By: Capt. Bart Marx
As the water temperature continues to rise the white bait will become easier to locate. The big schools of bait will make it easier to locate the kings that like those thread fin hearing. And the tarpon will begin to increase in our area as the white butterflies show up. This is when the weather conditions are good in the area. As the tarpon migrate to our area there are some other predator’s not far behind. Tarpon are a natural bait for sharks and they come in all sizes and big. Bull sharks hammerhead sharks are two that get big and aggressive. I never thought of this before, but they can be “Hangry” if you know what I mean. They will eat a good size stingray jack or anything that is bloody. This could be a little on the dangerous side make sure it is all hands-on deck when you are working a big fish weather it is a tarpon or a shark. Most of the big fishing starts this month, there should be some goliath grouper around the pilings of bridges and or the phosphate docks and on the nearshore reefs. They will hold these tackle testing grouper. The tarpon will hang around till the fourth of July depending on the weather. Also this month, the snook will slowly start their migration from their home areas to saltier waters. Yes, the snook that live up in the rivers will migrate out to the bays and bigger and saltier water. The snook that live in the Harbor will migrate to the beaches and the snook that live around the beaches will migrate to the nearshore reefs out to fifty feet of water. I have been diving in the past around April and have seen lots of snook hanging around artificial reefs just off the coast. Inshore look on the outside of the sand bars for the pompano and cobia. The pompano and cobia you can site fish for. Travel along the bar and look for what looks like a brown shark or brown catfish. You need a fare size live bait to pitch at them to harvest. Pompano will skip as you travel along the bar, and you may turn around and target them with jigs or live shrimp will work too. Nearshore you should still be finding some snapper lane and mangrove. Possibly some keeper red grouper. If you would like to come along with Capt. Bart Marx and learn some of these techniques give me a call and if you are new to the area and have your own boat, I will go with you on your boat and help shorten the learning curve by showing you where you can take your boat and using your equipment. And if you have guests coming into town that like to fish, give me a ring. And always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile.