Weekly fishing Forecast for Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, and Port Canaveral near coastal/lagoon waters by Local Lines charters for July 1, 2015.  If you have not been on the water please be cautious; the lagoons are extremely low.  This time of year the water has typically come up substantially more than it is right now.  Due to the drop and morning periods of low oxygen on the shorelines we have been focusing on drop-offs and deeper flats.  Areas of floating grass have also produced well.  Lures like the Slayer Inc. SST rigged weedless have been producing Snook, Tarpon, Trout, Redfish, and Black Drum.  Once the sun comes up a bit!  You can’t go wrong with live and cut baits.  Mullet are very prevalent in the shallows and should be fairly easy to catch.  I personally like the large (black) mullet for soaking, and ones from 5-8 inches are best for live baiting.  If you’re stationary; tail hook your live bait.  If your moving or casting; nose hook.  30lb leader and no lead needed.  4/0 to 6/0 hooks work great. It’s been a spectacular week.  And many fish were caught using these methods.  You will notice a bunch of kids with great fish in the pic's.  It's summertime take a kid fishing!

This week’s forecast:   Please be careful on the water this holiday weekend.

In-shore    I will be looking for that deeper edges pattern to hold for a while.  Also look for the tarpon(juvi) to get more and more active.  Early mornings and late evenings are beast for them and don’t overlook “post” thunderstorm/rain for them to light up!  As the weeks of July progress the Bull Redfish will make themselves known on the shallow flats.  They use the edges to group up for the late summer spawn. Make sure to be skipping those mangroves, the snook are thick this year, and seeing some monster ones.

Near-Shore   The tarpon bit has been spotty and hard to pin down.  If you end up in the pogies off the beach!  You can bet they are not far behind.  Live baits produce best.  Look for the beaches from Patrick AirForce Base to Sabastian Inlet to fill with breeder snook.  They stay tight to the beach and are willing to hit many types of bait live or artificial.  They are staging for their late summer spawn and some real big ones will be caught.  These are a great target on boat, kayak, and foot!

Tight Lines! 

Open Dates this week:  Sunday (morn), Several open for the coming weeks of July.

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THIS WEEKS PIC’s!