winter fishing is almost in full swing and should be all out war after these next couple of cold fronts blast through our area. The same weather systems that have and soon will bring the horrendous weather to the northern parts of the country are exactly what we really need to push the schools of mackerel, jacks, bluefish and baitfish south, running away from colder water and they basically keep running until they end up right here off Palm Beach where the Gulf Stream keeps the water temps closer to what all those species prefer.

Jacks, Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Ladyfish, a few Pompano and Cobia have all moved into the inshore waters, both along the beach and inside the inlets. King Mackerel, assorted runners, jacks, snappers and some exotics like Coronetfish are starting to pile up around offshore structure. A few dolphin and blackfin tunas have been out beyond the reef and numbers of sailfish increase with the passage of every cold front.

I hope to get more time in on the Sailfish thing this winter,(one of the few types of fishing that still gets my knees knocking…teasing a sailfish up to the transom and throwing flies will send your heart rate into triple time), than in the past couple of years. The majority of the hot sailfish bites came very quickly and was done. If you weren’t there when it was happening, you were out of luck. Here’s hoping for good weather, good numbers of sailfish and a good long time to go get them.

For those of you looking for the Spinner Sharks, I expect to be seeing them very soon, as in the next two weeks. And they may well be here now, but several weeks of fairly windy weather has prevented me from fishing along the beaches. I can only hope for a similar performance to last winter when they finally do move into the area….which was, quite frankly, as good as it gets with tons of action of a world class nature. For those of you wanting to be here for them, they usually move out of the area in late March or early April.