I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the start of a summer vacation than to take a child fishing. Teaching a child to fish is an experience that he or she will never forget. Fishing does not take much skill or money. Just having a little patience and a basic approach is all you will need to reel in a memory.
To begin with, anglers can expect both water and air temperatures to continue to get warmer. As this happens, a variety of game fish can be caught with the right presentation. The early morning or late evening trout bite will be good during low light conditions. On calm mornings, trout will be in search of a tasty meal. Small top water lures or live shrimp rigged under a popping cork will work extremely well for trout. When targeting them, it is very important to practice stealth like approach, make long accurate cast to a targeted area, and to fish baits near pot holes or small schools of bait fish. Anglers should be able to catch these fish in deeper water adjacent to the ICW in four feet of water or less. Typically, many of these trout will have an average measurement of 17” with some of them measuring up to 22”.
In addition, catch and release snook can also be caught. These hard fighting fish will be aggressively feeding in both the inshore and near shore waters. Snook, will find it hard to resist bright colored artificial lures such as Bass Assassin’s 4” Salt Water Sea Shad (electric chicken), noisy surface lures, or even live shrimp. Fishing these baits near structure that is lit up at night or mangrove shorelines with steep drop offs will be best. When targeting snook, anglers will want to use the right equipment. I suggest using a 7’ medium action spinning reel combo equipped with 25 pound test braided line and mono leader. Some of these catch and release snook can measure up to 34” long.
