April Surf Report

Pompano. Big, medium and plenty of pomps. This is the best time of the year for the silver bullets. They are heading North and there are huge numbers. The weather is beautiful and the seas are remarkably right on a daily basis to catch them. Its almost like the Fall runs we used to have. Big bluefish in the morning and average size Spanish mackerel everyday! New excitement daily. Big schools of silver mullet showering the ocean chased by jack crevalles the size of hummers. Its like they engage 4 wheel drive and just muscle thru rough seas to smear bait. Even nice size snook are showing with a friend of mine landing a 31 inch southern striper on a small live whiting.
The tactics are simple, if you want to catch fish for either sport and or tasty meals, go fishing. Not catching pomps just cast over the break about 20 feet and catch plenty of big whiting and croakers. These fish are there All Day Long. You can use shrimp and or sand fleas on either whiting or pompano rigs. The pomps are biting awesome on blanched fleas and when picky on clam strips. Want to know what are the best beaches? Well it hardly matters this diverse group of fish are everywhere.
Want consistent macks go to the Jupiter Inlet jetty and cast spoons and the old beer can lures. Walk the beach and catch macks and bluefish at Loggerhead Park and south down by the rocks at Kagan Park. The crazy part is the cool water temps we are holding 75 degrees and we are still witnessing cool dry air. You can't ask for more. Just wish the weather would go into a Ground Hog Day Cycle and stagnate. Just some aimless dreaming by a die hard ole pompano fisherman. Don't forget we won't miss the high humidity migration that always arrives on schedule. For me the best news is the schools of pomps arriving from the Keys that are just hitting Hollywood and Dania. I want to thank Hurricane Sandy for providing us a migration. Maybe next year I won't be thanking a major storm but enjoying the old fashioned artic cold fronts. Maybe we should change the seasonal calendar and adjust it to the ever changing jet stream. March was a wonderful buildup to April but April will be far more awesome.
Fix those rods and lube those reels at Lott's. No need for a fishing malfunction now! They have plenty of fleas and fresh. Make your own pomp rigs with the least visible pink fluorocarbon leaders and 1/0 circle hooks. This will double your catch really easily. I wish all of you a great surf month. Please keep on casting and cranking....Rich Vidulich

In late summer when the bait is just starting to go north, we have a kingfish run here in south Florida. My father told me that in the past years this run hasn't been as good as it was 15 to 25 years ago do to the netting that went on in the 80's and early 90's. Since then netting has been banned in Florida and the kingfish population is on the rise.

This year and last year I haven't noticed many big kingfish in the 50lb range, but what I have noticed is that there are tons of king mackerel in the 5 to 20lb.range. Although I have heard about the occasional "Smoker" this past August I heard of probably a thousand or more "snakes" caught. Almost anyone that I talked to that went fishing out in the ocean this pat summer, was catching kingfish on anything from jigs, live and dead bait, and event trolled lures. This summer I caught about a half dozen on trolled ballyhoo and live bait like greenies, goggle-eyes, sardines, and menhaden
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The kingfish tend to congregate around drop offs and wrecks in any where from about 20 to 125ft. of water. They tend to live in schools, although the 40 to 55lb. smokers have been said to swim in pairs. They feed on anything from squid to large baitfish such as goggle-eyes and blue runners.

There is an arsenal of angling methods used to catch these fish. The way I like to use most is live chumming, because it is more hands on and sometimes is known to catch more fish. Another method that I have used while fishing with my dad is slow trolling a big bait like a blue runner out of and outrigger. This sometimes results in a bigger fish. This is how I caught my biggest fish. You can also fish off of a pier. Nice sized kingfish are known to come right in by the pier and feed on the baits that are at the pier for safety.

You can use lots of different kinds of tackle when fishing for kingfish. You can use light tackle in the 12 to 20lb. range. I prefer to use a 20 to 30lb. rod Lott Bros custom rod with a shimano TLD 15, spooled with 475 yds of 20lb. test line. I also use a G-Loomis 15 to 25lb. rod with the same reel. Kingfish can also be caught on standup gear. I suggest using anything in the 15 to 40lb. range, just in case you hook into a "Smoker."

This is one of the most fun fish to fish for in my area during the summer. I would recommend this to anyone young or old. HAPPY FISHING. <*)))><