June Fish & Where to Catch Them

Written by David Paschall | 07 June 2010

June Report

BAY FISHING

The bigger trout will be cruising the flats. Also, specific good areas are the Pompano Point and the head of the bay south of Blacks Island to Pigs Island. Fishing live LY’s and shrimp will be the bait of choice, but a good topwater Mirrolure or Rapala Skitter Walk first thing in the morning will entice the lunker. Tripletail should appear and they can be fooled with live shrimp under a Cajun Thunder float. Hit every crab buoy and other floating debris to find them. Spanish mackerel will be around in the bay and will be an easy catch, as they will devour most anything thrown to them. The all time favorite place to fish for the Spanish mackerel from shore will be from the oil docks using a double speck rig. If trolling is your cup of tea, troll a mackerel rig with a Clark spoon around the bay up into the buoy line. The redfish will be invading the flats as the bait fish move in. Flounder have so far been abundant and good size and you should still be able to pick up a few at the entrances to the canals and bayous, under the George Tapper Bridge, and off the oil docks at PSJ Marina. For flounder use live bull minnows or if your choice is artificial, use a DOA shrimp/CAL jig or Berkley GULP! in red and root beer colors.

NEARSHORE/SURF FISHING

Some pompano and whiting will still be available for the surf fisherman during the month of June, but be aware the catfish and crabs will be thick. Live sand fleas or fresh shrimp on a double pompano rig will be good for both species and to stay away from the catfish and crabs, use a light pompano jig tipped with fresh shrimp. Pompano jigs in chartreuse or pink are always a good choice for our area. You will also be able to catch Spanish mackerel, bluefish, hard tails, and ladyfish from the surf as they chase the baitfish right onto the beach. Bubble straw rigs, Clark spoons, and the most popular gotcha lures will do the trick nicely. Trolling the buoy line with Duster rigs with a cigar minnow will work great for the kings. Live hard tails slow trolled is a favorite for the bigger kings.


OFFSHORE

Red Snapper and grouper will be caught in good numbers a little farther out as they head to the cooler water with 30-50 miles producing the best fish. The shelves 40 miles south of Cape San Blas will be a great area to bring aboard some fish. For the red snapper, the key will be as light as tackle as possible using fluorocarbon leaders. Chumming them up over wrecks and free lining your baits down among the chum will be a good method for bringing home the big ones. Grouper fishing will be great in June with the bigger fish still moving out to deeper water as the temperature rises. The best fishing will be at 150’ to 200’. Live bait will be readily available around the buoys and over the shallow wrecks, but make sure you bring some frozen cigar minnows as back up and use a Carolina rig with 80lb fluorocarbon leader and 10/0 Mustad circle hooks. Triggerfish are here thick and can be caught on a double drop rig with squid on #4 Owner fly liner hooks. Use the Shimano Butterfly jigs for Amberjack around wrecks and towers. Trolling will be hot as the king mackerel move into our area in force. Dolphin will be making their presence known about 15 miles out and Wahoo will be closer than ever at 15 miles. Trolling ballyhoo and small Boone jets will work on the dolphin and deeper running lures such as the Yozuri Bonita and Marlin Man panhandlers will work wonders on the Wahoo.


FRESHWATER

Topwater in the morning and spinner baits/plastics in the afternoon will be the key this month. Target the mouth of tributaries as this will be where the largemouths congregate. Bream fishing will remain hot this month and fishing wigglers near the bottom will work well.