July is hot in Clearwater Florida, but the fishing is exceptional, both offshore and inshore. With a large variety of fish available to target during this month, the hardest part will be decided what to chase on your charter.
The inshore charters are still having great success with Tarpon fishing early in the mornings with most fish being around 100 pounds. Last week we landed several big Tarpon and hooked several more. The fight and acrobatics these fish show is nothing short of explosive. When the bite for Tarpon slows down the Snook and Redfish are sure to provide plenty of action. Schools of Reds are in the shallows and we have been catching a lot of good sized fish. Snook continue to be cooperative mostly in the inlets and arounds jetties. A bonus fish that we have been targeting that is in season is the mangrove snapper, so if you’re looking to keep a few fish for dinner, those are delicious.
On the deep sea boat, most of the trips we have been running are 10-12 hours for Red Snapper and Grouper, with some bonus Tuna mixed in as well. The Red snapper season ends August 1st this year so we are about half way through it. We’ve been targeting bigger snapper by using larger live baits than usual, the smaller snapper tend to avoid the bigger baits so it gives the biggest ones a better chance at finding your bait. The Gouper bite has also been goo, Red Grouper has been easier to find than the Gag Grouper lately but that will likely change as the season progresses.
We’ve also been running several Goliath Grouper charters lately and having great success, most of these monsters average 200 plus pounds! While targeting goliath’s, we’ve been catching some huge shark. Mostly bulls with some black tips mixed in. If you can deal with the heat, now is a great time for some great fishing!