You name it and we pretty much caught it. There is no doubt, we are on the edge of the Spring action. We had glimpses of it before the last cold front. We had three big mackerel days. I had a tip that they were in an area and after we were done with trout and redfish we stopped to make casts in a pass. Instantly we were both hooked up to very large mackerel. We caught them for a half an hour, every cast. They were in there two more days before the last front drove them out.
Targeting and catching mackerel isn’t difficult. With the knowledge of where they are, your work is almost done. They are pretty open to feeding on a variety of lures. It is better to throw flashy type offerings. Personally I like to put the Uncle Neil Teaser in front of them. You can do that in a variety of ways. We did great on the Silly Willy/Teaser combination. We also caught fish with jighead/paddle tails. Presentation is interesting. In my old days I used to rip lures for mackerel. Now I prefer a more subtle method and take a more controlled approach. You try different things to see what works, much like any other kind of fishing. The biggest mackerel were caught on the Uncle Neil Teaser “floating free”, meaning it is an extension of your other lure. Use 12 to 18 inches of 40# leader and have the teaser dragging behind your other lure. My teasers have a lot of flash built into them. The ones I tie for mackerel are slightly longer than my pompano teasers. I think that we catch more mackerel than others because we back off on the drag. A lot of the short striking fish still get hooked if they can take some line.
The trout action has been predictably good, we just haven’t been into aggressive larger fish. If you put in your time, eventually the smaller ones evacuate and the bigger fish eat. Redfish action has been good in the right areas and non-existent in others.
Pompano: Pompano and flounder are both an item for the future. Pompano were caught last week but they are here today, gone tomorrow. We are catching flounder every time out but they are not in the summertime numbers and they aren’t very big. Look to late March for their return. Probably April for pompano.
Kayak Fishing Skool is March 24, 2016 6:30PM at Bill Jackson’s in Pinellas Park. The topic this month: Speckled Trout. A Classic species, come learn how to be more successful catching redfish.
As always: Be careful out there!
Neil Taylor
Owner and guide: www.strikethreekayakfishing.com
(Cell) 727-692-6345 LivelyBaits@aol.com
Owner and site administrator: www.capmel.com
Co-host: Outdoor Fishing Adventures, 8 to 9AM Sundays on 1040 “The Team”
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- The Neil Blog… - July 26, 2023
- The Catfish - July 26, 2023
- update - July 22, 2023
