Welcome to the Palm Beach fishing report for December. Expect schools of bait-fish to be moving south away from the cold front, and behind them hungry paligic fish. December is a great month for big dolphin and smoker king's. Big fish eat little fish, so with all the bait swimming down, always expect big fish behind them.
The waters from Trumps, north to the Juno pier will be as far as you would need to go this time of year. Lots of pro's head south out of the Palm Beach inlet, letting the warm waters of the "Gulf Stream" take the north. This is natures fish freeway. It's also a great way to cover water and save on fuel cost. Try fishing in depths of 170' to 80' of water, also keep that VHF on channel 19. If you here that the bite is deeper or shallower, adjust your depth. Live bait Is the key! So don't forget to order your google eyes the night before. It can be very hard to catch your own in December and also can take alot of time and fuel to find them. Just buy them. It's good for the economy. ( bait guys VHF channel 68) now that you have your bait you can fish a couple different ways. I prefer kite fishing myself but live bait slow troll works great to. The key is to cover water. The choice is yours
For the Inshore fishermen . Large schools of Jack's, Spanish Mack's and Tarpon will me crashing any live bait they can find. Live shrimp or finger mullet will be the best. If your a caster, try a small spoon with a fast retrieval to stimulate the bite. Remember fish want to chase their food. Kinda like a cat, go figure . Well good luck and tight lines! - Capt Weston Russell