The bite inshore has been great for us the past few days as water temperatures are in a great range and water is moving, bait is thick, and fish are moving and feeding well too. This Full moon has things really flowing in the back bay and coastal areas creating more feeding opportunities for many of our inshore species. Great time to get out and fish local areas. Look for those points, pockets, and passes or cuts to find an area where feeding fish are located. Points could be points of a mangrove island, or mangrove shoreline, or the point of any shoreline, even a jetty system. Pockets could be a pothole in the flat, cut along the flats, drop offs adjacent to structures or oyster bars, or any deeper area near a shallower area holding bait. Passes or cuts could be any channel area or deeper throughfare where water will be moving.

Trout action has been going well for many bay area anglers on those deeper flats around 3-6ft. You can find them shallower, but those areas are working well. Live shrimp, soft plastics, and even those Mirror lure twitch baits in smaller sizes are working well for the area trout. If you are fishing shallower look on those edges of the flats where it falls to deeper water and often you can find the trout along the edges stacked up waiting for bait and shrimp to move off the edge. We are also seeing a lot of trout on the incoming tide around the pass, typically early morning around bridge lights and dock lights.

Redfish action has been going well around the area too. We are seeing them start to react well to the dead cut bait under the mangrove shore lines. Live shrimp are still working well but a we have seen a big move to the cut bait and live pinfish lately. The soft plastics are always a safe bet for the redfish action too. Look for them around the flats, mangroves, or adjacent to structures in and around the passes.

Snook are continually active right now with plentiful more slot to under slot fish around the flats. Bigger fish are most common moving closer to the passes. Incoming tide has been working well around local passes at night and early morning. Free lined pinfish or grunts are a great option for snook. Also, the mirror lure MirroDine is one of my favorite go to lures this time of year. However, early morning low light conditions around shallower waters the top water lures work well. Passes and deeper areas at night the flarehawk or big bucktail style jigs are starting to work well as waters warm up and snook start to stack up and stalk the passes at night.

Sheepshead are still around the structures of the area but are giving way to increasingly more of the mangrove snapper. Either way, wonderful time to hit local dock lines, bridges and piers and use those pieces of shrimp and lighter tackle around the structures for great opportunities at either one of these species or both!

Pompano are biting well along our beaches, passes and local fishing piers. Wonderful time to get out there early morning through mid-morning and bounce those pompano jigs along that sandy bottom area. Remember to keep it right on or near the bottom as the pompano are cruising right on the bottom looking for shrimp, sandfleas, or small crabs.

We have seen the red grouper bite picking up near shore lately especially the last few days. Luckily, we finally got a stretch of some nicer weather and were able to get out there to that 60-100ft area more often this past week. The red grouper are ready to eat especially as you get deeper. We are having the most action on the whole threadfin with the tail cut, strips of the squid wings cut to mimic octopus tentacles 6-8 inches long, or the live pinfish. Typically, around 40-60lb test and around a five to seven ot hook is a great option for targeting the near shore red grouper. Lately they are coming up for us after sitting in an area for a while and getting the other species out of the way a bit. Once you soak the spot and the bite slows a bit that is when we are seeing the red grouper finally cooperate.

Lane snapper action is going well for us offshore right now on our deeper near shore trips. Once we are out there past around sixty feet of water, we are seeing more of these great eating lane snapper all the way through to the deepest near shore waters on the shrimp, squid chunks or cut threadfin.

Mangrove snapper action is going well too, but typically not until you get to the deepest near shore waters. We are seeing them shallower too, but for bigger concentrations of the mangroves we are fishing beyond seventy to eighty feet of water right now with the cut threadfin chunks on the double snell rigs or the live shrimp.

Mackerel are super thick near shore still from the beaches out to around 80ft of water and we are seeing plentiful kingfish scattered throughout that range and beyond to the deepest offshore waters. This is the time of year also where you may encounter a passing cobia or potentially even the unicorn sailfish while fishing near shore for pelagics or while bottom fishing with that flat line out and pitch rod ready.

Hogfish action has picked up a bit this week, while it had been tougher with bumpier more stirred up waters it finally calmed a bit for us, and the hogfish turned right back on for us thankfully. Wonderful time to make it out there around forty to eighty feet of water with the live shrimp and lighter tackle to target the hogfish.

The offshore bite went well for us this past week and into the later week with some solid red grouper, fat scamp, plentiful mangroves, big vermillion, porgies and more. Plus, the yellowtail snapper bite has been picking up too! This weekend’s great weather and full moon are hopefully going to provide an even better opportunity for greater deep-water action for us. The red grouper and big scamp are out there in the deeper offshore waters beyond around 120-140ft of water. We are using the live pinfish, big threadfins or larger strips of the squid or octopus.

The mangrove snapper action has been going well around 140-180ft of water especially at night. We are seeing plentiful numbers on the cut threadfin chunks and the double snell rigs. Some of the larger mangroves are being caught using the small to medium sized live pinfish too.

Big kingfish are around offshore right now with the blackfin tuna mixed in and we are seeing the occasional wahoo out deep too. Exciting time to pelagic fish this weekend with the full moon moving plenty of water offshore and getting that bait up to the surface at night. Trolling between spots and having that flat line out is mandatory this time of year when making it out deep. You may even spot a cobia or a sailfish offshore right now too. Plentiful top water action should be present over the weekend and into the early coming week.