Florida Fishing Reports, Summer patterns 06/30/09

I had a resent viewer e-mail me to tell me that my reports were dated. I know that I'm a procastinater and these reports were not up to times but it's hard to sit down after a day on the water and heat and find energy to write these things. Can a person make a new years resolution in June? I actually didn't think anyone read my reports anyway.
SNOOK
The fishing is at it's best this time of year on the lagoon. Very early morning starts are needed for the bite as by 10 am. it's hitting 90+ for air temps. and the water is around the same as well. The snook bite has been great for the first two hours of the morning throwing top water lures tight to the mangrove shore lines and docks. The lure of choice is the new Yo Zuri Sashimi Pencil in a chartrues color pattern. This lure has an amazing walk the dog action with inner rattles that clack together to get these linesiders wanting to blast it. Once the sun has been getting higher we start throwing the deeper areas close to where we were working our topwaters but change over to the Yo Zuri 3D minnow suspending jerk bait. For the fly fishing I beef up to a 9 wt. and start off throwingeither a crease popper or foam gurglres along the mangroves and once the sun comes up we change over to a clouser pattern to ply the deeper drop offs.

Trout and Redfish

Shallow grass flats in the 1-2 foot depths have been working great for these fish throwing topwaters, soft jerk baits and shallow running crank baits. Casting accuracy isn't needed as much as when fishing for snook but a good eye to see bait movement, fish waking and feeding activity is needed. These same flats have also been producing some Jack Crevelle in the 10-15 pound size along with some 5-6' sand sharks and bonnett head sharks.

Islands and drop off areas in the river have been producing pompano, bluefish and spanish macks too. As you can see it's a smorgasboard for the angler and I have different fishing situations for any anglers ability.

FRESHWATER

It's hard to pull away from the salt side to fish fresh lately but after we had the hard rains a few weeks ago the water has been very dirty and the bite has been slow to poor to say the least. I have talked to a few close freinds that keep me posted on what's going on and yesterday I was told that the waters are cleaning up. Early starts are a must as well.

These patterns should work all the way up to November. This will be the times for change on both waters. For the salt side the Fall Mullett run will be in full swing and for the freshwater side the bass will be getting ready to spawn.