CAM JUNE 2018
FISHING FORECAST
Capt. Brian Smith
The first part of June the heat is tolerable. The later part the heat is turned up to the broil of Florida summer. Many people won’t notice the increase in temperature because red snapper opens June 1 through July 21 for charter vessels and June 11 through July 21 for recreational anglers.
Also, gag grouper open in federal waters (>9 nautical miles) on June 1 through December 31. Gag grouper are also open in Gulf state waters at the same time excluding Franklin, Taylor, Wakulla and Jefferson counties.
Greater amberjack will be closed June and July. The fishery will reopen August 1 through October 31. I don’t understand the closure. The official statement is amberjack are undergoing over-harvest based on previous years landings data, yet in the previous years not one fish was counted from my boat? Where is the data being generated? Amberjack are so abundant you can hand feed them, evident from videos I have posted in May on my Facebook page.
Anyway, please check myfwc for clarification as regulations seem more complicated and change with the tide. We just want to go fishing not put anything in orbit.
The content here is supposed to be informative so I feel the necessity to waste words on regulations to prevent folks from being cited.
There are going to be a flotilla of boats offshore in June through mid-July fishing for red snapper and gags, especially on the weekends. Red snapper are so abundant that any type of bait will work. Live bait is an automatic hookup, but cut-bait and jigs will do the job as well. Keep the rigs uncluttered and not overweighted as many of the larger fish are suspended. Please do not dead cull. Replacing a live larger fish a for dead iced smaller fish is in no way improving the fishery. One does not gain much meat from doing so in the first place . Instead, up the legal ‘boat size’ so that smaller fish are not killed. Furthermore, if a smaller fish is badly hooked, as often happens, simply take that fish and not replace it.
Catching gags amongst the swarm of red snapper is difficult unless fishing tactics are changed. One tactic I’ve learned is to use larger baits, too large for most red snapper to inhale. Larger baits can include live or dead offerings and a heavier sinker is necessary to ‘shoot’ the bait through the snapper to the bottom for the grouper. This is also a great technique to target larger red snapper. Use beefed up equipment for this style of fishing. Whatever hits the big bait isn’t going to be small-fry.
Inshore trout fishermen need to fish deeper cooler water to improve catch rate. Refer to Keaton Beach report, in this magazine, from Capt. Pat for great inshore information.
Capt. Brian Smith