Pompano Season

Pompano season.  Two of my favorite times of the year!  A species of Jack, Pompano are one of the tastiest fish in the sea.  Outstanding grilled or roasted.  For the North East (NE) Florida fisherman the season occurs twice during the year.  They make their winter home in central and southern florida then migrate in the spring through our area, following cooler water temeratures, to Virginia and the Carolinas.  They pass through the area again in the fall as the water temps decrease again, showing up usually when the water temp hits the mid to low 70's.  Right now the evening water temp is about 81 deg. (F).

Not only are they delicious to eat they are good fighters and elusive.  The challenge is locating them.  Pomps prefer clean water, so when there's an east or northeast wind sturring up the surf good luck finding them.  I remember three years ago we had successive nor'easters during their southern migration and I went the entire season catching only one.  The good news is it's only a 2 hour drive to their winter home, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and points south.  They have a distinctive manor of strike and a distinctive manor of trying to get free of the hook. If your line goes slack suddently chances are it's a Pompano.  They will strike and heads towards you, towards the beach.  Don't reel in fast, reel steady until you make contact.  Then the fight is on.  They will swim side to side rapidly trying to remove the hook.  Heading north then turning to head south over and over until they're in your grasp.  Once you've got them in your cooler think "good eats tonight!"

The bait of choice is sandfleas aka mole crabs, which are found in the sand near the waters edge.  Best time to start digging for them is high tide. Prospect with your "flea rake" looking for small indentations in the sand or air bubbles coming out of the sand.  If you find one or a few keep digging in the same hole you should find the pod near that area or a little deeper. However, during the fall season they are scarce.  When the air cools they disappear deep into the sand.

Other baits of choice are Blue Crab knuckles, clams and shrimp.  When you think Pompano bait, think crustations.  This season I'm also going to give gulp sandfleas a try.  It's been said Pompano are sight feeders.  We will see if that's true.  I know fishbites work well.  I've caught redfish on fishbites.

The season is on the horizon because the water is cooling off up north. I would say it is rapidly approaching but it appears that here air temperatures are slowly decreasing.  Night time temperatures have yet to break the 70 degree barrier.  I've already put in for my Pompano Hunting time off in early October.  Hopefully, they will have just shown up on our beaches!

Happy Hunting!