by Capt. Bart Marx
We like to go in the boat to see the fireworks to celebrate our freedom. And to those that have served in our armed forces, Thank You! for your service. It is awesome to see all the people that have their personal celebrations around the area and from the water you can see 360 around you.
It is also a great time of year to go fishing. In Charlotte Harbor, you could get your inshore slam- snook, red, and trout. To target these species, fish the edges of the islands, sand holes, and grassflats in your area. This can be accomplished with artificials or live baits, depending on your style. The water is warm enough now to wade if you like, just have some protection from the stingrays. I use dive booties with the rubber soles that stay on if you get in the muck and don’t get shells and things in them. Lots of anglers have trolling motors and don’t deal with the muck these days. If you fish closer to the Gulf, there should be plenty of mangrove snapper to harvest for a fish fry. You can target them around docks and artificial reefs close to ICW. There are some natural ledges in the passes that you could drift too. Looking to the Gulf, there should be some tarpon still lurking along the beach in search of food. And a possible shark doing the same. To sharks, tarpon are just a big threadfin hearing. Easing out to the 50-foot mark you can find lane, mangrove snapper, porgies and white grunts. These are great table fare and when you find the larger ones, they really put up a good fight too. You may also find a keeper red grouper in these same areas too.
With the electronics these days, it is getting easy to find new spots to fish, other than the artificial reefs. These tend to hold better fish and don’t get the pressure that artificial reefs get. I have also noticed there aren’t as many goliath at the smaller structure to bag your catch and shut things down for a while. There are barracudas to catch and eat in these waters too. Growing up here I was always told longer than your arm, they will do you harm, because as they get bigger they may have ciguatera. But in our area, we don’t have much coral. The fish that eat the coral get eaten by the bigger fish and I guess that builds up in the larger fish. We would wade fish to catch them, to have fresh fish for dinner, when we were camping in Big Pine Key. They do have teeth, so be aware of that mouth! They can be a little crazy when you get them out of the water. There may be some king mackerel still feeding on the schools of bait offshore.
If you would like to go and target some of these fish call Capt. Bart Marx 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com And always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{