[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith the school year behind us, and calm weather to look forward to, June is the perfect time for you and your family to get out on the water. Dolphin fishing should continue to be pretty productive this month, with lots of smaller fish around grass lines and flotsam, and the occasional gaffer or two intermittently mixed in. Although the end of June usually starts to wrap up our mahi season, it’s not too late for a banner days.
After hooking a fish, try tossing a few chunks of cut bait out behind the boat. The smaller school fish respond well to chum and cut bait, as do larger fish. Once you get the school interested, try pitching D.O.A. Bait Busters, C.A.L.’s, or RonZ jigs to them on spinning rods. The fish go nuts for those things, and because you don’t have to re-bait every cast, it not only saves time while you’re fishing, but definitely when it comes time to cleaning up afterward as well. The bite you get from a feisty dolphin on a pink shallow runner Bait Buster will put a smile on your face until you go to sleep that night.
June also offers great king fishing on the Six Mile Reef and loran tower ledge. Live sardines work well while drifting or anchored, and while trolling, spoons or strip baits on a planer or downrigger work well. I use a Cannon 10 TS for its auto features, ease of use, and reliability. Focus around the bait schools and bottom structure using light fluorocarbon leaders and small hooks on a light wire trace. Definitely fish a couple down baits too.
June also provides great bottom action to keep the kids busy. Snapper, grouper, and seabass will be the main targets, but it’s not uncommon to catch more than 20 or so different species of fish on a bottom fishing trip this month. Various leader sizes and lengths are recommended for the variety of species you might target, but one thing for sure is pink Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon coupled with a Mustad 4x ultra point circle hooks will increase your bites and catches.
If you want to put a full day in, June is the month to do it. Early departures and 60-plus mile runs will lead you to the yellowfin tuna grounds this month. A run and gun style of fishing, where using your radar to mark birds will often land you in a spot so amazing and full of feeding tuna and other game fish it should be filmed for National Geographic. It’s a little complex to go into detail here, but if you’re interested give me a call and I’ll go into further detail.
If you’d like to stay a little closer to home, don’t worry, tarpon, snook and permit, along with other fish, will be on the beaches and nearshore reefs and wrecks. Crabs, live bait and again D.O.A. lures are great ways to target these migrating fish.
June is one of my favorite fishing months and it offers the chance to catch almost anything. Whichever species you decide to target this month, I hope your outing is OFF THE CHAIN.