[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e had an incredible Cobia season this May/June and these fish have begun moving off the beach so anglers can expect to continue to find some around nearshore live bottoms, wrecks, and artificial reefs through early summer. The big change this past few weeks is the good numbers of large 4 to 6lb spanish mackerel and 5 to 10lb. Kings that have settled in on the nearshore hard bottoms. Anglers should slow troll 4 to 6in live menhaden or fingermullet using no. 4 to 6 gold trebles and 20 to 30lb wire. There’s a good chance at a mahi and a sailfish in the mix during july as well! If you’re looking for some good bottom fishing action, try a 2oz Bett’s Flounder Fanatic bucktail tipped with a Berkley Gulp Shrimp on live bottoms and hard bottoms within 5 miles of the beach this July. There will be plenty of Summer flounder mixed in with some keeper seabass.
The backwaters along the crystal coast are teaming with flounder, redfish, sheepshead, blackdrum, and some speckled trout. Try working the rising tide along the flooded marsh edges with topwater baits, spinner baits, and berkley gulp shrimp fished on light jigheads for a good shot at redfish and flounder. Sheepshead will be holding around bridge and dock pylons and can be targeted using a live fiddler crab fished on a 1/0 to 2/0 short shank hook with a 1 to 2oz egg weight rigged inline and suspended just behind the pylons on the down current side. These fish pull hard and are great table fare. Drifting the inlets this month with a live finger mullet on a flounder rig will produce both summer and southern flounder as well as bluefish. During the falling tide anglers will also find flounder, often mixed with some redfish, along boat docks on the ICW. Regardless of what you prefer to catch, the Crystal Coast will be alive this July! Have fun and be safe on the water!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
Fish’n4life Charters
Swansboro, NC
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