Cure For The Summertime Blues

When the wind forecast shows zero and the ocean turns into a lake, there’s only one thing to do: point her east. These are the days we live for.

Summertime in FL presents many days like this with great fishing just miles off the coast, and we were lucky enough to take advantage of it recently. We cleared the Jupiter Inlet only to be greeted with offshore storms blocking the sunrise, but fortunately providing some much-appreciated cooler air. The Viking’s turbos spooled up and we were off.

Pulling up to the “Ledge,” there was life everywhere. Bonito and Blackfin busting baits on the surface, sharks cruising with fins out of water, and even Sailfish free jumping. We rigged up the rods with some live Goggle Eye and Pilchards, and dropped them back. Within minutes we were hooked up.

The boys went to work on Bonito, one after another. With so many around this time of year, it’s nearly impossible to get past them and into a more preferred species. But if you’ve never felt the pull of one, the fight is hard to beat. A few sharks and small Mahi Mahi, and we decided to switch gears in hopes of bringing home some dinner.

Next stop: deep dropping with electric reels. This is like the adult version of video games, with a much sweeter reward. We loaded the rods with a couple pounds of lead and five hooks of squid, and sent the baits to the bottom. First drop and we were hooked up.

One by one we hauled up Vermillion Snapper that would soon be headed to the dinner table until we ran through all of our bait. Load up, point her back home, and celebrate another successful day on the water. Until next time.