With active tropics and and a breezy start to the summer, all eyes are on the forecast waiting on good windows to fish. When the winds have cooperated the bite has been good, baits back on the beaches, flounder are pushing inshore, the redfish are fired up, the magi are here, and the kingfish bite is wide open.
This time of year if the weather allows, I’m fishing offshore 95 percent of the time. The beach is alive, the wrecks are alive, we have pelagics around, it’s hard to beat the variety of the species you can target within 20 miles or so of the inlet and that opens up even more if you go 40 to 60 miles.
Seeing the first flicks and flips of pogies on the beach again at the end of last week was a huge relief. It’s much easier to fish when you can get all the live bait you need in one toss of a cast net. We haven’t seen much action for kingfish on the beach yet this year but hopefully they move in before the Old School tournament coming up next weekend. If you haven’t already, check out this tournament and sign up. With a limit to three miles off the beach and small boat friendly format, this will truly be anyone’s game. Flyers are at all the local tackle shops and the tournament Web site is www.oldschoolkingfish.com. This will be a huge turnout and a great time.
We ended up fishing well outside the three-mile boundary this week but found steady action out on the wrecks in 65 to 80 feet. The downrigger at about 30 feet off the bottom was the ticket for kingfish. Couldn’t keep it in the water all weekend, had a few on the surface baits but easily two-thirds of the kings came off the rigger. We did catch our first sailfish of the season last weekend; it hit a live pogy on the shotgun line while being slow trolled. Always incredible to watch as they tail walk across the spread and put on a show. The fish was kept in the water and safely released, still out there for one of you to enjoy!
While offshore be sure to keep an eye out for cob this time of year. We got lucky and had a nice one swim up to the boat this weekend and greedily inhale a jig. After catching our limit of kingfish Sunday we poked out to 100 feet to try and catch some ermillion snapper and ended up finding a handful of keeper size. They should continue to move into those 100 to 120 feet live bottom areas over the next month. Hopefully the triggerfish follow; most of the good reports I’ve seen for trigger have been out past 150 feet.
If you are fishing inshore and the conditions allow, getting out of the inlet and catching some live pogies is a great way to start the day. The bait has been on the smaller size and are perfect for catching flounder, redfish and trout inshore. Inshore, the flounder fishing and the redfish are the preferred targets. Early morning topwater is still lethal and probably your best shot at sticking a trout other than dock lights. Look for the flounder shallow early then out towards the deeper edges and drop offs later in the day. They are ambush predators so pick areas where a current is bringing bait over then with hard bottom even patches of rock. Live baits like mud minnows, mullet, and pogys work well but don’t count out artificial. Paddle tails and spinner baits can be deadly on flounder, my personal best was caught on a 1/4 oz jig head with a mullet colored paddle tail. The key to flounder fishing is being persistent and meticulous. Fan casting and thoroughly working an area over are both key. Once you catch one continue to fish that zone hard there are likely more.
For any questions, to book a charter trip, or to send in a report and pictures of your catch to be featured in a future report send an email to Chris@fishjax.org.
May 23, 2026
