Kingfish and mackerel bite is still off the chain recently near shore. We are seeing plenty of them while trolling or flat line fishing during most any near shore trip. The hogfish bite has been a little hit and miss lately but were still catching them well when we target them on our private fishing charters, but on our 10 hours we have been going a little further from shore into deeper waters to catch those great eating and plentiful mangrove snapper we have been seeing so much of lately.
Around 80-100 foot of water about 18-25 miles from shore we have been seeing big mangrove snappers — and plenty of them — as of late. They are biting especially strong on live green backs and pinfish. Live shrimp have been getting us plenty of lane snapper, yellowtails and the occasional monster hogfish out there in the deeper waters. When we specifically target hogfish, however, we’re typically fishing a bit shallower, from 30-70′ of water. That’s where it’s a little more simple and easy to catch these hogs. As you go deeper, there’s a much greater biomass of aggressive snapper that tend to compete with the hogfish more and more, making it hard for that super shy, unaggressive fish to get after your live shrimp successfully.
