July 1st Fishing Report from our Recent Charters

The biggest news recently from our family has been the birth of our second child, Ethan Wallace Cheek! He was born on June 26th at 12:47 PM and weighed 7 pounds 10 oz.

Check him out!

Inshore Fishing Report

Inshore fishing has been mostly good with some tough days and some stellar days mixed in. We have been fishing around Cumberland Beach as much as possible as the bite has been good and it’s some pretty easy action to get in to. Other days we have had to fish in the river where it takes a bit more moving around to find a good bite. Either way, the Trout fishing has been worth doing.

Tripletail fishing has not been a major focus for us although they are still around and will continue to be around until late summer or early Fall. We have been mostly stopping and spending only a few minutes on Tripletail as long as it doesn’t take too much time away from other things.

Nearshore Shark and Tarpon Fishing Report

Shark fishing has been out of control! If you’ve never fished with us before, most of the time we go out and find shrimp boats that are dragging anywhere from a mile to 6 miles from the beach. Then we drift behind them with live or dead bait and it typically doesn’t take long before the chaos ensues.

These big Sharks like to get airborne, and to me, that is more exciting than actually getting the fish to the boat. Check out this picture from one of Capt. Tim’s recent charters:

Lately, we have also been chumming the sharks up right behind the boat and casting either cut bait or artificial baits at them. It’s a really exciting way to catch Sharks when you get to pick your fish out and watch it eat the bait. Allen Easterly caught this one while I was guiding him recently and it was just small enough for us to pull him into the boat for a photo opportunity:

Here is one that Allen brought boatside that ate a Hogy 10 inch original soft plastic:

Tarpon have also arrived in large numbers. We have observed hundreds of Tarpon busting schools of bait on several days. We’ve been mostly throwing artificial baits for them because there are so many bait fish for them to choose from and in my opinion it helps to show them something that stands out.

Here is one of my recent customers hooked up with the first Tarpon of 2014:

Offshore Fishing Report – Deep Sea Fishing

While fishing offshore we have been doing a lot of fishing for Spadefish. Many people may not know what a Spadefish is, but to break it down into simplest terms, they are some hard fighting panfish on steroids! We catch them by chumming them up close to the boat with Cannonball Jellyfish and then we free-line small pieces of Jellyfish to them.

After you hook one, you better hang on because he want to get back down to the bottom… fast!

Here are some pictures of Spadefish from our recent trips:

This is what you will see under the boat once we have them chummed up good:

We’ve also been catching plenty of Barracuda, Amberjack, Red Snapper, and Sea Bass while fishing offshore. Red Snapper season will be open for 3 consecutive weekends starting on July 11th.

Fishing Forecast for July

Inshore fishing will likely stay about the same although fishing for Tripletail around buoys and channel markers should get better. Tarpon fishing will continue to get better and should peak in August or September. Offshore fishing should get better as more Kingfish show up.

One thing that I am keeping my eyes peeled for is big Jack Crevalle. Last year they showed up in July and we had a lot of fun casting topwater plugs to them each morning. Hopefully they come back for another round this year!

Until next time… tight lines!

Capt. TJ Cheek