The long hot days of summer have finally arrived, so fishing in the early morning, at night, and late afternoons after the thunderstorms dissipate are prudent for successful anglers.
Along the beaches, look for silver kings (large tarpon), smoker kings (large kingfish), blacktip sharks, jack crevalle, and redfish to be shadowing pods of pogies (Atlantic menhaden), greenies (thread fin herring), glass minnows (bay anchovies), in close to shore. Also, look for snook fishing in the surf to improve, as we get closer to the commencement of the fall bait run. Remember, snook are out of season, so if you target them, please handle and release them with extreme care.
The inlets will continue to show improvement with the larger tarpon, large redfish, jacks and sharks working bait pods during periods of outgoing tide, and Spanish mackerel and bonita working the smaller glass minnows. Bucktail jigs fished on long casting rods work well for snook at night. The jetties will produce big reds to anglers fishing with free lined mullet before or after slack tides.
In the lagoons, target sea trout and redfish on the flats in areas of mullet schools using top water plugs during the early morning late afternoon hours, and at night. Once the sun grows hot and the top water bite slows, switch to live bait (pigfish) or jigs fished on the deeper edges of the flats. Also, July and August are the time of year when large schools of ladyfish and smaller sea trout shadow the schools of glass minnows in the deeper water. Finally, look for the pompano schools to be moving into the shadows around the causeway bridges.
