Happy 4th of July!
Fishing has been pretty decent lately. A few mahi have been showing up and a few cobia as well. Most of the mahi, kings and cobia have been on the reefs. Get your live bait and just slow troll. The bunker have been fairly easy to get lately. Make sure you use a good cast net with some heavy weight to trap them bunker. Watch your machines, look for the birds or, even easier, you can follow the fleet.
This is usually the time of month that all the fish move in close to the beach. If you’re catching bait close just start fishing outside the pods. Worst case, you don’t catch anything and head offshore anyway. Don’t leave fish to find fish. Tarpon and jacks have been around to have some fun with too.
At some point later this month expect it to completely shut down and become the dump we know. Why, you ask? Every year we have the cold-water upwelling show up and chills the water drastically and usually shuts the bite down. This does a few things. It makes it harder to locate the bait and pushes the fish out of the area until the warm water returns. It can also push all the fish to the top to find warm water. It’s actually pretty cool. Check your bottom weights and I’m sure they will be nearly frozen. If that’s going on then you can be sure the bite is gone. The other thing this does is enables every boat to become a professional Cobia fisherman’s. (I personally feel the cobia should be off limits during this upwelling, but tha
t’s for the rocket scientists to figure out.) Yes the cobia will show up at some point on those shoals. This is by no means a secret.
Finally, if you’re out on the water, let’s all try to have just a little bit of etiquette. If a boat happens to spot a fish, let them fish. No need to rush up on them and start throwing your jig over their lines to attempt to catch the fish they spotted. There’s plenty out there for everyone to go around.
Good luck and have a great July!
Capt. Chris Cameron
Fired Up Fishing Charters
firedupcharters@gmail.com
www.firedupcharters.com
www.sharkfishingcocoabeach.com
(407) 222-3573
Your premier fishing guide charter for shark fishing Cocoa Beach, offshore fishing Port Canaveral, and nearshore fishing Cape Canaveral.