Summer is here! Hot days means the best fishing will be early in the morning or late afternoon. Afternoons on the coast can mean a sea breeze kicking up or thunderstorms. Fishermen during the summer often try get early.

The summer bite looks pretty good! Whiting can be found along the sandbars. Black tips sharks have pushed into sounds and can provide good tugs. So far not much too report with tarpon but in the coming days and weeks these fish will likely be working the beachfront!

Summer is good time to fish for some flounders! Flounder will take a variety of baits from a bugged out shrimp to a mud minnow to a live shrimp to a finger mullet. With lots of trash fish in our local waters keeping your bait away from the bait steelers can be a trick. Nearly indestructible (3X) soft plastics can be a good choice when faced with lots of trash fish.

This year we are seeing lots of black drum. Black drum resemble sheepshead but are more closely related to red drum. Black drum are looking numerous. Many of these fish are little shy of keeping size but be fun to catch.

Bait shrimp (white shrimp) are becoming more numerous in the creeks and rivers. Lots of bait can mean the fish will have plenty to feed on and grow. The large shrimp boats had a strong spring. As spring turned to summer the shrimpers’ catch has fallen off. Hopefully, the shrimpers’ catch will increase in the coming days and weeks. Those fishing for spanish mackerel are finding fish in the shipping channel. Lots of small redfish can be found close to inshore structure. Most of these fish are around 12 inches. These are year’s batch of redfish. Fishermen can see these fish growing during the summer. By mid September most of these small will by keeper size.

The bite looks pretty good but during the summer fish can be scattered with lots of small competing for bait. Its possible to finding reds and sea trout schooling but it not uncommon to find lots of trash fish and scattered fish.

I hope this fishing report is of interest and help! Keep what you want to eat fresh and release the rest.

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan, Coastal River Charters