Things Learned

[Brian L]

Slow means realllllly slow.

Ed stole my thunder wrt angles of presentation, but I'll repeat, as it also makes a huge difference in the boat. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands of days in the boat casting eels in SoCO. I'm always paying attention to how those angles make a difference depending on tide, boat positioning, wind, etc..

Shut your motor off during a drift (so obvious, yet I see hundreds of people doing this all the time), and don't start it back up again until you've drifted well over the area you're fishing(over 90% of the people I see do this and foul up the spot they're fishing in short time). When you've passed said area and want to re-drift, make a big loop around to the other side instead of driving back through the fish. I learned that one early, and it's uncanny how many folks I see doing this sort of thing. Many of them are out on the water a LOT.

That, and a light drag in a shallow rocky area is the best bet for landing big fish, not the opposite (which I learned the hard way too many times early on!). If you're patient enough, it's uncanny how often big fish will find their way out of the rocks. I've waited nearly half an hour for fish that I thought were big enough to wait for. It's resulted in some nice fish coming over the gunnels.