July is here and it is hot and humid. Mornings are the best time to get out and fish this month during the summer heat. Usually, the oceans are calm early and the seas pick up as the day wears on. Reef fishing is good all year and the summer months are a good time to get out there.
The variety of fish on the reefs is varied. Spade fish are around and like to be on the surface when the seas are calm making them easy to spot. We use shrimp, squid or pieces of cannonball jellyfish as bait for them, Sometimes; they will use the bait as shade and hang underneath making it possible to pick out the fish you want to catch.
The rig for spade fish is simple. We use a small Owner Mosquito hook size 1 attached to a short l
eader of at least 30 lb test. You can use mono as a leader or fluorocarbon and add a small split shot to get the bait down a few feet. If the fish are deep, take a large piece of bait and drop it down until you feel bites and slowly reel in and most times, the school will come to the surface.
Toss out small pieces of bait to keep them around or tie off a jelly ball to the boat for them to eat. For fishing the reef, we use the same tackle as inshore gear. Light to medium action rods, 2500 or 3000 series reels with 15-20 lb braided line rigged with a Carolina rig, about 1oz weight works most of the time and a 2/0 hook.
If you’re keeping black sea bass, you need to use a circle hook to stay legal. Baits vary but live shrimp is always best for the most variety of fish, you will need a lot of them for a trip. Plastics work great out there, Gulp or ZMAN shrimp patterns work but don’t be afraid to try something different.
Always keep a couple of rods rigged with a Clark spoon or Gotcha plug in case you see Spanish busting the surface on the reef or on the 
way out or back in. Do not get too close to the school or they will go down and may not give away their position again. Try to limit the reef trips to the mornings because here in the summer there is a good chance of late afternoon thunderstorms developing and being in the ocean is not a good idea when a storm is coming.
Inshore, the fishing is also good. Summertime is when all of our species are around. Fishing with live shrimp, we usually catch over 10 species of fish on our trips. If targeting reds or trout, plastics will work well and you will not catch other smaller fish.
Most of our trips are families with kids and fishing bait keeps them busy catching all sorts of fish. Sharks are around all summer and we fish for those either inshore or around the shrimp boats off the beach. You need to use much tackle for targeting sharks. Baits are whatever we catch such as whiting, croaker, bluefish, pinfish etc. We save those for the shark trips.
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Capt. Michael Waller
www.saltfisher.com
843 224 8197 – 843 343 7538
SaltFisher Charters
