[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ow that school’s out, let the fun begin. June offers a little bit of everything here in South Florida. Whether you enjoy running the beaches looking for snook, permit, and tarpon, or prefer heading offshore in search of mahi, sails, tuna, and kings, or if you’d rather hit the bottom chasing grouper, snapper, sea bass and cobia, June is the month for you.
Traditionally calm seas not only make June the ideal month to start heading offshore with the family, but the calm weather also allows you to run and gun in search of bottom spots, weed lines, pieces of float, or even the long-range Bahamas haul in search of yellowfin tuna and other deep water pelagic fish. Obviously with the intense summer sun down here in Florida the first thing you’re going to need for all styles of fishing is a good pair of sunglasses. Costa Del Mar and their 580 lenses offer some of the best shades for penetrating that glare off the water, so they’re a must.
FinNor just came out with a new bait runner spinning reel which should be your next piece of equipment. Whether you’re flipping live baits, casting crabs, drifting a dead bait or using artificial’s, the weight, smoothness and extreme sensitivity of the bait runner system on this reel, will definitely help you hook and land fish. A seven-foot sandbar series rod, made by Blackfin, and 15-pound power pro, with a 20-to-30-pound fluorocarbon leader by Vicious will do the trick flipping crabs to the permit, but for the tarpon, snook and jacks, you might want to step up to 40-to-60-pound leader.
We’ve been using Mustad® UltraPoint circle hooks for most all of our fishing and the inshore stuff is no exception. Match the size of your hook to the bait and tackle that you’re using. If you’re ever not sure between hook sizes, I would recommend starting with the smaller of the two in question. Whether you’re trolling, live baiting or drifting offshore this is the time year, you definitely want to offer a mid-water bait. Often during a long stretch of hot, calm weather, the fish will start to move down in the water column. This is the perfect time to send a bait deep on the Cannon® downrigger. The 10TS, which is what we use aboard Off The Chain, is a game changer. The auto mode, which moves the bait up and down constantly and effortlessly, triggers reaction bites from those lazy fish hanging out deep. It’s always a good idea to fish a wire leader on that bait too, as wahoo and kings are most likely to bite it.
While trolling this time year, Blackfin Rods, ranging from 20- to 50-pound tackle fill the rod holders. Just like inshore, match the size of your bait (or lure) and hook to your rod. Naked ballyhoo on the 20s, medium skirted ballyhoo on the 30s and artificial lures by Scylla on a 50 or two.
For the best top water action June can provide, the next piece of equipment is a must. Garmin has just come out with an amazing new line of electronics. If you’ve been thinking of how to step your game up, this is it. With a sonar that offers scroll back, you can save spots on your plotter that are behind you. All too often, I find myself looking at my depth finder just in time to see a huge school of fish or a nice piece a bottom going off the screen. Now there’s no need to go back and search for where that might have been. With the touch of a button, you can save that spot on your chart plotter and go right back to it directly. This is definitely an unfair advantage as far as a bottom fishing goes and it works equally as well for trolling too. That, coupled with their amazing new radar will increase your chances of success beyond belief. Not only can the new Garmin radar help you navigate, but with bird mode, it marks them very easily, and you can also use it to locate weed lines, current rips and pieces of float.
Whatever species you decide to target this summer, I hope your trip is Off the Chain. Give me a call to book your offshore adventure today. Looking forward to fishing with you soon.
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