Happy new year from the Coastal Angler magazine and its going to be a damn good year. Fishing has been epic the month of December and I'm sure it's gonna continue into January. This is the time to live bait, Pelagic fish will be migrating from the north to the south and hitting our funnel which is right at Jupiter inlet. You can catch everything from Sailfish to Tuna to Wahoo to kingfish all in the same depth. My suggestion is to head out the Palm Beach inlet and heading north To the 45 line. That's you're top number on your longitude latitude and that's what most of our guides use as reference points. Position yourself out deep in the 300 foot range when the wind is from the north east... if the wind is from the north west position yourself in the 80ft depth. A regular day we would set the kite up on the starboard side of the vessel fly 2 to 3 baits, then on the port side, put two flat line Live Bait and then two deeper baits with breakaway sinkers. If we were really going after her... we would send somebody down with a knocker rig for snappers. This system has proven effective time after time and is used by most of the professional guides. Going to the north this time of the year is always the best, but there could be fish to the south so you need to call around the evening before you go fishing and try to figure out what's best. Information is only good for about a day so if you hear the people are crushing dolphin on Saturday and you plan on going on Wednesday don't expect there to be any dolphin. That information is just too old. Another way of getting some good information is putting the VHF radio on channel 19 and calling out to vessels and see what they're catching. Generally people will talk back to you and let you know what's going on. For some reason people just love to The talk on that VHF and they will definitely spill the beans.
For the nearshore guys, the beaches and inlets will be hold Jacks, Permit and Sheaphead. Expect the best bites on the coldest days. It's awesome to see the steam come off the water first thing in the morning and watching Tarpon rolling and Jack's tearing baits up on the surface. Lighter Tackle is the way to go makes it the most fun. When fishing in the inlet remember that it is a waterway for large ships and some of these container boats cannot stop, so please get out of the way when you see them and give them plenty of room so they can just maneuver straight through. Well that's enough for now happy new year and I'll get back with you next month. Tight lines my friends!