Fishing Report & Forecast: Go Deep for the Summer Heat

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

"SHOW ME THE FISH CHARTERS"

Cortez Fishing Center, Bradenton Florida

(941) 720-6475

captlarrymcguire@gmail.com

Grouper, Snapper Mahi Mahi Hot Offshore off of Anna Maria Island

On 07-28-2009, while we were fishing 37 miles offshore Anna Maria Island, we filmed another episode of "The Reel animals Fishing Show" with Billy Knobles, Mike Anderson. We left the dock knowing that the possibilties were endless, because this group has the right chemistry, and when we get together anything can happen! No one doubted amazing things would happen, because it can get downright nasty out there. I anchored on a spot I found recently, a little ledge in about 137 ft deep. Though I started out having a big redneck grouper busting my line, a little later I did catch him with my first leader in his mouth.

After catching a few more, we moved to a different spot, where big Mike Anderson drew the first blood with a nice American Red Snapper; a few more huge red grouper followed. When we were heading to the third spot, I told my first mate Jarrod Vineyard "I'm looking for that special spot where the fishing just goes off the chart!" Before I made it to my third spot, I was watching my depth finder closely and saw a big grouping of fish on a little ledge. I had never seen this spot before, so I acnhored on it and entered the coordinates into my GPS, and i'm glad I did because this spot was the pot of gold we were searching for! Cpt. Billy Knobles hit the first fish, a humongous Fire Truck Red Grouper, soon followed by a large group of Mahi Mahi. It was such a hot spot, it had more quality fish than us or any other group could manage to catch, no matter how much time we had; large red grouper, monster mangrove snapper, and more mahi-mahi than we can handle! Though we were all expecting something like this, it was still a surprise, and true pandemonium. There was even a bull dolphin, approximately 30 lbs at the back of the boat, but unfortunately he didn't hit.

After two hours of non-stop action, the guys said that we had enough film footage, enough for two shows. The coolers were full and life was good; it was everything an awesome trip should be! Cameraman Kyle Marter said he had never experienced this type of a trip before, it was fast and furious to say the least. The Reel Animals Fishing Show will air in about three months, Saturday at 6:30 a.m., on NBC Channel 8.

We headed in early and left the fish chewing for another day. All of our fishing trips are different, and each has it's own unique exciting offerings. On some of our most recent trips, we caught exceptionally bit kingfish, amberjacks, black tip sharks, barracudas, both gag and red grouper; not to mention, the variety of snappers- scamp, red, mangrove, and lane snappers. Last Saturday, one of my best fishing buddies Skip Shipley of Cortez had a catch like ours. One big notable difference was that he had a ten ft hammerhead shark circling the boat thirty-five miles out. Needless to say, no one went diving on that spot! You never know what can happen; action has been great, and the summer is the time to go deep - 130 ft or more. I've found live pinfish to get optimum results. Fishing is hot, just like our weather, so come on out and get ya some!

Thanks,

Capt. Larry McGuire

"SHOW ME THE FISH CHARTERS"

Cortez Fishing Center Bradenton Florida

(941) 720-6475

captlarrymcguire@gmail.com

www.captlarrymcguire.blogspot.com