upcoming full moon

[Ivan11]

im gonna be fishing for muttons next week, mon-thurs. i was wondering when the bite turns on for them? is it a night bite only or can i fish them in the morning/afternoon or whenever. what are the prefered baits. currently i have 8 dozen pinfish in the bait pen. if i can find some pilchards that would be good too. ballyhoo is also an option but the pilchards and hoos id have to catch the day we went out for them. i got a few spots in about 60-90 ft of water that i wanna try out. should i drift or anchor and chum? in miami ive caught them drifting and never while anchored up. just wanted to see what u guys thought. thx

[Capt'n Shane]

Ivan i have been picking up my mutton while drifting for sails and dolphin in circa 135>ft. All have been on pilchards and threadfins 50ft. down. I use a 15ft. long leader from weight. I am no expert but it works for me. Good luck.

[Ivan11]

that is the exact same way ive caught them in the past also, threads on the bottom while sailfishing with Kites. 15 ft leaders also.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Ivan, it all depends on your location. Drifting is a good way to locate em, and will catch you quite a few muttons. Over the years I've found that anchoring on the deep sandy side of of a natural reef and some wrecks will produce the largest, and best quality fish. Small gogs, cigar minnows, and sardines are the best baits. White baits, and grunts will work and the dead sardine has accounted for quite a few. Remember muttons are extremely tackle shy. Where the structure, and current permits I've fished leaders as long as 60' on a three way swivel w/ a bank sinker @ the bottom. This extreme setup has accounted for the great majority of my double digit snappers. However, throw this advice out the window in heavy cover...ie the Tortugas and Bahamas. In these areas you are best off to fish a short leader on the lightest sinker posible. Flourocarbon while pricey will get you more and better gluttons. To trick a big mutton while drifting backspool your reel to keep the bait in place. As you get too far away reel up and start over. Keep up the drift, and hit your M.O.B button on your GPS when you hit a snapper. Go back and watch the finder. Soon enough you'll have your anchor spots mapped out. Please use care when anchoring. Drop it in the sand and pay out as much rode as necessary to position yourself on your target. Haven't noticed a moon correlation, but I do pay attention to the majors and minors.
Have also caught them well @ night, in the am, and my biggest in the middle of the afternoon so I just fish for em when I can. May is the best month IMO.
hope this helps. ( Can you tell these are one of me favorite fish)
DF2...........

[Ivan11]

how deep are u fishing for them in May?

[tales]

FYI. Muttons spawn on the May/June full moons. Best time of the year to fish for them.

[Ivan11]

Originally Posted by tales

FYI. Muttons spawn on the May/June full moons. Best time of the year to fish for them.

ya, its next week =p

[DIRTYFOOT2]

[QUOTE=Ivan11;52966]how deep are u fishing for them in May?[/QUOTE

Anywhere from 60-180'.

[mneptune]

DF2 is correct. I have caught my best Muttons fishing the sandy bottom between the reefs. Long leaders, (flurocarbon), has been the ticket. Live bait with pilchards, sardines and especially ballyhoos have been very productive on my trips. I use a hook with cooper wire on the hook eye. Hook the ballyhoo in the lower jaw and rap the copper around the beak. Keeps the Bally very lively and in line with the drift.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Like the idea neptune. We talkin fresh dead, frozen or live hoos. Regardless
your idea for a swimmin presentation sounds sweet.

[mneptune]

Hey DF2,

I rig "live" Ballys that way. It works whether bottom fishing or live bait trolling for other species as well. It is also easy to run a stinger hook from the main hook eye to the Bally's back for "short strikers". whether on the slow troll or drifting they will stay alive all day, although that rarely happens since they usually get eaten in short order.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Nice. Sounds Groovy. Will come in handy in the Keys wwhen those big schools of ballys show up in the chum slick, Thanks fer da tip.

[ausum]

About 1 month ago, the bait boats came down from Key largo and cleaned out the ballyhoo..Its almost impossible to find them.. Its also very tough to find pilchards..Pinfish are easy and not difficult to find. Hope this helps..

[Ivan11]

just checked the weather and its kicking up to 3-5, guess i wont be going after all =(

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Looks to be a pretty rough weekend. I'm retooling my plans to head north and sucker a snook. Offshore looks out of the ?.

[mneptune]

Drove down to Islamorada today to look at a boat. Took a brief walk on the the Channel 2 bridge and saw some good schools of Ballyhoo drawn in by a chum bag hanging off the bridge, so I guess their still around...... Water was not bad at all within the reef but outside the reef looked slightly uncomfortable.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

That bridge is a must hit bait spot for our tortugas trip. Love pittlin around the bridges loadin up on fresh baits the day before a long range trip. Hopin this wind just eases up a bit so we can slip out to the reef this weekend. Muttons will be chewin as soon as they can catch a break from the turbid conditions. The wind is givin me cabin fever again, and my dreams have been dominated by fishy images.......

[Ivan11]

im screwed for muttons till next week prolly, i work friday <calm> halouver tourny on saturday. and i work on monday. then i got the miami dade dolphin tourney wed-friday. stupid winds missed up my mutton fishing

[Disco Lady]

CONO!!!!!! hang in there Ivan,there just getting bigger for us.

[mneptune]

DF2,

Your absolutely right, that channel among some others in the keys are great for not only chummin in the bait but also for catching fish. My biggest Mangrove snapper was caught under the main span of that channel, weighed 13.8 lbs on the scale. Not bad for a Mangrove.

[Ivan11]

i think thats a record fish for mangroves if im not mistaken.

[mneptune]

Did not know what the record for Mangrove was at the time. This goes back a few years. All I know is I ate it in record time.

[Ivan11]

i think the record is 7lbs and change

[mneptune]

I had a picture of that fish on the scale, I'm still looking for the picture. It was before I had a digital camera, like I said it was about ten years back when I caught it. It went into a 48 qt. cooler and his head was up on one side and his tail hanging up on the other. It was the biggest Mangrove I and the people around me had ever seen.