Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas Tips and Techniques (The Complete Guide)
Pompano fishing with sand fleas is one of the best ways to target this popular fish species. A pompano's favorite food is sand fleas (mole crabs). The best technique is to have enough weight to pin your sand fleas and pompano rig to the bottom in spite of the waves and current.
Pompano are one of if not the most sought after fish by surf fishermen anywhere from Virginia to Texas and everywhere in between.
These delicious silver fish are excellent fighters and one of the tastiest fish that swim in the sea. They are picky about the water temperatures that they like so they are only in town for a few months out of every year. This lack of availability is another reason why pompanos have such a fanatical following.
Their favorite food is the mole crab a.k.a. the sand flea and they will do just about anything to get them. I have personally seen them beach themselves trying to get at those little crabs as the waves recede off of the beach. The pompanos barely make it back into the water flopping on their sides to get back into the sea.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. In the article below, I will teach you everything that I know about pompano fishing with sand fleas and other baits and lures.
Let's get started.
Watch the video below and catch more pompano with sand fleas.
Pompano fishing with sand fleas is one of the best ways to target this popular fish species. A pompano's favorite food is sand fleas (mole crabs). The best technique is to have enough weight to pin your sand fleas and pompano rig to the bottom in spite of the waves and current.
Pompano are one of if not the most sought after fish by surf fishermen anywhere from Virginia to Texas and everywhere in between.
These delicious silver fish are excellent fighters and one of the tastiest fish that swim in the sea. They are picky about the water temperatures that they like so they are only in town for a few months out of every year. This lack of availability is another reason why pompanos have such a fanatical following.
Their favorite food is the mole crab a.k.a. the sand flea and they will do just about anything to get them. I have personally seen them beach themselves trying to get at those little crabs as the waves recede off of the beach. The pompanos barely make it back into the water flopping on their sides to get back into the sea.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. In the article below, I will teach you everything that I know about pompano fishing with sand fleas and other baits and lures.
Let's get started.
Watch the video below and catch more pompano with sand fleas.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas off the Beach
The place where most surf fishermen like to target pompano is off of the beach. The beach is where the sand fleas are and it is a great place to catch a ton of pompano when they are running through your area. It is important to know what a pompano likes if you want to catch them.
The most important factor for a pompano is the water temperatures. The reason that they migrate so much is because they like a specific water temperature range. They will move from an area if the water temperatures get too hot or too cold for their liking.
The sweet spot for water temperatures that pompano like is between 65 and 75 degrees, give or take a couple of degrees on either side of that range. That is the temperature range that pompano are comfortable in. Your job as a pompano fisherman is to figure out where those temperatures exists and go fish there.
Let me give you a scenario. Let's say that you live in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It is Winter and you get on the internet and notice that the water temperatures in St. Augustine just dropped into the high 50s. That low of a water temperature is going to drive the pompano South towards warmer waters.
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You know that you can find those pompano schools in your area or a little North of your area because your water temperatures are in the mid 60s. My point is that you can figure out where the pompano schools will be just by figuring out what the water temperatures are along the beaches where you live.
This is exactly what the commercial pompano fishermen do. They make a living off of catching pompano and they will follow the optimal water temperature range up and down the coasts as the pompano migrate to the North and South every year. You can do the same thing now that you have the internet.
Once you find a beach that has the optimal water temperatures for pompano, then you can go and get yourself some sand fleas and start fishing for pompano. You can catch your own sand fleas or go to your local bait shop and get some frozen ones. Live ones work the best but a fresh dead frozen one will work just fine too.
I wrote another article on this website all about how to catch a pompano. You can read that article by clicking right here.
Now that you have your sand fleas it is time to catch some pompano for dinner. You have to figure out where the pompano are at this point. Are they close to shore or do you have to cast out to the farthest sand bars to get at them? Are they on your stretch of beach or do you have to move 100 yards up or down the beach to find the schools?
Pompano will stay in an area if there is plenty of food for them most of the time. If you start fishing and don't get a bite within the first 20 minutes or so, then you should probably move up or down the beach until you find the fish. You will have to test the waters to figure out where the fish are feeding.
Just because you have the right water temperatures does not mean that you will automatically find the pompano schools. That will take a little bit of detective work on your part. You need to test the beach at different distances from shore. This is easier if you have multiple surf rods.
You might have one rod out 20 yards and another one out 40 yards and another out 60 yards from shore to figure out where the pompano are feeding. If your rod that is only 20 yards out is getting all of the bites, then you should move your other two rods in to that distance.
The key to catching pompano with sand fleas is to avoid dead zones where there is no activity. You want to see sandpipers and other birds that eat sand fleas cruising the beach and feeding. This tells you that there are plenty of sand fleas for the pompano to eat too.
You need to find the optimal water temperatures and to find feeding pompano schools.
Watch the video below to learn how to find those feeding pompanos off of the beach.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas on Inshore Sand Bars
Most people think that you catch pompanos off of the beach and that is about it. They are wrong. You can catch pompano many miles from the beach when there are good water temperatures and food for them to eat.
Many times the places that different waterways meet there will be a sand bar. This is common were waterways flow into inlets around the state of Florida. There will be a build up of sand based on the tides and currents in the area. Any of those sand bars are a great place to target pompano.
This is especially true when there are a series of sandbars in the area. Inevitably there will be cuts and channels between the various sandbars. Those cuts and channels will have lots of current flowing through them. That is what the pompanos want to find. They like a sandy cut or channel that will funnel crabs and shrimp right to them.
They will be in relatively shallow water around those sandbars sometimes. You only need to find a cut that is a couple of feet deep to find pompano. Deeper ones are better but don't forget to fish those shallow ones too.
Toss your pompano rig filled with sand fleas and let it sink to the bottom of the channels and wait for the hit. The bite can be hot and heavy for a while then shut down very quickly.
This means that the school has come through your channel and moved on to find better hunting grounds. You should do the same and try and catch up with the school again.
The sandy cuts and channels are great places to toss your pompano jigs and banana jigs too. You will want to cast them into the current and let them sink to the bottom. Give them a bounce or two as you slowly retrieve the jigs along the bottom.
I wrote another article on this website that covers in great detail the best baits and lures for catching pompano. You can read that article by clicking right here.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas on Grass Flats
Grass flats are another often overlooked fishing spot for catching tons of pompanos. Pompano are crustacean eaters and there are lots and lots of shrimp and crabs on the grass flats. Pompano will hunt anywhere that they can find the food that they want.
They tend to congregate between the grass flats where there are sandy channels. They also will hunt in those sandy potholes that are in every grass flat that I have ever seen. What you are looking for is sand and current when you are hunting for pompanos on the grass flats.
Pompanos like to sift through the sand for crabs and shrimp but they will also forage in the grass itself. They are often very spook when they are on the grass flats so be quiet and make long casts.
If you can find a large sandy pothole, then send your pompano rig into the middle of it and wait and see if there are any fish there. You can often pick up a flounder or two when you are fishing for those pompano. Flounder will gladly eat crabs and sand fleas if they get a shot at them.
This is another great place to pitch a pompano jig or a banana jig if you have any.
Watch the video below and learn the best pompano lures and fishing techniques.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas off of Bridges
Have you ever been driving to the beach and noticed all of the fishermen on the low bridges? There are dozens of them almost shoulder to shoulder but none of them are casting anything.
What are they doing? They are vertical jigging for pompanos. That is what they are doing.
They have pompano jigs or banana (goofy) jigs and they are twitching them within a foot or two of the bottom and letting them fall back to the sandy bottom. They will pause for a few seconds and twitch the jigs up and down in the water column and let them hit the bottom again.
They do this over and over for hours waiting for the schools of pompano to come through the area. They will try to limit out before the pompano school moves through in its search for food.
Sometimes the schools move through and sometimes they don't. You can tell by the looks on the pompano fishermen's faces whether they are catching or not.
This is another great place to pitch out your pompano rig with sand fleas on it. Then you don't have to keep twitching you jigs all day. You can just sit and wait for the pompano to find your baits.
Once everyone starts catching fish then you know that the school has arrived and you will probably get some dinner too. This is a much easier way to fish the low bridges for pompano if you ask me.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas in the Inlets
Pompanos will run in and out of the inlets around country following the food. There are many crabs and shrimp that will get swept into and out of the various inlets. The pompano schools know this and will flow into and out of the inlets with the tides.
This is another great place to target them with your pompano rigs and your sand fleas. They often will hug the rocks and sea walls of the inlets as they move in and out. This makes it very easy to get at them. You just have to get your baits past the rocks by a few feet.
The problems with inlets is the extreme currents that you will have to deal with. All of the waters from the Ocean or the inland waterways gets funneled through a tight space. This focuses the energy of the water and creates heavy currents most of the time.
You will have to beef up your sinkers and your gear if the currents are too extreme. You might need a 4 ounce sinker where you would only need a one ounce sinker normally. So make sure to bring an assortment of sinkers just in case the currents are bad for fishing.
Pompano Fishing with Sand Fleas near Inland Islands
Way back in the 1940s the United States government dug out the Intracoastal Waterway from Florida all of the way to the Northern states. They needed to be able to move supplies from North and South to protect our coastlines from the Germans during World War II.
Some of those supply ships were quite large so they dug a channel that was at least 15 feet deep up the whole Eastern Seaboard. That is why there are so many inland islands in the Intracoastal Waterway.
You are probably thinking, "Thanks for the history lesson but how do I catch more pompano?"
Those spoil islands that were dug by the Army Corps. of Engineers are great places to catch pompanos. Each and every island has its very own beach for those hungry pompanos to forage for crabs and shrimp on.
In those months when the pompanos are in town and the beaches are full of surf rods and fishermen eager to catch their limit of fish, you can fish your very own private beach. Sometimes the majority of the pompano schools will be inshore and not along the beaches at all.
I like to target them in the sandy channels between the various spoil islands with large beaches. They will move through the channels to hit the flats during the higher parts of the tide.
They will turn around and hit the deeper channels when the tide gets to its lower stages. Either way they will have to come right past you to get in and out.
You will want to send your pompano rig filled with sand fleas, clams, shrimp and small crabs to the middle of those channels between the islands. Try a channel for 15 or 20 minutes and move to another one if you are not getting any bites. Keep moving until you find the fish.
Conclusion:
Pompanos are the rock stars of the the surf fishing community. When they are in town surf fishermen will follow the schools up and down the beaches for many miles to catch their share.
They are fun to catch and delicious and all that you need is sand fleas and some pompano rigs to catch yourself some of them. All that you really need to find is sand and you can find some pompano when they are rolling through town.
Remember that all you need is the sweet spot of water temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees. This will tell you if you can get out there and catch a bunch of pompanos.
I hope that this article helps you catch a lot more pompano or at the very least have more fun trying. Good luck.
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