July 8, 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
- Westerly winds this week will continue to bring in sultry, rainy weather.
- 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.
- In June FWC stocked Lake Marian East of Lake Kissimmee with 7,000 bass fingerlings.
Freshwater
Fish early. That’s still the summer doldrum default for bass and bream. Start shallow casting spinner baits around Cypress knees and shoreline vegetation for bass. As the sun rises the water gets more oxygen content around vegetation. So concentrate on grassy areas with weedless soft plastics. Cast small jigs and sinking flies for bluegills. If a shower pops up go there and work the surface with poppers for bass and for bream. Also, after a rain, bluegills move to the shoreline to feed on worms, insects, and small bait. Bass will follow. Fish in and around feeder creeks and low shorelines where the soggy soil drains.
Saltwater
Fish early or fish late is the saltwater default, too. Fish passes, rivers, and canal drainage areas. On the beaches, big snook are feeding in the deeper trough where waves break. Deep gulf grass flats north of Anclote Key can be very productive for reds and seatrout and lots of other species, too. Cast paddletail jigs around rock piles and other natural structures. Keep one eye out for big rays on the move because cobia are often right behind them. Fish points and islands where currents accelerate. Work rock jetties for pompano and mangrove snapper.
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