Fishing this month has been great! Summertime is officially here and the bite has been hot! Backwater has been producing numerous snook, reds, and some big jacks. In addition, there are plenty of juvenile tarpon around to keep lines bent. Offshore has been on fire! Grouper, snapper, big sharks, barracuda, and plenty of pelagics like mackerel and bonitos have been landed. As far as the bait situation, summer brings huge schools of bait close to shore, so loading up on whitebait has been pretty easy. A ¼” 10’ or 12’ Calusa cast net gets the job done soundly. For bigger predators like jewfish, tigers, hammers, or bulls, bonito or any oily fish will do the job. The bite has been fantastic and as long as red tide doesn’t crush us this year, it should continue to be a great year, so get out there and catch ‘em up!
