Its official, summer is here! We’ve been fortunate most days early morning cloud coverage has spared the brunt of the impact. That said fishing is still best early morning or late afternoon. During the early afternoon heat catching fish is possible just not as likely or as comfortable. One fish that does not seem to mind the summer heat is the flounder. Flounder fishing has been good! A couple of days ago while fishing for seatrout we landed a flounder that weighed over six pounds! Those targeting flounder can do well! Finger mullet, mud minnow and soft white curl tail plastics are all great baits for flounder. Most fishermen target this fish on the lower tide stages. This fish can like sheepshead can be targeted on higher water. It just a manner of fishing the fish. Likely spots on higher water are pockets where bait is pinned in or the mouth of a gully on a outgoing or incoming tide.
The not only is air temperature hot so is the seatrout bite! Lots of undersized seatrout as well as plenty of legal fish! Lots of small fish abound so when fishing live bait take plenty of bait. Seatrout love current so look for rips. The hot spot is usually where the rip begins to form but fish could be anywhere along the rip. If you can’t seem to find seatrout during the day, you might try your luck at night fishing. One fisherman reported catching three fish over 23 inches on live shrimp on a bream buster pole fishing around dock lights. Some of the best summer catches are by fishermen fishing at night. Areas that seem void of life during the day can be literally lit up at night! Some fishermen last week struggled to find fish while others caught large roe seatrout. Don’t get discouraged just keep trying and you’ll likely find fish!
Reports of cobia on near shore structure and as well a few in the sounds. A favorite bait is menhaden. Lots of newly birthed black tip sharks in the sounds. These fish are around 12 inches long. One fishermen said they these fish are so recently birthed their heads are translucent. Big schools of atlantic sharp nose shark have temporarily moved into deeper water. Plenty of larger sharks to tussle with so be prepared to fish stout tackle!
Afternoon tides this week are building and will be subsiding as of Thursday June 25th , 2009. This week tides were unusually high. Higher than predicted tides seems to be more of rule than an exception. What is the reason? Not sure. Despite high tides and lots of off colored water fishing has been good. In general the best places for summer fishing is close the sound. Fishermen can often catch a breeze and water coming in off the ocean is usually clean. The whiting bite is slowing down as shark bite heats up. Although those targeting whiting should be able to catch a good mess of fish just be prepared to fish through lots of small fish (in small black tip sharks). That’s summer time fishing.
Fishing has been good! Dolphins can shut down a seatrout drop in a minuet. Dolphin need to eat as well. If your fishing is interrupted by dolphins just move on and look for the next drop. Typically areas with lots of dolphins means there is lots of bait there. Another day you might find good fishing in that area just make a mental or written note and move on. Shrimp Adams Bait Shop is catching is larger than last week. Bait looks great!
Hope this of help! Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan 912.441.9930
Practice Catch and Release!