Running down to the coast on Friday (425 miles). Fishing Saturday and coming home Sunday. Will be going out of either Port A or Packery. Will be on a 25ft Shamrock. You guys that are down there often. Where would you head out to for a one day trip?

Hard to say with snapper season closed. I am fishing Saturday - Tuesday, seas are going to be calm so I could run far. I think I would hit near shore targets and hope to find a ling along with the usual kings and sharks. I would only head way out if I heard of a good rip or weed line 20 plus miles out from a reliable source.

I'll be there 8-4 through 8-12 We will stay near within 20 in my little boat.

Good Amberjack, Grouper and Sharks on live bait at the rigs from 30-40 miles. Was at the Ant Hills for the last week of Snapper season and did very well. Live Piggie Perch were the ticket. Drop to the bottom and then reel up 5 turns.

There weren't any solid weed lines at the time. No solid rips. Virtually no current. Water was still slightly green-ish.

Hopefully it has cleaned up a bit since then and blue water moved back in. The fish were definitely there and they were hungry.

Awesome info Mike. Are there any snapper that are still in season?

Red snaps are the only ones that fall into (or rather out of) a season right now. All others are good to go. If you find some bee-liners then I'd stay on 'em until I got my limit.

I'd focus on AJ, Grouper, Ling if bottom fishing. Catch a mess of piggie perch before leaving the marina. Use a sabiki rig tipped with small chunk of shrimp meat (no shell) and drop it to bottom right up against pilings. You really only need to tip the bottom 2 or 3 hooks on the sabiki. Catch a couple dozen or more before heading offshore.

Rig em on a 10/0 or larger circle hook through the tail so they can swim around. Use heavy terminal tackle as we caught some large sharks on this set up. I caught one blacktip that was over 8 ft.

Sounds like a plan. Now if I can get the seas to cooperate.

I wouldnt mess with the harbor Pinfish.. I would go to the fina docks tip the sabki's with squid.. I was catching 5 at a time and big ones..

That'll definitely work.

so did you go if so how'd you do?

i am going on a overnight trip out of sargent august 14 and 15 i didnt want to do the tuna trip just because i want to catch something i like to eat as far as kings ling dolphin .. any ideas as far as ways to increase catching

Would you honestly rather eat a king than a tuna???

cant wait to hear how your trip went man! Hope you tore em up.

Tuna taste better than kings, but not better than ling and mahimahi in my opinion.
When you hook up to a mahi on a troll, or by casting, make sure you gaff the fish and leave it in the water. That'll draw the others close enough, within casting range.
For ling, if you see a big ray or if someone catches a big ray, you can be sure there is at least one ling around. Start chumming the water, and they'll come up to the boat. Very curious fish, but sometimes it's hard to get them interested. Throw a bucktail with a big ol' grub in front of it, and usually he'll take it. Or just start chunking.