Lots of small seatrout caught last week. It’s possible to catch keepers when you’re catching undersized seatrout but it will takes lots of bait. The alternative to fishing with shrimp is put a DOA shrimp under a popping cork. You should get plenty of bites! Small jack crevalles and ladyfish can be found in tidal creeks close to the beach front. Redfish action is mostly large fish. Redfish numbers aren’t concentrated but good action can found if you can get these fish to bite and they don’t break off. The seatrout bite is good. Those fishing soft plastics will eliminate lots of trash fish.
Shark action continues to heat up! Lots of 30″ atlantic sharp nose can be found long sand bars as well larger sharks. Some mystery crashes that could be large black tip or spinner sharks or even giant rays or tarpon. Whatever they are they are large! Most of bait in the sounds is medium sized menhaden. Whiting are still biting but the bite has slowed dramatically. Small brown shrimp are showing up but throwing a cast net can be problematic. If you haven’t caught any shrimp in a few casts more casting could be a futile. Brown shrimp are moving it and will be more plentiful in coming days. Lots of fishermen are hitting the water with reports of good fishing. Don Adams, Adams Bait Shop reported on Saturday finding shrimp but as soon as he unloaded he had practically sold out. Donnie said he never seen anything like it. The fact that lots of folks are getting out and enjoying the resource is good. On the other hand if your day is dependent on the bait shop you might want to call ahead or dig out your cast. Recently on two separate occasions while fishing with Miss Judy a couple casts resulted in plenty of mullet.. The mullet are about 4 to 5 inches in length. A great size for fishing! Mullet are fast swimmers so loading the boat in one or two takes a little luck but it can be done. A veteran angler reports that he’s catching large roe seatrout on mud minnows. He’s releasing most of his fish. This fisherman says pay attention when you’re casting you might see thousands of tiny minnows scattering . He calls these tiny minnows “fry”. They might be immature glass minnows Whatever they are this fisherman believe seatrout are keying on this bait. Since fishing a glass minnow for the most part isn’t practical the next best bait would be a mud minnow. A down side to fishing mud minnows is the cut offs from small blue fish. That said a mud minnow is a great bait for seatrout, flounder and redfish!
With hot days the water can look cloudy due an algae bloom. The water close to the beaches looks very clean with visibility several feet maybe four or more feet. For these waters that’s very clean water. Shark bite is crazy! Like most fishing it’s all about the current finding the currents they like. In general those places with slow or no current will have less shark action. Areas with good current and structure are the best. Structure can be sand bars, gaps in the sand bars, edges of sand bars to name a few. The best bite can be achieved by moving or sliding your bait. This small movement is saying to the shark hey look at me. When a shark bite is on a fisherman can miss a fish, reel , miss again, then stop your bait practically at your boat to have a fish engulf your bait almost as if was on cue! Developing proper technique for sharks is much like seatrout just more intense! A fishermen will experience intense tugs that will be hard to replicate in years of fishing. Many will down play a shark. The thought is a serious angler would not fish for a shark. This is far from correct. The fight is about as good as could expect on light tackle. They can hurt you and your tackle. They are obliging in that if you miss one next is coming along. Electrically storms and abrupt changes in salinity can send these creatures to the depths or back to the ocean. With conservation in mind always treat these fish with respect. Handle as carefully as possible. One careless move can cost. Some fish are best not even handled. There are alpha fish. Size is not the determinant in whether to handle a fish. Sometimes if the fish is hooked deeply or it is too aggressive then cut the leader as close to the hook as possible and move on. There are certain rigs and tackle I prefer that will have to wait for another day.
As days heat up try to fish either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Tidal creek and marshy areas can be miserably when things heat up. Add to the heat and humidity black flies and you a miserable combination. The best bet when conditions are hot and buggy is pull your anchor and turn the air conditioning. In other words crank the throttle down and get some air flowing.
Tides will be the negative range heading into the weekend. Fishermen should be able to manage. If fishing around the change of the tide, midday. Anticipate condition to hot and plan accordingly.
Hope this of help! Capt. Jack McGowan