Port Canaveral Offshore 12-17-10

Capt. Henry Hauch
December 20, 2010
Port Canaveral - Saltwater Fishing Report

Fishing Report 12-17-10
How I long for the days of........well almost any other month of the year, when sea's are decent at least as often as they are poor. Working a schedule for fishing to match the weather is difficult, and when there are only a day or two in a week where the offshore conditions are decent, or even safe, make things rough. We sailed out of Port Canaveral a little after 6:00am under overcast skies, and the little peek of the sun we saw on our run out would be the last we would see of it, until our ride in......as it was setting! Rain was theorder of the day. We managed to fish around the heavy stuff, but still light rain was there all day. Deep Sea fishing out of Port Canaveral has its chalanges this time of year, but when we get out something is always biting.

Fisrt stop of the day was at 8A for some live bait. We were stopping to pick up some Grunts to take out deep, but were having a hard time finding them with all the small Sea Bass beating them to the bait. We did manage to boat a few keeper Sea Bass and nice fat Trigger for the effort. Finally we got our bait, and headed out a little deeper. At 120' we drifted the structure, with ARS being there. A sonar hit of a school
marking, netted ARS, so we knew we were going to have a hard time getting much else with them around. A few Porgy's were added to the icebox.

Out to the 20 mile weather buoy for a few pass's dragging lines. boats were already there, and only one hookup was seen. Not really sure what was taken, but looked to be a King or Cuda. We made several circles around with only one hookup as we passed the Buoy. The Drag screemed, and Kevin grabbed the rod for the fight. This was a monster, with line continuing to peel. I slowed the boat, and the fight lessened. The catch was indeed big, perhaps as big as our boat! Once unhooked from the "buoy", we headed for deeper water.

A stop at a 170' wreck did not mark any fish, but with a boat on our next target, we worked it for a while. We limited on Atlantic Sharpnosed Shark here, and moved on to City's Barges. Again no fish marking, but lines down anyway. A few baits came back bit off, before a hookup was made. This fish had a little more fight in it than we had all day, so a little action seemed to be heating up. The fish was finally brought to the boat, and it was a fat Cuda. Though only 4' long, this fish had been eating well. With rain continuing, and wind picking up, we opted to add some more good eating fish to the icebox. We caught a lot of the other "Red" Snappers at these locations also, Vermillions. These though excellent eating, are sadly closed for recreational anglers from November to March, so sadly they were all released.

We headed in to 120' and one of the artifical reef's, and dropped baits. Several more Porgy's were added to the collection, as well as another fat Trigger. The radio reports we heard all day really did not have much action taking place. We were out as deep as 240', or 33 miles out, and never hit clean Blue water nor any weeds. Boats out as deep as 600' only reported some widely scattered weeds, and not much catching action, so we chose not to spend the time chasing shadows or blind trolling. We finally made our way to port right around sunset, with the boat to load, fish to clean, and a lot of cleaning up to do yet. It was a long wet day, but food was brought home, and everyone caught fish!

King Mackeral are still thick at the 80' reef's, with water temp's still in the 70's. We managed to add a King to the catch, however this was from another angler exiting a party boat, that did not feel like cleaning it. Oh well, He got the fun of
catching it, and We get the fun of eating it. Take'em any way you get them! Despite poor weather and ocean conditions this time of year, a deep sea fishing charter is still a great oppurtunity to enjoy the Great Outdoors while on Vacation in Florida. We sometimes have to juggle the days to get an Offshore fishing trip in, but its worth it.

Captain Henry
ACME Ventures llc
www.ACME-Ventures-Fishing.com
321-794-7955
602 Glen Cheek Dr. Cape Canaveral Fl. 32920

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