Good morning,
I apologize for the lack of reports, I think we took a lightning strike that whacked out our Internet. Anyway, offshore fishing has been pretty good. For those of you live baiters there has been bait up and down the beach. There have been pilchards close in, greenies from 18-30’, and runners on every ledge. I also heard reports of nice sardines at the buoys. Kingfish are the fish to catch for the weekend. There have been big kings in the inlet area and South Beach. We heard reports of several fish in the 50 pound class. There are still plenty of snook in the surf as well as some nice schools of tarpon parading through. As far as farther offshore we didn’t here much the last couple of days. The only reports i gathered were scattered sailfish in 90′ and a few dolphin. There are pockets of cold water on the reef that have slowed the bottom bite, although I heard from the divers that there are plenty of snappers and groupers to be caught.
Inshore fishing has been great. I went with Tony Vercillo yesterday morning before work and caught several snook and a redfish. We had just got into a large school of redfish when the work whistle blew, we caught one and had to go. We did see several other nice schools pop up throughout the morning. Look for the largest concentrations of mullet and the reds will be close by. It seems that the new snook slot limits are paying off even though they are quite extreme. There are huge numbers of snook on the flats and many would be a serious test on light tackle. I haven’t seen an abundance of trout lately but we have had a few customers who have caught a couple over 8 pounds.
Have a great safe Fourth and long weekend!
-Scott