Ask Mark

[snookphishing]

dear mark,
disregard my username; i find myself doing alot of bottom fishing. im going to key west this saturday for a week and am going to be fishing places like the vandenburg, quicksands, tortugas and marquesas and was wondering how to coax some of the pelagics. bait is fine but id prefer to catch them on arties. my targets are blackfin tuna, mahis, and cobia w/ a few wahoo and kings. i also want to hop my first sailfish. for bottom i still want to get them with artificials and those targets are are groupers and mutton snapper. i also want to catch a permit on a wreck and for that i dont mind using bait. can u give me a few tips?
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inshore everything

[marksosin]

Dear Snookfishing:

Today is Saturday, so I assume you are already in Key West. If I missed by a week and you're going next Saturday, plan to chum those wrecks. Once you get target fish in the slick, you can use artificials. Crabs work well on permit, but shrimp will also elicit a strike. You're not going to catch all those species over the wrecks. I don't have the latest report on offshore action.

Mark Sosin