# fishing today at the palm beach inlet



## FLnewfisher (Jan 2, 2007)

I spent the day fishing on the jetty at the palm beach inlet. Mostly used a pompano rig with 2 hooks with shrimp on each hook, and a 2 to 4 oz weight on the end. Ended up catching a nice cobia and a couple blue runners.

Check out this blue runner I caught. Something else had gotten to it before I got it in! What do you think did this? Can you tell by the bite marks?





































After reeling it in I decided to keep one of the hooks in the fish's mouth and I put the second hook through the back of this fish. I casted it out about 20 feet and saw something about 3 or 4 feet long come up and grab it. Unfortunately it bit right through the pompano rig line. What could I have done to try to land whatever that was? A steel leader? I have 25 lb mono on my reel.


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## cpn_aaron (Apr 11, 2006)

That my friend was Mr. Cuda himself. The ultimate fish killer. Be glad he only nailed a bluerunner. I've had the unfortunate luck of pulling big snapper heads off reefs one after another when baracudas were thick. Very annoying. The best way to get that cuda is simply tie either a 1.5 ft section of steel to a larger shock leader (40-50# big game will do) or use 80-100# big game mono leader. Both will reduce his chances of cutting the line. If I want to teach a baracuda a lesson after he has mangled too many fish I would take the fish like you did, but only put a single hook (3-6 o/ depending on the size of him) through the middle of his back and toss him back out. Putting more hooks just gives the cuda more chance to get a crack at your mainline. Leave your reel in freespool or cut your drag to nil, and let him grab it and run with it for 30-45 seconds. Then tighten up and set the hook. That should give him time to take the hook. Keep the line tight on the cuda at all times during the fight since they will try and run towards you to slack the line for a hook throw or a bite it off at the mainline. An important note, they're good runners, acrobatic, jumpers and a lot of fun, BUT they are also dangerous if brought up too green. They can send you to the emergency room in a flash with those chompers, so bring him in tired and cut the line if a hook removal seems too risky.
On another note, congrats on the good catch and report. Did you get any pics or measures of the cobia? I'd really like to see that guy, that is an awesome haul for someone who describes himself as new to the game. Tight lines bud.


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## FLnewfisher (Jan 2, 2007)

Thanks for the description of what happened out there for me. Makes a lot of sense what you said.

Here is a pic of the cobia I caught:










After the cuda incident I caught a smaller blue runner and decided to try to use him as live baight. The guys at the tackle shop told me how to use a 40# mono leader connected to my 25 lb mono line with a double uni knot and a size 3 circle hook. I used that setup and put the hook through the back of the blue runner as shown in the picture below:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n300/pdabill/baitfish1.jpg

I casted pretty far out 2 or 3 times each on both sides of the jetty for about 25 minutes or so, but no luck. He was moving around most of the time, but during the last 5 minutes or so he died. Anything I should have tried different with that situation? Does it ever make sense to cut the bait fish so it bleeds and attracts fish? The reason I ask is because with that first bigger blue runner that got chomped he was bleeding a ton when I threw him back out, and he was gone within a minute!

By the way, I am definitely new to the game (first time out on New year's eve), but have only missed 3 days since!


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## cpn_aaron (Apr 11, 2006)

those cudas move around quite a bit so that guy may have just moved on to a new spot. Or after eating the other bait he was full and no longer willing to feed. Your rigging was plenty good to jook up with him. The circle hook the guy recommended is a good idea because they catch the cudas in the corner mouth protecting your leader from those teeth. YOu really don't need to do anything different, just keep trying and eventually you'll get your cuda. They love piers/jetties, so you're bound to run into another one, pretty much the same way you did this time (a tore up fish brought in).
Nice little cobia, just need to catch him when he's another 1 1/2ft bigger and you've got a nice meal.


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## derekxec (Apr 26, 2006)

when you fish that inlet where do you park your car?

bait is better alive than dead but a bleeding bait is better than a healthy bait because injured = easy meal


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## FLnewfisher (Jan 2, 2007)

Went back out to the palm beach inlet today too. I am very lucky to know someone who knows someone who lives on the north end there where I can park. Practically nobody else out there all weekend!

I tried the same tactics today. I caught 3 smaller fish with a pompano rig and shrimp. The first one I caught (what is this?) is pictured below:










I hooked him through the back with the same setup as yesterday and threw him out there. Within a couple minutes something struck it. Unfortunately, I only waited about 2 seconds before trying to set the hook and reel it in. I immediately realized I forgot to wait as cpn_aaron suggested. It got away. The fish had some bite marks in it, but definitely not a barracuda. I threw him out a few more times, but he stopped swimming shortly thereafter. 

Fortunately I caught this little blue runner with the same pompano rig next:










I can see why they call these things runners. I threw him out there and he swam away for quite some time. I just kept feeding him line while in my "baitrunner" mode. I set my rod down for a second to get my other rod setup when suddenly I heard "ZZZZZ!" something had grabbed it and was swimming away FAST! I grabbed the rod again and was ready to try to reel it in when I realized this one got away too. Didn't break the line or anything, but got away with the fish.

So I tried again with the third small fish I caught (what is this one?):










This guy was not active at all. I know he wasnt dead because he was flapping around, but he certainly did not want to swim out like the blue runner. Tried casting him out on both sides of the jetty a couple times over ~25 minutes but no luck, and it was time to call it a day.

Besides cuda, what kind of fish do you think I can catch with this technique and location?

Was having a big problem today with small fish stealing my shrimp. I have been successfully using a pompano rig with shrimp to pull up some decent size fish. Today I only got small ones, and I think that the majority of times the fish were just stealing my shrimp without biting the hook. Is the pompano rig hook too big? If I want to use these little guys for bait what should I use to catch them?


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## jettypark28 (Jun 23, 2006)

*Nice start*

the first fish is a pinfish (good hardy bait) alot of things will hit him. The 2nd looks like a almost a Yellow jack(bar jack)but i am not sure...still should make a good bait. The one thing with fishing with shrimp, is you are going to lose bait to the smaller fish. But i would keep doing what you are doing, catch those smaller fish. And throw them out there for bait, just wait you will hook up to something nice. You might not bring it in, but it will get you hooked!!! even more. As to what type of fish you can catch in a inlet...Almost anything...seeing that you don't know what many fish look like. There are some site with great pictures of fla fishes, Also at any wal-mark there is this book by "Florida Sportsman" Called "Sport Fish of Florida" it has pretty good pictures, and names almost every fish here in fla...seeing that you are new, go and do a search on rigs and tech to use in inlets, also what kind of fish in your area...You should find alot of things...and that might help you out alot faster then waiting for replys, then come back and ask more questions...Good luck and way to start...I love fishing with livebait


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## VICIII (Apr 8, 2005)

sounds like you were just shy of a great day. Next time the big ones will be landed...
Remember what was happening with the tides and weather when you have a couple of good hit or when you are skunked to see if you can predict a good day from a bad day from this location. That has helped me. An outgoing tide and full night time moon and I am fishing my inlet everytime...
Keep on feeeesssshhhin.....


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## cpn_aaron (Apr 11, 2006)

sounds like it was shaping up to be another great day. Catching the bigger ones on live bait can be difficult. Sometimes they miss the hook, just hit and kill your bait, or swallow him down and then bite through the line. Just keep doing what you're doing and you will score one of them. Without the bite marks on teh fish in a picture what type of fish hit it can be difficult to distinguish. Triangular punctures in a large area are indicative of sharks, reds will pulversive a fish mashing it up more than puncturing, and many other fish off all sorts with all sorts of teeth make different marks. As Vic and jetty said, in an inlet you have th pic of the litter when it comes to baits and possible catches.
You're pompano rig should be just fine. Shrimp is a soft bait, so plan to lose a lot of it to all kinds of fish. And plan to catch a lot of smaller fish (everything loves shrimp). I just do what you do, throw out the small ones as live baits to try for a bigger fish. Just keep researching and in time you'll learn a load. I had never surf fished until I moved to FL and it has been a continuous process learning how to fish the beach.


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