We had our first real cold front for this fall yesterday. I have been smoking a ton of bluefish, and have been hoping for a few mackerel in the mix. The mackerel have been scarce for this time of year, most likely due to record high temperatures. I read reports yesterday that there were some fish to be had, so today off to Juno I went.
I left at 5 am. I always have to leave enough time to stop at the Jupiter Donut Factory. Rule #2, never fish on an empty stomach. They have great breakfast sandwiches and even better donuts.
I got to the pier at sunrise and was surprised that it was relatively empty. The wind was strong, and the water rough.
By 9 am, I still hadn’t gotten any bites. I figured the day was going to be a bust, but I decided to go get my last donut out of the car and take a break. On my way back, they started killing the bluefish in the surf. Bluefish were hitting the pier left and right. I went back to the “T” and caught a few bluefish, but that was not what I was targeting. Usually, I target pompano in the spring, when they tend to be bigger, but since nothing else was biting, I put on a goofy jig and gave it a shot. I started catching small pompano. At around 10, a school of pompano came through, lots of small ones but I got my first keeper.
At this point, half of the pier came to a 10 foot section where the pompano were being caught. It was hard to avoid tangles, but for every few small pompano, I got a keeper. I ended up with 4 keepers on jigs.
In between the pompano, I threw a silver gotcha and knocked out some small spanish mackerel. Those will be smoked tomorrow.
It is important on windy days like today, the days when the pompano, macks and bluefish are biting best, to have heavy jigs. The light ones they sell are not for ideal conditions in South Florida. I was using a 3/4 oz pompano jigs, and a 1 oz gotchas.
Overall it was a lot of fun and I have some good eats for dinner.
hook2table 