It's All About the Bait

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Yay! Hooray! It’s finally here….December! The beginning of the end of our slow season. Business picks up in November ever so slowly, and we are nice and steady over that Thanksgiving week, but December truly marks the beginning of “season” for me. The phone starts ringing a lot more and the emails are coming in. It’s a breath of fresh air after a long, slow season. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the slower months where I have time to hang out with my family and get things done around the house. Lots of little boating trips to the sandbar, exploring Everglades National Park, pulling stone crab traps, and the backyard is always a project for me as well. Our Conch 27’ has also gone through some repair and maintenance. I’ve gone through all the tackle - putting new lines on reels, fixing guides on the rods, checking all the electric reels for sail fishing and making sure they work, as well as getting hooks and leaders and whatever else we need together. On the boat side of things, I have been fixing all of the stuff we have broken over the

last few months - the live well pumps, some cushions, paint, and screws here and there, and we even put in a great new stereo system. It’s almost like getting ready for a NASCAR race. All of the boats in the marina are looking good and everyone is ready to go. On top of that, it’s that time of the year to stock up on live bait wherever we can. Whenever I have spare time here and there, I try and save some bait for the bait pen, and soon I will be doing some night time goggle eye trips. Fishing has stayed good into the fall with the mahi sticking around, which is usually not the norm. We had some great days of catching all sizes of mahi in November. I am now ready for a cold front or two to see some sailfish action begin.

December brings some great weather to the Florida Keys. A couple of cool fronts and the weather is perfect - not too hot and never too cold! The humidity is much less and makes being outside great – the perfect time to be on the water looking for our next sailfish bite. The cooler temperatures bring lots of bait to the reef making it lively this time of year. Snappers, groupers, and mackerels— and even sailfish just off the reef, or sometimes even on the reef. This time of year, with a well full of bait, you just don’t know what you might catch. It is also nice that we don’t have long runs offshore to find fish like we do in the summertime. We may have to go up and down the coast a bit, but usually not too far offshore. Concentrate on catching your live bait this time of year and you should have some great fishing!