Capt. Chris Cameron
Happy 4th of July! I have been getting many calls on the red snapper season. Read the FWC rules. No matter how confusing it is, they are NOT open on our coast! It says Gulf State, does that mean in the gulf and in the state? Lol If you catch them you can now release them to feed the ever-elusive protected sandbar shark that are now over populated as well. I’m glad we have created the perfect ecosystem. Leave it to the human beings to completely destroy what we have and don’t have anymore. What a joke!
Fishing has been pretty decent lately. A few maui have been showing up and a few cobia as well. Most of the maui, kings and cobia have been on the reefs. Get your live bait and just slow troll. The bunker have been fairly easy to get lately.Make sure you use a good cast net with some heavy weight to trap them bunker. Watch your machines, look for the birds or even easier you can follow the fleet.
This is usually the time of month that all the fish move in close to the beach. If you’re catching bait close just start fishing outside the pods. Worst case, you don’t catch anything and head offshore anyways. Don’t leave fish to find fish. Tarpon and jacks have been around to have some fun with too.
At some point later this month expect it to completely shut down and become the dump we know. Why you ask? Every year we have the cold-water upwelling show up and chills the water drastically and usually shuts the bite down. This does a few things. It makes it harder to locate the bait. And pushes the fish out of the area till the warm water returns. It can also push all the fish to the top to find warm water.It’s actually pretty cool. Check your bottom weights and I’m sure they will be nearly frozen. If that’s going on then be sure the bite is gone. The other thing this does is enables every boat to become a professional Cobia fisherman. (I personally feel the cobia should be off limits during this upwelling) but that’s for the rocket scientists to figure out. Because they clearly know what they’re doing, NOT. Yes the cobia will show up at some point on those shoals. This is by no means a secret. Lets at least have just a little bit of etiquette. If a boat happens to spot a fish, let them fish. No need to rush up on them and start throwing your jig over their lines to attempt to catch the fish they spotted. Every year I see so much disrespect. And especially, please give the charter boats trying to make a living a little room. It’s already hard enough with a charter on board. If not some local will bash you on some review website for trying to provide for the family.
Good luck and have a great July from your premier Sport fishing guides and deep sea charters of Cocoa Beach, Port Canaveral, Orlando Florida. www.firedupcharters.com.
Capt. Chris Cameron
firedupcharters@gmail.com
www.firedupcharters.com
407-222-3573