by Capt. Dallas Hopper
July is an awesome month! The kids are out for the summer, the fishing is great, let’s see what’s biting.
Trolling this month we have had a good bite of mahi and tuna, most of the mahi have been caught out a bit further in the 800-1300 foot range. Working the grass lines is the standard approach but keep a look out for floating pieces of debris and working birds.
Once you find a school of mahi its time to break out the spinning gear, whole squid, bonita chunks, ballyhoo and live pilchards should be enough to make these fish dinner guests. The tuna are best around the humps early in the morning or later in the evening, trolling small lures on 40 pound flourocarbon will get plenty of bites.
There’s even been a few blue marlin caught while looking for the mahi! You never know what your next bite is going to be.
Bottom fishing can be tricky during the summer months due to the strong currents and the abundance of floating sargasm grass. Some days we’ll use up to 7 pounds of weight just to hold bottom. Toughing out these summer conditions are rewarding, plenty of mutton snapper, red and black grouper have been finding their way to the fish box.
For the muttons 30 feet of 60 pound flourocarbon leader and a 6/0 mustad circle hook tied to a three way swivel has been the ticket. For the grouper you definitely need to beef up the tackle, 50 pound class conventional outfit with 25 feet of 125 pound monofilament leader tied to a heavy duty three way swivel.
Live pinfish, grunts, speedos, yellow tail and blue runner are some of the groupers favorite meals. Use some smaller baits if you’re looking for the muttons, bonito strips, ballyhoo plugs, cigar minnows and small live pinfish. Anchoring up in 120- 180 feet of water on wrecks and live bottom will put you in the right neighborhood.
The yellowtail bite has been great and the mangrove snapper are starting to show up in numbers along the edge of the reef. Any where you catch the yellowtail during the day, go back after the sun goes down and that’s when the mangroves take over.
With the strong currents we’ll be snapper fishing in as shallow as 40 feet of water but we’ll push out to 90 feet on the days with light current. Drifting cut bait on small jig heads along with lots of chum is key to getting these fish to turn on, watch out for the stray cobia that wanders into the chum slick.
The tarpon are here in strong numbers as well, fishing the offshore flats in the evening has been great way to tangle with these hard pulling fish. Soaking mahi bellies on the bottom with 60 flourocarbon and an 8/0 circle hook will get you in the game.
With the beautiful weather there’s something for everybody, whether it’s offshore fishing or diving on the reef or even just cruising around on the boat. The best thing is to get out on the water and enjoy what the keys has to offer.
Capt. Dallas Hopper
Fantastic II Charters “guaranteed fish”
305-451-2890 • www.charterkeylargo.com