FINELINE FISHING CHARTERS FISHING 4-CAST for June 2010

PORT CANAVERAL
June is usually a very good month for my anglers fishing inside and outside of the Port Canaveral basins. Inside, we will usually find mangrove snapper, bluefish, Pompano and flounder willing to play on most days. All will hit shrimp or small “Hook Up” jigs tipped with a small piece of shrimp. At night snook will haunt the shadows created from the piers and docks and are usually very willing to hit a suspending or diving plug that is worked in an enticing fashion. Large shrimp, finger mullet, pinfish, croakers or pogies are all good live bait choices at times as well. Outside of the Port, tripletail, cobia, jack crevalle, king mackerel, and tarpon are all possible this month as the schools of menhaden (a.k.a. pogies) become more plentiful along the beaches north and south of the Port entrance in the 15 to 25-foot depths. Spanish mackerel, various types of shark, bluefish and over-sized redfish can also be found around these bait pods. This is truly “pot luck” fishing as you never know what is going to hit your lure or bait around these pods. Farther offshore, king mackerel, sailfish and dolphin are possible if the weather conditions allow us to run to the 20 mile reefs.

Kurt Barnhart with a nice birthday present that we landed within two miles of the Port last June..

INDIAN, BANANA, and MOSQUITO LAGOONS
Trout, redfish, ladyfish and Crevalle jack will begin showing up in better numbers this month. This co-insides with the increase in both numbers and varieties of baitfish that will become prevalent here. Glass minnows, pilchards, pogies, finger mullet, and ballyhoo will all become food for the previously mentioned predators. I’ll have my clients casting soft plastic lures such as the 4 or 5-inch Saltwater Assassin straight tail jerk shad or the 4-inch Assassin Sea Shad (paddle tai) in avocado/red flake, chicken on a chain, salt-n-pepper, electric buzzard, or albino shad colors. I generally use the darker colors on overcast days and the lighter colors when the sun is shining through. Chrome/black, gold/black or olive/gold colored Skitterwalk or X-Walk Rapala plugs are also a great choice when fishing around mullet schools in low light conditions. We should start to see some large trout around the new and full moons this month.

Another satisfied client who fished with Capt. Jim in the Banana River.

With the oil spill going on in the gulf of Mexico, now is the time to come fishing on the Atlantic side of central Florida. The weather is great, the beaches are clean, and the fish are here. What more could you ask for?

Until next time...Catch a memory!

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FINELINE FISHING CHARTERS RECENT CATCHES FOR May 2010

It’s been a while since my last update. I can tell you it’s been a trying spring. Between the relentless winds, colder than normal temperatures and the lack of fish we have had in the lagoons due to the freeze killing many of them, it’s been less than stellar fishing this year. The weather is changing now and more fish are migrating back into this area which is helping A LOT. There have been many good days to go with the slow ones and this is exactly what makes me want to get out of bed in the morning.

Dave Melton an officer at Patrick Air Force Base joined me in the Banana River for a half day morning trip. I found a small school of big snook laying in the sun on a wind protected shoreline and we snuck up close to toss a large shrimp to them. This 18 pounder (36.5 inches) jumped on the shrimp and the fight was on. It almost broke us off on the Mangrove tree roots, then ran down the bank and under a dock. We managed to keep him hooked and he ran back toward the Mangroves again. We got lucky and the fish tired out prior to breaking us off. What a rush it was though!

Randy Trent of Melbourne Beach and his buddy Jack from Cocoa Fl. joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon recently. They landed redfish to 34 inches (13 pounds) and a decent number of slot sized trout. The fish were very picky but we manages to fool them with small Hank Brown’s Hook Up jigs with crab scent or small bits of shrimp applied to them.

Breck Spaulding and Jason Conroy landed this nice cobia along with a small mixed bag of bluefish, whiting, and tripletail on a near shore trip outside of Canaveral on one of the calmer days we’ve experienced lately..

I had a awesome day with Mark Byers outside of Canaveral a few days later. We were fishing for cobia up by the shuttle launch pad when I spotted this gigantic school of black drum migrating northward for the summer.

The school had to have had 1,500 to 2000 fish in it. They jumped on our Saltwater Assassin cobia jigs like a duck on a june bug. We had multiple double hookups. Here are a few shots of the school and some of the mayhem that ensued.

The smallest of these drum weighed about 45 pounds and the biggest pushed the 90 pound mark. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes of pulling to land each of these fish, so we burned up some time that afternoon with the rods staying bent.

I ran down to St. Lucie for three days to fish my one of my good regular clients Carl Rosa and his buddy Mike. It was awesome down there. We had dolphin, cobia, bonito, Spanish mackerel and king mackerel over the three days we stayed down there.

My good buddy John Kendrick and his son-in-laws and grandson joined me for two days. John tagged along in his boat with his Joe while David and Kendrick Chittock were in my boat. We got cobia, jack, and redfish. There were between 2000 and 2500 fish in a school outside of Port Canaveral.

Here David and Kendrick show a nice pair of reds that they landed.

And Joe with a fat one as well.

You can look in the background of this picture and see a green boat in which my good buddy Capt. Blair Wiggins from Addictive Fishing Television and the Legendary Bill Dance were filming shows on this school. Look for both of their television show later this year to see how crazy this type of fishing can be if your lucky enough to find this type of giant school.

And finally my good friend and beer drinking buddy (well when he’s in town) Chris Kaminski joined me for a day out on the Indian river. While we were catching redfish somebody lit the fuse on the Space Shuttle. That’s not too bad of a backdrop while your dragging redfish in.

Summer is finally here and the tarpon just showed up on the beach. Joining them are big reds, jacks, cobia, king mackerel and bonito. Reds are still happening in the lagoons as well so give me a call if your looking to get out and pull on something.

Until next time...Catch a memory!