FLAMINGO

by NestorAlvisa

As we move into July, I split my time between shing in Flamingo and shing o shore out of Miami. On the West coast, I’m still targeting snook and red sh along Cape Sable and up the Coast. My baits of choice are shrimp and pin sh under popping corks or your choice of weedless jerk bait or gulp shrimp on a ¼ oz jig head. Another thing to look for in July is for oating tripletail from around East Cape Canal to Middle Cape. ese sh will just be oating on their sides, just cruising with the tide. A live shrimp or any small arti cial/ y will work on these sh. On the gulf side you can still nd huge schools of permit out in the Gulf while shing on top of wrecks and rock piles. My bait of choice is a live blue crab on a small jig head or shrimp pattern arti cial.

On the Atlantic side, out of Miami, you will nd me either on the reef chumming up the yellowtail or running o shore in search of mahi mahi. For the yellowtail once I’m on the section of the reef I want to sh I just chum and wait for the sh to come to us. I rst let these sh get comfortable in our chum line. e closer they get to the boat the less chance you’ll have of getting them grabbed by a barracuda or a shark once hooked. We’ll use a small jig head with either silverside, squid, or strip of ballyhoo. Toss the bait into the chum slick and let it dri naturally.

On our mahi trips, I’m usually running a gunning for most of our trip. I’m looking for birds or debris or sargassum. I’ll then have my clients pitch a buck tail jig or live bait. Pilchards are a favorite this time of year.