Spring is here and we are so ready for those warm fishing days spent on the water! The fish are starting to stir after a long winter, and are ready for you to get out there! The spring fishing season requires smart techniques and strategic angling tips that you should be aware of. We sat down with member of our marketing team, Christian Rogers, to get his best advice on what you should do to reel in big this spring, specifically when it comes to offshore fishing. In this article, we will help you fill your tackle box with the best spring lures and offer fishing tips for a successful spring offshore fishing trip.

FAVORITE SPOTS

When it comes to offshore fishing spots, our favorite holes to fish at are the 226 hole, Georgetown hole, and the Memorial Reef. These are all great spots for trolling offshore.

THE CATCH OF SPRING

There are a variety of fish you can fish offshore, but we personally like to troll for Mahi Mahi and Blue Marlin or “Blues”. 

THE PROCESS

On our long riggers, we like to pull ballyhoo. Remember, your long riggers are going to be the lines that are positioned furthest away from the boat on your outriggers. You can have two options for running those: you can run medium ballyhoo naked with no skirts, or you can run them with skirts. We personally have had better luck running our lines naked, but if you do want to use skirts blue and green colors are always hot. Be sure to see what works best for you!  

 

On our short riggers, we like to run either black bart lures or horse ballyhoo with islander skirts. On our flat lines we like to run one horse ballyhoo and one regular ballyhoo, this helps give us some variety to see what’s going to hit. 

 

Our favorite size rods are 50 and 30 wides. You’ll want to run 50’s on the short riggers which is what you’re pulling your horse ballyhoo and lures on. This is where you will typically see the bigger fish like blues or bull mahi strike. Remember, the bigger the bait the bigger the fish, which means you want the bigger rod in that position. You’ll want to run the long riggers with 30’s using medium size ballyhoo, naked or with skirts. These are where you will get most of your mahi bites. 

RANDOM TIPS

• Make sure you have your Fighting Belt handy! You don’t want to be in a situation where you get a big hit and have to scramble for it
• Blue Marlin will sometimes hit your long riggers, instead of shorts. This can make for a long fight so be prepared to switch off anglers if you need to
• When it comes to your flag: when coming back in, if you dry your fish out, raise the flag right side up. If you caught and released the fish, flip the flag upside down so people know

 

Don’t let spring slip away without getting on the water! Check out this video to get Christian’s full list of spring fishing tips and make sure to hit that like and subscribe button. Welcome to LIFE WITH LAPORTE! As always, tight lines!