The Yellowfin tuna fishing has come back down to Earth now that we’ve reached mid summer. It’s still good, just not as easy as it was. When you go to the right place with the right bait, it’s awesome. When you don’t, it can be a long day. We had a nice push of blue water in June and we didn’t have to run far to catch tuna. The clean water pushed back out last week and that makes the boat rides longer. As for the bait, we’re mostly using hornbellies right now but the baby hardtails are starting to show up offshore in good numbers. Most of the tuna are 50-60 lbs but there are some big fish mixed in. My biggest this summer is 151.
One thing that was missing in the early part of the summer was the mahi mahi. The grass lines were out there but the fish weren’t. That all changed about 2 weeks ago and now there’s plenty mahi to be had. Most of the fish are 5-10 lbs but there are some nice bulls out there as well.
And for the bottom fishing, red snapper have not been as easy as the last couple years but there’s still plenty out there. When you want to put in the time and effort, we’re catching plenty 15-20 lb snappers with some grouper mixed in. I haven’t fished a lot for mangrove snapper but there’s plenty out there if you want to go for em. Amberjack season will reopen August 1 and remain open until the quota is full.
