July Fishing Central Fla.

Water is warming up...

I’ve been working a lot lately at LongDoggers not because I need the money, but because it keeps me in the shade for the hottest part of the day. If I wasn’t working I’d be out there cancerin’ it up under the blazing July sun. My shunning of the sun this summer has helped me catch some pretty nice fish, both inshore and out deep.

The full moon bite offshore was insane this month, from Port Canaveral to the Keys. Guys reported 10-20 mangroves up to ten pounds on the 60’-80’ reefs between Sebastian Inlet and the Port, and they said the fish were coming up to the boat from those depths! A chum bag slung over the side will bring in schools of mangrove snaps, flocks of squid, and maybe even a hungry cobia or mahi looking for a midnight snack.

Al Steginga, owner of Long Doggers in Indialantic, spent a week down in the Keys this past full moon. He came back with a big cooler full of nice mangrove snapper filets.

“We absolutely killed it,” said Al of his trip. “Every night, like clockwork we got into the fish, all nice mangos. The biggest was 27” long. We caught lots of live pinfish every afternoon, but actually ended up catching a majority of the mangos on butterfly jigs!”

Butterfly jigs are slender lead jigs, almost shaped like spoons, with a trailer hook dangling off the side.

“Before the jig would even hit the bottom you could close the bail and you’d have a fish on. It was incredible.”

Al also fished some wrecks in the Gulf and managed to pull in some nice cobia and a dozen permit up to 45 pounds on live crabs.

“A big bull shark would cruise by and he had about twenty cobia in tow every time.”

Back up here on the Space Coast the fishing has been pretty awesome to say the least. Every morning last week I woke up to go to work and on my ritual beach check I would see massive bait pods a couple hundred yards offshore. A friend who made it out confirmed that they were Spanish sardines and that they were the main course for a coastal feast.

Surfer23mg from the Florida Sportsman forum made it out with his kayak with a friend and the two caught some huge jack crevalle, a big bonita, and some sharks. They also reported seeing skyrocketing kingfish and even a small sailfish cruising around the bait pods!

The tarpon are definitely hanging around our area. On my day off yesterday, Friday the 25th, I took our kayak out to see what I could find. The big bait pods had moved on and droves of sea turtles were all I could find. They seemed to be looking at me saying “ya shoulda been here yesterday, buddy!”

On my way back from my mile long paddleout I saw a school of fish waking on the surface. I cast my Storm swimbait into the wakes and immediately hooked up to a fish that commenced to pull me around on a sleigh ride. After about 10 minutes I had about a 15lb bonita alongside the yak. After that I caught about a 15lb jack and jumped two tarpon that were freeswimming about a hundred yards from shore.

Well, lobster mini season starts this Wednesday and Thursday the 30th and 31st, so get your tanks filled up and join the madhouse outside of an inlet near you! Check back here next week and we’ll have some pictures of the carnage!

Till next time, tight lines and following seas,

Matt B

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