Action offshore is boiling hot, with our catches of ginormous red grouper and a few gag grouper. Lately we've been catching a spectacular variety of snappers – mangrove, yellowtail, lane, and patriotic American red snapper. We've also had the pleasure to get cobia, nice sized amberjacks, and mahi-mahi (don't worry kids, it's not Flipper)! Believe it or not, despite it not being their prime months of spring or fall, we are still catching kingfish.
The most awesome action is out deep, past 135 ft. Our bait has consisted of live pinfish and frozen sardines. With some grunts and sandperch being thrown in too sometimes; it worked like a charm! Some of our most recent trip, we've had pelagic species mentioned above- sharks, cobia, mahi-mahi, and kingfish – were swimming around the boat, following the large groupers (especially red grouper). One trip last week, Pastor Greg Dumas (pictured) of the Crossing Church in Brandon, was quick to put his bait in front of a large cobia. He's an avid fisherman, and when the cobia bit, Pastor Greg caught his biggest cobia ever; a whopping 30 lbs!
This time of year, be ready with a few light rods to throw out live, or even artificial bait to those free swimming pelagics. You never know what can happen in the summer heat! The forecast for the remainder of the summer has the species that are ripe in season, mentioned above, biting fantastically for the rest of the season. Perhaps, you'll even run into a smoker kingfish like I did! Now's the time to come out, AND GET YOU SOME!
Thanks,
Capt. Larry McGuire
Cortez Fishing Center, Bradenton Florida
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