finally got back from disappearing underwater a while and needless to say im itching to go fishing. one of the beaches around here is fairly clear water, quite often bait jumping around, and is usually pretty flat and easy to paddle a kayak in. anyone ever try trolling within a couple hundred yards of the beach for spanish, king, jack crevalle, …? if so do you drag baits/lures on the surface or underwater with a downrigger? i plan on trying either spoons a few feet under or dragging finger mullet or even cigar minnows with a squid skirt. any thoughts are appreciated.
A downrigger would be too bulky for a kayak. If you want to drop your bait down a bit, look at an inline trolling weight. If you don’t want to spring for one, just tie an egg weight inline with your spoon. A few ounces should be fine.
woops def not gonna be fancy with the downrigger with the whole crank or anything. the plan for that would be to get the lightest cannonball i can find and lower it with paracord and tie it off to a cleat on the back of my kayak. the inline weight may work out well to though.
i have done quite a bit of trolling on a yak off the beach in Jacksonville Fl. my favorite method is to sang poggys with a 4x4 trebble hook out of a pod then troll them ,or pitch them at tarpon. on the days i wasnt up for that i trolled spoons, plugs or jigs. a 00 clark spoon un-weighted works for spanish. but stays very shallow. pick up some 1oz or 3/4oz trolling weights to keep them down. diving plugs like X-raps work well amd doesnt need weight but is WAY to big for Spaniards . and always have a surface plug like a chug bug or jumping mullet handy. if you see surface action throw at it! of course a 1-2oz bucktail with a soft body twisty tail works great for casting to Jacks if you can see them. most of my Jacks over 30# were caught this way.
~Russ
just the post i was looking for…amelia island isnt far north at all from jacksonville thanks! i did see 1 tarpon jump last summer from the beach and when paddling out a shark bait saw something about 3.4 - 4 feet that was broad and brown but no shark fin. my guess is cobia or bull red but didnt get a 100% perfect look at it either. last time i was there i saw some bait jumping but couldnt make out any large predators in action and only caught a baby bonnethead.
Actually when i said Jacksonville i ment Amelia island… Just not everyone knows where that is. I am a submariner as well. so if you want the skinny on the island hit me up. its home. Ill be down there next weekend if the boys are fishing. I usually fished from Scott road beach access or the south end when i was fishing from the Yak. there is plenty of tarpon there just cruse the pogy pogs some have fish some dont. the tarpon a moving up and down the beach so if that’s your goal sit on the edge of a pod, if your serious about tarpon you need about 3 ft of 50# floro and a circle hook, about 6/0 depending on who made it. shot me a PM i mainly shark fish and founder gig now.
~Russ