Hogfish bite is going very well for us near shore right now from around 30-70ft of water on the live shrimp. We are finding them fairly consistently on our 10 hour all days and also the 5 hour half days. However, the private charter trips are really able to dial in on them even better when the guests want to get after them and don’t mind fishing down a spot to wait for the hogfish light to turn on. They are often tricky to target with hook and line as they are so timid, smart and leader-shy. However, if you are able to feed all the other more aggressive fish or thin them out a bit as the bite slows down the hogfish bite will pick up quickly for a short time allowing you a chance to capitalize on a few of these awesome eating and unique looking fish. The less tackle you have in the water and the lightest weight possible helps you to have a more natural presentation and seems to help make you more successful while targeting these fish. They love live shrimp, fiddler crabs, sandfleas and rock shrimp but the most common bait for them is definitely the live shrimp.

Mangrove snapper bite near shore is going well around 60-100 foot of water we are seeing some nice mangrove snapper on our 10 hour all days and even occasionally shallower on the 5 hour half days we pick up a few nice fat mangroves while targeting the hogfish on live shrimp. However, my favorite method for the mangrove bite to go crazy is the fish finder rig with a double snell set up and a threadfin or sardine plug. Especially if you brine up the bait and get some good oils going on in the bait plugs it really helps the mangrove snapper and other snapper species get excited and ready to chew on the bottom.

Lane snapper have been biting very well even a little better than the mangrove snapper from as shallow as around 50ft up to 100ft and beyond. The lane snapper love the similar bait and tactics as the mangrove snapper but they will also take pieces of squid and are a little less picky and much less leader shy. Typically when you get on the lane snapper well there are mangroves down there too, but they just are a little smarter and require a more natural presentation to get them to cooperate.

We have had tons of mackerel around the nearshore water from the beaches out to around 60-70ft of water. Some fairly large mackerel have been caught recently on the flat lines and trolling gear during our ride out and back on our 5 hour half days and private fishing charters here at Hubbard’s Marina. They love the simple plugs trolled 12-18 ft behind number one or two planners with around 60lb test between the two.

Kingfish have been spotty but they are around the near shore waters. We are hoping to still see that bigger push of kingfish like we see each fall and spring, but the huge numbers of kings near shore in aggressive fashion has yet to occur this ‘fall’ mainly due to the lack of cold front action to cool down our near shore waters to where the kingfish like it. We are seeing them out deeper where surface temps have been a little cooler and gulf currents are more conducive but were hoping to see them get thicker near shore too!