July 15, 2020
By: Bill Aucoin
TAMPA, Fla. – Welcome to Angler Insider sharing the best spots and plots to catch fresh and saltwater gamefish each week in Central Florida.
The Brief
- New moon July 20 means tall tides all week with major moon-over, moon-under solunars.
- Afternoon thunderstorms blow up and move westerly.
- MYFWC wants input to manage the Kissimmee Chain, Harris Chain, and Lake Okeechobee.
- Release snook, redfish, and spotted seatrout south of Hernando/Pasco line.
- Keep up to five bass but only one 16 inches or longer.
- Keep up to 50 panfish of any length.
- Keep up to 25 crappie (speckled perch) per person.
- Covid-19: Keep distance. Wash hands. Don’t share lures, etc.
Saltwater
Post-spawn tarpon are feeding nearshore. Sometimes you’ll see and/or hear them crash into schools of ladyfish. Go there and work the area with slow sinking lures and flies. The sun lights up beach water so sight-casting is an option. Yeah, it’s hot out there.
Fish passes at early and late for big snook, and no telling what else. Hurricane Pass between Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island is good but avoid busy weekends. Docklights hold snook and some have little tarpon, too. Boca Ciega Bay gets mentioned.
Wade fishing for seatrout and redfish is a cool option. Fish the mullet line, of course. Also, cast around nervous water.
Freshwater
Up for an all-nighter? From dark to daybreak fish shoreline structure. Broken-down docks hold bass. In the early morning cast weedless plastics where two or three kinds of vegetation come together. Skim a weedless frog over lily pads and let it linger in open spots. When the bite stops, go deeper. Peg a heavy sinker to a plastic worm then shake it and feel it slide deeper into hydrilla. For bream, drift deep water and sink spoons and spinners down to the little fishes. Catch one; catch many.
TrophyCatch Salute: Travis Coulter caught an 8-lb, 3-oz bass July 12 fishing Saddle Creek Park Lake near Lakeland.
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