Port Canaveral Offshore 02-04-11
Capt. Henry Hauch
February 6, 2011
Port Canaveral - Saltwater Fishing Report
Whats it like to fish in a Cloud? We found out Friday with 2 corporate Jet Pilots who were on a layover in Melbourne. Leaving the Port in near "White-Out" conditions we figured it would burn off by mid-morning. We were wrong! We planned to run deep right off the bat in search of the Wahoo bite, but with the visability at 100', we stopped at Pelican to drift it a while to give the fog a chance to clear.
At Pelican, we found fish everywhere, most ones we could not keep, and hundreds that we will not be able to keep in less than 2 weeks, Sea Bass. Vermillion Snapper are very abundant also, but unless you are a commercial fisherman, you must throw them all back! Triggers and Sea Bass were in the icebox. A half dozen Cobia's followed up a Sea Bass for a surprise visit, but took a look at a live Pinfish, Squid, Sardines and jig we had before heading back out of sight. Only one looked like it was a keeper size, but at least they are still holding in the area. A few Manta's were seen jumping when we got a little break in the fog to see out more than a few hundred feet. The Sea Bass are on the heafty size. the largest this trip was 19"!
We finally decided to work our way out a little deeper, looking for color and tempature changes. With the fog we decided to not go past 300', since we had to manage our time and leave enough for a reduced speed return to port. We found Tempature breaks, but unlike a couple degree break in the spring and summer that signals a possible location to find fish, these were drastic. At one upwelling, we went from 72 deg to 49 deg!!! We did work lines in a few of these breaks at locations were a weak and scattered weedline was present, but no action. We made a stop at some bottom structure and found more fish that we cannot keep, and a nice Snowy Grouper which is keepable if caught inside 240' (and applicable waypoints).
Out at 200' plus the fog started lifting around 2:00pm. but halfway in to port, it grew thick again until it was at 100' or less visability. Despite RADAR and a good chartplotter reduced speed is still a wise coarse of navigation to follow. Sea's for the day were not bad, winds stayed light, no doubt allowing the fog to remain. It did keep the temps down, which actually was nice, however running in heavy fog is much like running in a very light rain, you get wet!
Captain Henry
ACME Ventures Fishing
www.ACME-Ventures-Fishing.com
321-794-7955
602 Glen Cheek Dr., Cape Canaveral Fl
Deep Sea Fishing Charters Port Canaveral
"wile e Coyote"
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