I was fishing at Loggerhead park on June 1 late afternoon and a local dropped by to say hello. He asked me if I had given up pompano fishing for the Summer. I showed him three one and half pounders in the bucket. He was dumb founded figuring it was over. I replied when the conditions are right the pomps will show. The day before I caught 10 nice pomps. My prediction is these fish will bite on and off thru June. The fish are not the large Winter fish but they are respectable in size, 12 to 15 inch pomps. The season started very late this year and the water temps are about 4 to 5 degrees cooler this time last year. They will hang around to about 84 degrees and then either migrate North or just pull out to deeper and cooler water. The ones that go deep become resident fish and stay all year. When there is no offshore wind and the water is clear they will hide around the reefs. On those days it is advisable to try jigging at McArthur Park and Blowing Rocks on Jupiter Island. The days that the wind is out of the West are not good surf fishing days for any beach species. I find the late afternoon bite is the best with an easterly or southeast breeze. Now that we are in a Summer pattern the mornings will be too calm with the afternoons picking up the offshore winds. The stronger the wind the better the fishing. A slight rip current will increase the catch. I find the best bite time is between 6 P.M. and sunset. By the way these fish are in very close to the beach regardless of the tide. I'm talking 50 to 100 feet out. Unlike the Winter fishing when the pomps are migrating by 100 yards or more. The reason being is the sandfleas are starting to show and in the early evening I've spotted pomps swimming sideways to get to those sand fleas. Standard pompano rigs will work especially with chartruese colored corks. Don't forget to bring some shrimp because these smaller pomps love shrimp as well as frozen fleas. I've been catching some whiting, croaker, ladyfish and a few snook on the beaches this week. The top June locations are The Old Pier area near Celestial Way, Loggerhead Park, Walkway number 12 in Jupiter and just North of The Reef Club in Jupiter. During the Summer any storm passing offshore that may produce any kind of groundswell will bring those silver bullets to the beach. I hope you guys try my strategies and enjoy some pompano for dinner this Summer. Tight lines my friends, Rich Vidulich.........

In late summer when the bait is just starting to go north, we have a kingfish run here in south Florida. My father told me that in the past years this run hasn't been as good as it was 15 to 25 years ago do to the netting that went on in the 80's and early 90's. Since then netting has been banned in Florida and the kingfish population is on the rise.

This year and last year I haven't noticed many big kingfish in the 50lb range, but what I have noticed is that there are tons of king mackerel in the 5 to 20lb.range. Although I have heard about the occasional "Smoker" this past August I heard of probably a thousand or more "snakes" caught. Almost anyone that I talked to that went fishing out in the ocean this pat summer, was catching kingfish on anything from jigs, live and dead bait, and event trolled lures. This summer I caught about a half dozen on trolled ballyhoo and live bait like greenies, goggle-eyes, sardines, and menhaden
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The kingfish tend to congregate around drop offs and wrecks in any where from about 20 to 125ft. of water. They tend to live in schools, although the 40 to 55lb. smokers have been said to swim in pairs. They feed on anything from squid to large baitfish such as goggle-eyes and blue runners.

There is an arsenal of angling methods used to catch these fish. The way I like to use most is live chumming, because it is more hands on and sometimes is known to catch more fish. Another method that I have used while fishing with my dad is slow trolling a big bait like a blue runner out of and outrigger. This sometimes results in a bigger fish. This is how I caught my biggest fish. You can also fish off of a pier. Nice sized kingfish are known to come right in by the pier and feed on the baits that are at the pier for safety.

You can use lots of different kinds of tackle when fishing for kingfish. You can use light tackle in the 12 to 20lb. range. I prefer to use a 20 to 30lb. rod Lott Bros custom rod with a shimano TLD 15, spooled with 475 yds of 20lb. test line. I also use a G-Loomis 15 to 25lb. rod with the same reel. Kingfish can also be caught on standup gear. I suggest using anything in the 15 to 40lb. range, just in case you hook into a "Smoker."

This is one of the most fun fish to fish for in my area during the summer. I would recommend this to anyone young or old. HAPPY FISHING. <*)))><