Multi species is what the month of July is calling for.

Report Date: July 10, 2006

July's calm winds and cool mornings have been allowing some of the best topwater fishing I have seen in quite some time. Redfish, trout and cobia are all readily smashing any topwater lure that passes over their potholes. On deadlow tides my clients and I have been stalking tailing redfish in less than a foot of crystal clear water. We have been doing this early in the morning because the water tempratures bottomout around 83 degrees, in the afternoon these tempratures raise to an incredible 87-88 degrees. My favorite lures have been Rapala Skitter Walks and Mirrolure TopDogs, but any lure that Walks-the-Dog will be smashing.

This beautiful Redfish was caught using a Berkley Gulp shrimp. This was just one red from a school of over 50 fish.

July has also produced many surprises this month. Besides the tarpon tackling my topwaters (which I never get a chance to get a picture of) and the mackerel mangling my jigs, cobia nad tripletail have been the big surprises so far. Since the past few weeks have had such little wind my clinets and I have been searching for tripletail floating in loose pieces of grass. These fish can change color and blend into the grass so you realy have to keep your eyes peeled. My guides boat is customized with a flats tower which makes potting these fish from a distance not only possible but probable. The tripletail we have been landing range between 3 and 6 pounds and are a blast on 4 pound Power Pro.

Bob Elser sight casted this beautiful 6 pound tripletail underneath a patch of floating grass. What drag screaming fun!

Late season cobia are still in their late spring hiding spots. Many of the structures sprinkled throughout the area have been holding nice cobia lately. I like fishing these spots when the tide runs hard because the water temprature takes longer to rise and the fish seem to stay active longer. The cobia we have been landing have been topping out around 40 inches, but I have spotted some wider fish in the upper 60, low 70 pound range. In fact, I had about a 55-60 pound fish lay underneath my boat in about 2 foot of water while I was redfishing late in June. He wouldn't bite anything, and was the most agravating fish I've ever delt with, but was promising to see.