Florida Fishing out of Boca Raton - offshore

[JohnMckroidJr]

Last Monday I did a trip out of Boca Raton, Florida. I launched out of the inlet with the out going tide at 430am in darkness to catch bait. Bait fishing for the prime live bait: Big Eye Scad (aka Goggle Eyes) was super slow, but my buddy and I were able to fill up our live wells with a few each, plus all the Blue Runners we wanted. One of the problems with fishing Blue Runners is they constantly swim back to and hide under the kayak if one stops moving. At 0630, I headed out to 160ft to deploy baits before sunrise.

[JohnMckroidJr]

I slow trolled 2 live baits twice by the HydroAtlantic wreck for zero bites. No even a Cuda. The current was stronger than normal (2.5kts in 165ft). I wanted to catch something to take home and eat, so I headed out to a deeper wreck that normally holds fish. When I got out there I meter a good amount of fish, but the current was 3Kts+. I attempted 10 drifts over the wreck for just 2 hook ups. One coming off on the way up and this Almaco Jack. Now I had something to take home!

[JohnMckroidJr]

The current was just too strong to present the jig properly, so I decided to slow troll 2 baits inward. I trolled in past the third reef(95ft) and metered a lot of fish. Finally around 10am, I landed a King Mackerel in 45ft of water.

[JohnMckroidJr]

I kept working the inner reef area, trolling perpendicular to the beach going from 20 to 120ft of water. Eventually I caught and released a Cuda, and a smaller King Mackerel.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Around noon time I decided to head South and try Pompano Beach. Often the current is not as strong farther South. The Gulf stream becomes closest to Florida at West Palm Beach, so the farther South, the bigger the distance from the Gulf stream, and generally the easier it is to fish off the kayak.

Once in Pompano, I meter some really good bait marks and decided to drop the sabiki on it. First drop was a Rainbow Runner and 4 Little Tunnies.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Little Tunnies are prime bait for many species, including Wahoo. I immediately pinned 2 of them on my live bait rods and began slow trolling out ward. In about 150ft of water, the surface bait was hit. I looked back and something silver was jumping. I have had so many jumping Cudas lately, That I though it was another F'in Cuda. To my pleasant surprise, it was a keeper Mahi! Nothing giant, but I was stoked to have fresh Mahi to take home.