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4 Comments

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  By Brandon W, November 26, 2011 @ 12:24 am

  Use a small octopus style hook with some type of natural bait (I prefer shrimp or cut bait) look for rocky shoreline, seawalls or bridges. You can chum them or if you are in an area where barnicles are growing just knock them off into the water.

  BTW an octupus style hook is a type of circle hook
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  By BeachBum818, November 26, 2011 @ 6:39 am

  I prefer circle hooks, they prevent gut hooking the fish. You also cant go wrong with shrimp. Look for structure- sandbars, bridge pylons, dock pylons, rocks, mangroves. These places provide cover for shrimp and smaller bait fish, which in turn attracts the larger fish. I like to scout an area out during low tide. This way sandbars, channels, rocks, and any other structure will be highly visible. You cant beat the bite at night during a full moon.
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  By Chimp dancer, November 27, 2011 @ 5:28 am

  Short and sweet version…yeah right. You’re in my neck of the woods now. ; )

  Daytime fishing: use 10-12 pound test line on a med. weight rod and reel set up. Simple rig would be a split shot placed 6-8 inches away from a 1/0 hook of your choice ( short shank is best.) The leader should be 20-25 pound test Fluorocarbon tied directly to your line, no swivels anywhere. This is very important because during the day, Mango’s are very spooky and hard to catch when fishing from shore. Bait of choice would be live Mojarra or Pinfish in the 50 cent size.. You can just toss out the live shrimp deal right now, you’ll catch 100 pinfish to every 1 legal ( 10 inch) Mango. Mojarra are those small, silver, foot ball shaped fish that swim around your feet when you walk around the water. Google it. Catch them with baited sabiki rigs or use a cast net. Just remember to cut off the little wing from each sabiki before baiting it with a small peice of squid…oops, gave away a secret. Cast under bridges near pilings, around rock pilings or any other structure you can find.
  Night time fishing is a different animal. The big boys come out to play while the kiddies stay home. You’ll need a med/hvy action rod with a reel that can handle at least 20 pound test. 1 oz weight ( egg, on a sliding rig) with a 12 inch leader tied to a 2/0-3/0 hook of your choice. You can choose from live baits like spanish sardines, pilchards or jumbo shrimp. You can also go with dead baits like silver sides, mullet or sardine. No bigger than your middle finger and as wide as your middle and pointer finger with the cut mullet and sardine. Cast away from the structure about 5 yards or so, look for shadow lines of the light sources and have 2 rigs set up fishing deep and shallow. Whichever pulls in the Mango first tells you where their headed.
  I think I told you enough, this is my strategy most of the time but as we all know, situations vary. I told you what I dared say keeping things basic but true to form. ~good luck catchin’.
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  By John, November 27, 2011 @ 9:12 pm

  Ok first off I have been fishing in Florida since I was old enough to hold a fishing pole in my baby stroller. So far as Mangroves go they are both easy and frustrating to catch at the same time. I mean that as it can be frustrating to find them but once you do the hard part is over usually. I will provide a couple links to sites that will go over ‘their’ best way to catch them specifically for the keys that I know are both correct and easy to follow. My best advice for you is to make sure not to specialize too much. In the same waters where you find Mangroves you will find a plethera of other species that are both fun to catch and pretty darn tasty as well. Also keep in mind that when fishing around Mangroves, you are fishing for Jouveniles, they spend the first period of their lives hiding among the mangrove roots.. thus their name. As they become larger adults we tend to call them Grey Snapper and catch them offshore. If you decide to get your legs wet remember to watch out for stingrays, oyster beds and sharks along the shoreline. The Mangrove/Mango/Grey/Black Snappers tend to be a delicacey for other predators besides us humans.

  So far as tackle, just use what you are confortable with, nothing over 20lb test (or even 15lb test for inshore), and a good flexable rod reel combo. I suggest using no sinkers or wieghts at all and lately I have begun to favor the circle hooks. For this instance I would suggest a ‘not silver’ circle hook and live shrimp. Just free line them along a targeted area and watch them dissappear fast. Using this method you will also catch trout, redfish, snook, pompano and many other species in the same areas you find the snappers. In many cases, especially in the keys, you are going to be fishing with your eyes first and foremost. You can actually see the fish and cast/rift to them with your bait and watch them take it. It ireally is a neat experience. If you are forced to use dead bait (Shrimp or squid) you will find that pin fish and other smaller pests will steal you blind but they tend to do that very little with live bait. If you run into trout be very careful when setting the hook as they have fairly week connective tissue around their mouths. Yes I have actually yanked on a pole to set a hook and reeled in a nice pair of trout lips still on the hook… took me a while to live that one down I tell ya.

  Well thats my two cents worth. I wish you the best of luck and hope this was in some way helpful. The website addy below is a forum where we exchange alot of ideas on fishing so it is another good place to look and people add their two cents all the time for more in-depth tips and tricks.

  Link:

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