Well summer is finally here and it should be an awesome month for fishing in June. Finally, the seas are calming down and we've been able to do some comfortable offshore fishing. The last week of May was fabulous with most of the trips limiting out on their keeper slot snook at Sebastian Inlet before the season ended on June 1st. The snook were literally hitting anything we through at them, as far as live bait goes. Croakers, pigfish, pinfish, threadfins, pilchards, and shrimp seemed to all be on the menu those days. We ended May with a solid offshore trip catching mahi, kingfish, bonita, snapper, and amberjack. From what I heard the first week of June was a bust with constant rain and thunderstorms every day. Fortunately for me I took off the first week of June and went to Oklahoma for some catfish noodling which I have to say was one of the coolest but also one of the scariest things I've ever done. Since I've been back we've done a few offshore trips that have really produced. There are numerous amounts of kingfish all around the reefs. One of my customers pulled in a 40 lb plus kingfish the other day on a threadfin herring. The mahi are also all over the place too. We've been catching them from 70 ft and out to 250 ft with a mix of kingfish and bonita, while trolling ballyhoo and strip baits. The best way to go is trolling up and down the reefs and finding weed lines. We also have good luck catching mahi while we're bottom fishing too. When you have the chum bag putting out all that stink, always have a free line ready, cause them green machines will sneak up on you. The bottom fishing has been pretty good as well. Bringing in some nice lane snapper, red grouper, medium sized amberjack, and of course red snapper. They have given us recreational fishermen 4 days this year to harvest red snapper July 10, 11, 12, and 17. I personally don't think that is enough but I don't make the rules. Unfortunately I already have all those days booked up. Even though we can't keep the snook until September 1st the big girls are full up during the summer. It's one heck of a fight to bring in one of those 40" studs. There have also been some big tarpon up and down the beach as well. Also don't forget about those big Goliath grouper. They are in close by the inlet for the summer and should be here up through August. Unfortunately we can't keep them but what an experience it is to pull up a 500 lb fish. Lastly, the trout bite has been pretty good as well in the lagoon. We've been using popping corks with live shrimp and doing quite well. Come jump on the boat and try to forget all this nonsense going on in the world. Everyone and anyone is welcome on my boat so lets go have some fun and catch a bunch of fish.
