June 2010
The first half of June has been fantastic on all fronts. The weather is very normal and consistent for this time of year. Warm mornings and hot afternoons. The water is very clean and clear and running about 88 to 90 degrees.
Bait is everywhere. Get on some grass flats inside one of the passes and chum a little bit. You'll find the bait. Also the bridges are holding their share of bait too.
LET IT BE KNOWN, THERE IS NO OIL off our beaches or in any of the West Central coastal waters. Thank you.
Now what's hot. Net your bait at sunrise and get out on the beach early. Stake out just outside of the sand bar. You want to be able to cast into the swash channel. Snook have been spotted in numerous areas and in good numbers along the beach. What I do is toss out some chummers and cast my baits in behind. Make sure you keep your bait in the strike zone. If it wanders out, re-throw.
I've had good success with this method the last two weeks with several 30 inch fish for my customers. Move on if nothing happens.
You should find that mackerel and trout will also be close in on the beach. Chop up a few baits and toss them out, mackerel will be everywhere.
If the tide is high, go inside. Redfish will be scattered around the mangroves. It may take some looking, but they are there.
That was my plan Wednesday when Terry, a client of mine, joined me and we headed out to Dunedin beach. After a haft dozen trout, all around 15 inches, and several nice mackerel, we moved down to Clearwater, in search of Mr. snook. Several locations out on the beach, did not produce so we moved inside.
At the top of the tide, we set up on a nice flat. The first fish to crash the party was a nice 31 inch snook. We took a couple of pictures then quickly released. Shortly after that, Terry set the hook on a 27 inch redfish. He also added another red, all caught in the same location.
This completed Terry's 73 inch slam. Nice job Terry.
With all the bait on the beaches and inside the bay, finding some great action should be at your finger tips. So get out there, it's waiting.
Capt. Gary Burch
www.allcatchcharters.com
