Palm Beach surf report from October 2017 -

[Miami_Chris]

I’ve been fishing for pompano down here in Miami for the last few weeks and have only caught 4 in 7+ trips and they were all before the cold front. I know they are catching them up in your area so it’s just a matter of time before we see them more down here.

My surf catches around Miami are similar to yours. Tons of blue runners and instead of palometa, been catching t bonefish. I keep thinking it’s a nice pompano, but in comes a bonefish lol. Have caught about 10 so far in recent weeks.

[mil7950]

theres no structure in the area as far as i know. never snagged anything and havent felt my sinker bump aything while reeling in.

was planning on going out today but had to do a lot of last minute shopping for christmas. i have some family spending the night for christmas but im going to try and hit the beach tomorrow morning before everyone wakes up lol. ive had some fishbites laying around the house that i wanted to try from the beach. will post if i can get out.

[CELLFISH]

Similar conditions here last few weeks, I'm at Hollywood beach, surprising Jack's aren't biting, bonefish yes, runners a lot, bluefish too and I can get that smell of bluefish off the beach and that's whats prolly cutting the lines clean or shark.. . Caught a REMORA on squid which means there's sharks around too...saw em chasing bait bait last weeks high tide at dusk... cellfish...

* MERRY CHRISTMAS *

[mike j]

Went out this morning 7 a.m. on the surf, fleas were abundant, surf was 4+. I caught polometas every cast, chunky ones. I was exhausted keeping up with just two poles. Just before I left I had a huge hit and ran along the beach following this fish that was trying to strip my reel. I finally get a look at the fish it was a huge Jack. One of the biggest I've ever caught.

[fishnfool73]

Nice report.... I think you've caught more palometas than I have ever seen. I have seen others post large numbers of them as well. I can't recall ever seeing or hearing of so many being caught.

[CELLFISH]

Went out this morning 7 a.m. on the surf, fleas were abundant, surf was 4+. I caught polometas every cast, chunky ones. I was exhausted keeping up with just two poles. Just before I left I had a huge hit and ran along the beach following this fish that was trying to strip my reel. I finally get a look at the fish it was a huge Jack. One of the biggest I've ever caught.

.
.hey mike , Jack's fight hard, how big was it besides huge, pounds or length estimate... Cellfish ..

.

[mil7950]

never seen a palometa before, are the good to eat?

[CELLFISH]

never seen a palometa before, are the good to eat?

. Palometo, seem a bit small for things,

recipe: take the heads and insides out, deeep fry in the back yard with a beer and with a bud, 20 required...

lemons, hot sauce, pickles for color... cellfish...
.

[mike j]

I'll be honest I didn't measure it, I wanted to let the Jack go as quickly as possible. He gave me such a good fight, I was just happy to land him. I am going to measure and weigh the polometas I catch. Because if you kept twenty of the ones I've been catching you could feed four people. I kept five this morning and it was plenty for me and my wife. To answer mil795 Polometas are in the Jack family similarly shaped to Pompano with elongated fins and four bars along their body. they seem to be really thick this year up along Palm Beach. They don't have tight restrictions on how many you can keep.

[mike j]

Went fishing on Palm Beach at about 7:30 this morning, swells were about 4 ft and the water wasn't clear. It was pretty cold and sand fleas were hard to come by. I caught two Palemetos, the crabs were bad, between very few fleas and the crabs, I packed it in after about a hour and a half.

[Rare]

Toss a crab if you decided to bottom fish for long...

[mil7950]

havent gotten a chance to go out in awhile. how is the cold weather for fishing from the surf? i just got approved from my job to work from home so hopefully that will let me get out a little more frequently. i havent tried cut bait in the mornings so im looking forward to giving that a shot.

[mike j]

Well I don't think you should fish the surf for a few days. I drove out to the beach this morning the waves were 10+ and the wind was coming out of the nne. The only place I could fish comfortably was lake trail on the intercoastal side of Palm Beach, I was protected from the wind there and the tide was high. I used a white jig head with a white gulp shrimp. I caught about ten 2-3 pound Jacks and two Snook, one was slot size. They even closed the Lake Worth pier because of the high surf

[CELLFISH]

some of my best fish days were with a rough beach, 10 foot waves.? last when i checked they were nearer 4 - 6 footers...

cold weather, blah get a set of waders and HH rain gear and have fun,

would have luved to throw some bait yesterday, but had to work on a washer machine... ..cellfish

[mike j]

Well I am glad you are such a tough hombre. I would be more impressed if you practice what you preach and gave us a fishing report, with you being the one fishing. It's easy to comment about the weather conditions, while sitting on the couch watching t.v. I am just kidding, I am happy you are responding, I wish more people would.

[CELLFISH]

Take some of those palmettos with a 9/0 and 5 ounce weight and see what happens.

[mike j]

This weather reminds me of when I use to go ice fishing in upstate N.Y. We use to use a hand held auger and make twenty holes and put out tip-ups. Then we would wait, when you got a bite the tip-up flag would come up and you would run over and pull up your catch.

[mike j]

Went out on the surf around 10:30 this morning, ocean was rough, seas about 4+. I was fishing 2 rods with shrimp. For about half a hour I didn't get a bite. Then the Jacks came all in the 4 pound range, a bunch of them. Then I started getting my line cut, I haven't been catching blues by me for a while. I still haven't, it started raining and there was lightning. I was getting soaked, while trying to rig up. I ended up calling it a day even though I wanted to keep fishing.

[mil7950]

mike you got a good recipe for blues?

[mike j]

I have to be honest and say I like to eat Blue Fish. I grew up eating a lot of Blue Fish, I guess it reminds me of my youth. In eating Blues I think taking proper care of your fish is key to it tasting good. I bleed them immediately, ice right afterwards and eat that day. All I do for them is flower them, then dip them in egg, then breadcrumbs, and fry them up (pretty basic). We haven't heard from you lately mil7950, I hope you will continue to post your fishing reports, I enjoyed them.

[mil7950]

ah okay, cant really beat that.

and yea i havent gotten a chance to get out at all since my last report. had to get certified for something at work and spent the majority of my time studying. im all certified and freed up now, though. going to try to use up the last of this frozen ballyhoo sometime this week.

[mike j]

Went fishing this morning 7a.m. waves were 4-6 the water was cloudy. I fished shrimp with three rods, it was too cold to collect sand fleas. I kept catching Blue Runners and Jacks nothing else. I ended up going down to two rods because the fish were biting often. I got frustrated and left after two hours.

[mil7950]

Tried the intercoastal today for tarpon for a little bit, no dice. My battle 4000 is broken and I've been using an old reel I've had since I was in high school and it's a hassle. Think I'm gonna try to pick up a jack or two tomorrow morning for bait. The ballyhoo has been in my freezer for nearly 2 months now and idk if it's even worth using.

Mike why don't you use the jacks And runners as cut bait?

[mike j]

I guess I just haven't had good results with it. The times I have used cut bait I've caught mostly crabs, but like other types of fishing I'm sure its productive, but I've never put the time in it. The other day I caught a blue runner and cut him up and used it. Immediately I caught some kind of small shark. Lately I've been obsessed with fishing with sand fleas, probably to my coolers detriment.

[mil7950]

Ah I see. I'd love to try out blue runner as bait, never even caught one before.

I'm gonna be hitting the beach tonight and I'll have a report shortly after. Decided to just give that old ballyhoo in my freezer a try rather than going out for jacks this morning. It's been frozen and unfrozen a couple times so I'm not expecting much. I'm gonna try 40lb mono as leader in case any bluefish are in the area as opposed to my regular 15-20lb flouro too.

This year I'm planning on taking home every keeper I get. Eating the small ones whole and filleting the big ones.

[mil7950]

Went fishing from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. About 2-3 foot waves I think, nothing too bad. Not too good at guessing wave height but a 2oz pyramid held bottom easy. Caught a 10 inch mangrove right out the gate, first cast. Caught a 9 inch mangrove then a 7 inch mangrove a little later then ended the night with a 10 inch lane. Kept the 10 inch mangrove and the lane.

I'll probably go back to the 15 or 20 lb fluoro leader, maybe try out 8lb. I want to try a jack out as bait soon. I'd like to try out a lure at night still but we'll see.

Overall a nice trip.

Also, I want to get my battle repaired, anyone know any good repair shops?

[mike j]

Haven't had a chance to fish much lately. I went out Monday at 2p.m. and fished the surf. The tide was starting to come in, the waves were down and fleas were plentiful. I fished for two hours not a bite, I tried some lures to see if there were any jacks about, no luck.

[mil7950]

I went out last night and didn't have much luck too. There was a full moon and the water was significantly colder than every other time I've gone fishing within the last month or two. The seas were completely flat, also. In 3 hours I caught two 9in mangroves and a baby shark.

[fishnfool73]

From my experiences surf fishing sometimes it is a great idea to have a variety of bait. Fleas are great but sometimes cut shrimp or clams can turn the fish on. I have had fleas go untouched many times only to cast out cut shrimp and limit out on pompano. Also don't overlook using a whiting rig or smaller pompano rig with small fleas or shrimp. Cast this right at your feet literally as the whiting pompano and croaker at times will hang right at the dropoff to pickoff fleas as waves wash them out. I have caught 50-100 whiting at times and basically cane poled them from my feet. I have had many trips for pompano saved by big numbers of croakers and hitting using this method.

[mil7950]

when you use circles from the beach with the rod in the holder, generally how much do you want your drag turned up to? ive had a lot of things run off with the bait and leave the reel screaming but when i reel in to set the hook, it just doesnt set.