I would like to take a moment here to express my condolences to the entire Meekins family on the tragic loss of Skyler Meekins. Skyler loved to fish and was very well known to all the piers regular anglers. Over the years she honed her skills out there and had many tarpon and king mackerel to her credit. Skyler was also an accomplished inshore angler who spent many a day fishing with her dad, Hap Meekins. Her and her dad came in 2nd place in this years bucket “O” fun tournament and walked away with $1,400 in prize money. She also spent many a day fishing offshore with her dad. Skyler’s smiling face will be missed in the fishing community.
Every August big redfish appear at Matanzas inlet and this year is no exception. Reds to 40 inches are being caught. The bait of choice is live mullet rigged on a 3/0 circle hook. You’ll also need enough weight to hold the mullet along the bottom. Usually a small egg sinker or a couple large split shots. The optimum time to fish is at the change of the tide. This is when the fish seem to be most active. Once the current starts to rip through the inlet you’ll need to go to heavier weights to keep the bait down near the bottom. Reds to 30” can be caught on an outgoing tide at the mouths of creeks that feed into the ICW. If you can, get into the creeks on the out going tide and find a hole where the reds will congregate.
Elsewhere in the ICW, daytime trout fishing remains on the slow side. The water temperature is high which makes the trout lethargic. I believe if we get some rain it will cool the water down enough to turn these fish on. Nighttime trout fishing has remained consistent.
Flounder continue to be caught using live mullet, mud minnows and live shrimp. Keeper size mangrove snapper are abundant and are readily caught using live shrimp or pieces of shrimp.
Snook fishing remains good and will only get better when the mullet run begins. Lou DeFazio and I headed out the other morning to fly fish for snook and Lou landed his first snook on a fly. I had a couple of strikes on a topwater fly but no takers. Lou has been getting snook to 32” at night using a jig/shad tail combination.
Tarpon can be found rolling in most of the canals. Most of the fish I’ve seen are anywhere from 20 to 60 lbs. These fish can be very difficult to catch. Live lining a mullet is probably the best bet to connect with a silver king.
Pier fishing has been slow. Small reds, pompano and blues are the report. Look for the fishing to pick up in a couple of weeks when the mullet and pogy runs begin