!

In fact, you will likely see the fish take the bait. But do not try to set the hook based on what you are seeing. Rather, keep reeling until you feel the fish's weight and then give it two or three short sharp jabs. After that, just try to hold on!

If everything goes in your favor, the cobia eventually comes alongside the boat. Here it is paramount to be careful with the fish. These brown fish are quite prone to playing possum. Fall for that trick and bring a still "green" cobia into the boat and he surely will make a shambles out of the contents of your vessel, and may even injure you or your crew!

Unless you can turn the fish handily with firm sideways pressure of the rod, he is still green. Be patient -- a lot of these fish are lost at this point by anglers attempting to gaff or net them prematurely. It is always best to drop the fish directly into an open ice chest, which should then be quickly closed. It is not a bad idea to then sit on the lid to prevent the fish from escaping the box.

The largest certified cobia to be caught in the northern Gulf of Mexico weighed 130 pounds, 1 ounce. Peter McCollester, who was fishing out of a marina in the Florida Panhandle, took the fish on March 21, 1997.

"- http://www.gameandfishmag.com/fishing/saltwater-fishing/RA_0505_04/index1.html

my kind o fish!

prepare to get out of the way on friday night!

[TN2FLA]

i thought it was a small jack too, but he swore it was a permit, it was around 15 pounds

[Smiling JOe]

Second-hand report: Recently, Pompano have been seen 2 miles offshore swarming on the surface like bait fish. Plenty of Cobia offshore, too. Snapper season opens on Saturday, April 15.

[redfisher]

Anybody caught pomps in the last couple of days...been out the last two days w/nothing...water seems to be churning a little more today, so will try a little later...just curious to know if anybody else has had good luck?...Red

[Miss Kitty]

COBIA RUNNING!!!

My new favorite saying when I see a boat near the shore, or anytime the mood strikes!!!

[Smiling JOe]

Out of about 10 rods in the water yesterday at Grayton, I know of one guy who landed 2 Pompano, one of which dehooked himself on the beach and swam back into the Gulf. I think the water may have been a touch to rough for them yesterday. As Ms Kitty says, the Cobia are running. Saw two large ones yesterday at Grayton as the fishing boats were spot casting toward them. Then a few guys from the beach ran out throwing even more hardware at them. I think they know when they are being chased. Probably too rough for the Pompano again today.

[jdarg]

COBIA RUNNING!!!

My new favorite saying when I see a boat near the shore, or anytime the mood strikes!!!


T-shirt idea!!

What do people with fishing poles do when they hear you? Go bananas?:floor: You are going to make boats crash into each other!

[SlowMovin]

Actually went to the beach yesterday (something I rarely get to do since moving to Florida). Still no bait in the water--no schools of baitfish, no sandfleas in the surfline. Threw some pomp jigs for a while, but no takers.

Didn't see a single cobia boat all afternoon.

[Smiling JOe]

Actually went to the beach yesterday (something I rarely get to do since moving to Florida). Still no bait in the water--no schools of baitfish, no sandfleas in the surfline. Threw some pomp jigs for a while, but no takers.

Didn't see a single cobia boat all afternoon.

I am seeing Sand Fleas in the early morning. When the weather warms enough to start finding some good size Sand Fleas, the Pompano will be biting. We are not quite there yet.

[aquaticbiology]

we arrived friday morning and put in in St Andrews West Bay per the usual

we were not alone, already cobia madness had set in the locals and closer-than-us's and anyone else with a jonboat and homemade flybridge

there were at least 5 boats in line to launch with others arriving every minute

we chose the reverse route (out st andrews pass, then up to destin pass, then back through the canal) and started about 9am

the bay water was a little cloudy and still cold as hell, but there were a few bait balls here and there and i was able to net 6 little fishies and put out two trolling lines and one with the small doa crab in clear with red

we got a smallish redfish about 11am on the doa crab just as we came into the pass at st andrews

as soon as we were past the jetties and in the ocean we could see the hundreds of boats that were puffing along the shoreline just off the sandbar with one to look and one to throw and one to hand up beer

we saw the first cobia pack about 1pm near the pcb volcano alvins and got one 47" cobia right thereafter, gaffing and dropping him into directly into the big white empty igloo cooler and taking turns driving and sitting on it until he quit bouncing which was an awful long time when you're holding onto the handles thinking about how thin that plastic is

he finally quieted down and i covered him with ice from the other cooler and some saltwater - it took about eight buckets to cover it so he was a lot of fish, but once cleaned he didn't quite fill up the little deep freezer

the packs of approximately 40 cobia per pack were pretty thick, but they were eating live squid and the ocean was absolutely chock full of squid balls and the cobia were apparently following them

there were so many idiots trying to follow the dancing cobia who were following the dancing squid that lines were getting notted together and boats were almost hitting each other on a regular basis

we decided to depart before were departed or at least snagged with one of the many misthrown 4 oz fake orange squid cobia rigs that somebody somewhere was obviously making a bundle on

we went offshore after snapper and trigger fish since we were already in the ocean - it was really funny watching the onshore antics once we got out of the madhouse and joined the circle jerkers on the reefs

the local current was to running hard east to west which just didn't feel right going clockwise and the wind was from the south blowing hard and cold, so we made it only about 5 times around the circle then made straight for destin pass about 6pm

almost as soon as we were out of the circle we caught a monster black grouper who was promply cleaned and a generous portion given to the grill along with some yellow onion halfs and new potatoes wrapped in foil

there were some flippers playing tag outside the pass and it looked like a quiet night except for the wind, so we stayed outside and anchored up just north of the metal pile just south and west of the sea bouy off Destin pass

someone was shooting fireworks on the darkest part of the beach but they weren't the pretty kind

the cool air was magnificent so i put on a jacket and sat on the stern and watched the jets going around and around and around over the airfield and fished with some dead frozen shrimp and caught a nice red snapper for the freezer up here

slept in til late morning the next day only finally getting up when the inverter's battery alarm went off but stayed anchored up outside just as long as possible totally enjoying the lovely long swells and the cool breeze coming through the galley windows

with a marvelous breakfast of french toast and bagels and cream cheese and that wonderful cheap food club coffee, it was time to say goodbye before the spell was broken, so i pulled up the anchor and we went in via Destin pass and just skirting along the forbidden zone back eastward to catch the intracoastal thus heading back down the canal to the trailer

lots of folks were fishing on the banks, but i couldn't see what they were catching if anything

caught one drum waiting forever to pull the boat out - saw them coming by and grabbed the shrimp and rod quick!

finally loaded up and headed back home yesterday afternoon - not bad at all - if i can ever afford to fill this thing up with gas again we'll see you out there

and that, class, was my cobia trip (bow) :biggrin:

[aquaticbiology]

Actually went to the beach yesterday (something I rarely get to do since moving to Florida). Still no bait in the water--no schools of baitfish, no sandfleas in the surfline. Threw some pomp jigs for a while, but no takers.

Didn't see a single cobia boat all afternoon.

yeah, they were all in pcb! total madhouse!

[redfisher]

AB, i'm terribly jealous cause mine came from the market...still no pomps, threw to a cobe two days ago and couldn't make him eat...Sooo, when all else fails, head to the bay...pulled some trout and flounder from the yak and plan a rather simple feast a little later today...AB, love to see a picture of your fish if you snapped one before hakkin him up...Red

[aquaticbiology]

sorry, no pic unless you want one of the freezer (the less documentation the better when dealing with the FWC!)

--http://myfwc.com/law/Weekly/index.htm

"Officer Neal Goss conducted a resource inspection on a commercial vessel at the St. Andrews Marina. Officer Goss had recently made an undersize red grouper case on this same boat a week prior. The previous case involved harvest and possession of 52 undersized red grouper. It was discovered that the vessel was again in possession of 18 undersized red grouper. Officer Goss filed the case with NMFS enforcement agents.
In the past two weeks, Officer David Erdman has arrested 11 individuals for operating vessels while under the influence."

;P

[Miss Kitty]

COBIA R CUNNING!!!

jdarg...you have the best ideas!!! I actually ate some of the less intelligent cobia on Sunday and it was very tasty!!!

[chrisv]

sorry, no pic unless you want one of the freezer (the less documentation the better when dealing with the FWC!)

--http://myfwc.com/law/Weekly/index.htm

"Officer Neal Goss conducted a resource inspection on a commercial vessel at the St. Andrews Marina. Officer Goss had recently made an undersize red grouper case on this same boat a week prior. The previous case involved harvest and possession of 52 undersized red grouper. It was discovered that the vessel was again in possession of 18 undersized red grouper. Officer Goss filed the case with NMFS enforcement agents.
In the past two weeks, Officer David Erdman has arrested 11 individuals for operating vessels while under the influence."

;P

Unless you're keeping shorts or over slot or over limit, no need to be leery of FWC. Every officer I've encountered has been a professional helping to protect the resource. (Read my post a year ago about the bald eagle.)

I witnessed some jerkoff redneck keep what appeared to be 2 12 inch trout (too short to keep) the other day (after he anchored up 10 yards from me in LaGrange Bayou,) and when he pulled in a redfish, I hollered over "nice fish" and asked him how long it was. He replied "I forgot my stick," to which I replied "you better measure it if you don't want me on your boat!" He then rummaged through his boat and found a stick, upon which the fish measured 22 inches (slot), and he unceremoniously dropped the fish onto the floor of the boat. I know the trout he kept were too short and along with that red were just unlucky enough to be caught by someone who lacks the mental capability to respect the resource.

Typing that (and editing before submitting) just made me burn up.

[aquaticbiology]

Unless you're keeping shorts or over slot or over limit, no need to be leery of FWC. Every officer I've encountered has been a professional helping to protect the resource. (Read my post a year ago about the bald eagle.)

I witnessed some jerkoff redneck keep what appeared to be 2 12 inch trout (too short to keep) the other day (after he anchored up 10 yards from me in LaGrange Bayou,) and when he pulled in a redfish, I hollered over "nice fish" and asked him how long it was. He replied "I forgot my stick," to which I replied "you better measure it if you don't want me on your boat!" He then rummaged through his boat and found a stick, upon which the fish measured 22 inches (slot), and he unceremoniously dropped the fish onto the floor of the boat. I know the trout he kept were too short and along with that red were just unlucky enough to be caught by someone who lacks the mental capability to respect the resource.

Typing that (and editing before submitting) just made me burn up.

i understand completely - as someone who has helped to maintain the very stock of snapper, king mackeral and even mullet, i appreciate the situation and the reason for the rules

all the the fish i caught, except for the one red snapper (i mean grouper ;-) ), who ate the hook and would have died anyway so i put him out of his misery, were well within all the rules and i've had no problems with the fwc since i am an ex-coastie and a graduate-level marine biologist and the boat has a full kitchen with a coffee pot and nice table and soft chairs for filling out reports after a hard day

the 'sieze you later' and the 'expect a mackeral' were my two previous boats and both were participants in at-sea rescues when some dumbass did something stupid, so i know where you're coming from

[chrisv]

i understand completely - as someone who has helped to maintain the very stock of snapper, king mackeral and even mullet, i appreciate the situation and the reason for the rules

all the the fish i caught, except for the one red snapper (i mean grouper ;-) ), who ate the hook and would have died anyway so i put him out of his misery,

That's a judgement call you have to make on the water, it's frustrating when you pull up a short snapper or grouper and know that it's survival chance is slim, but also know the law. Swallowed hooks, ruptured swim bladders and distended stomachs can seriously disable a fish, but proper handling can allow the release and likely survival. Use of circle hooks, ARC dehookers (http://tinyurl.com/f7ebj) and Novak venting tools (http://tinyurl.com/n2ctw; http://tinyurl.com/m65kd) have proven to decrease the mortality of these reef fish. I urge all fisherman to obtain and learn to use these tools to protect the future of recreational fishing. It comes down to responsible fishing. Even if you know that a fish's chance of survival is slim, keeping a short is illegal, and I guarantee that if it can't recover, it will be eaten and used for survival by another fish, so it's not wasting. The chance of survival is what we're talking about, and ultimately the sustainability of the stocks.

The real problem is that the true threat to the stocks is commercial fishing, but the agency that regulates the stocks is the NMFS, an agency of the Department of Commerce. So you have the stocks being regulated and "protected" by the very entity that threatens it. Yet every time the rules come under review, the first, and often only, option considered, is to limit RECREATIONAL fishing. The recent grouper closure was an example of this. Every time a recreational angler is ticketed for keeping shorts (for whatever reason,) this group gains credibility for it's suggestions. The commercials come off as the more responsible party because they are more accountable for their catch.

Bottom line, we have to take a macro approach to this; making decisions each time a fish is pulled from the bottom is inefficient and ineffective.

[SlowMovin]

Here's a thought I had on that subject. It is not popular with many fishermen (of which I am one). But I believe it would eliminate the problem of putting back shorts which will just die anyway.

Eliminate size limits all together, but keep bag limits. If you catch a 10-inch grouper, you keep it and it counts towards your bag limit. Putting back a short would be the same type of violation that keeping a short is today (admittedly a more difficult one to enforce, though).

I agree with you that proper handling, venting, etc. helps immensely, but I have seen no commercial boats (charter or head boats) practice them. The short simply gets yanked off the hook and dropped over (where it either floats around for a while or gets eaten by a dolphin).

[BeachSteelers]

:( Been looking myself and haven't noticed them in the surf. Heard some caught 16 in seagrove this week probably on fleas or shrimp. Hopefully they put some back. My lastest catch End of March 33" Red 100 yards from shore in my Kayak. He pulled drag for 20 minutes like a pro and me in circles till I let that Bull go back to make some more.


" Landing Skills Or Hospitol Bills"

[redfisher]

Still tryin like hell and not much to be caught around Dune Allen...anybody havin any better luck...I noticed that the water temps in PC and Pensacola was significantly higher...anybody know the optimum temps for pomps?...Red