Hello fellow anglers June in S.W. Florida and the fishing is in full swing. The waters have warmed up nicely and the bait has moved into the local waters and is easy to find. Look around the channel markers and near the edges of the bars that have grass on them. This time of year most of the guys that throw a cast net throw a ten foot with three eights mesh. This type of net is good to use in waters up to fifteen feet deep. You may have to use some chum to get the baits to ball up so you can throw the net over them. So after you have succeeded in this process it is very important to have a good live well. So what is a good live well consist of ? Well the best shape is an oval or round , if it is a rectangle the corners need to have rounded corners so the baits don’t run into the walls with there noses this will kill your baits. A forty to fifty gallon oval live well will hold enough live bait to fish and chum all day. There is another factor the live well needs a good water pump to suck in fresh sea water to keep them alive. There are several different sizes and they are rated by GPH gallons per hour. You want to have a excellent drain that will keep your bait in the well and let lots of water out. Most pumps have a five eights discharge to put the water into the well and have an adjustment to push the water around so the baits can swim around and around the tank. There is a term among anglers called blacking out your well, this can be accomplished is you have the things mentioned earlier. So when you get to this point you can head to your favorite drop your anchor , or power poles to hold your boat in position and start chumming. Then when things get active you can cast a bait into the strike zone and find out who is hungry. During this month there is a great possibility to catch a inshore slam that is a snook , red and a trout. If you can catch a tarpon too this is a inshore grand slam. This month you may be able to catch a personal best snook. They are in the pre spawn mode moving from the regular habitat out to a little saltier place to spawn. They will be moving around and hungry. Well lets talk about some offshore fishing. There should be plenty of snapper to harvest starting around fifty feet look for lane and mangrove snapper. Yellow tails eighty to one hundred feet. Yellow tails can be chummed up around a wreck or an artificial reef that has good structure to hold them. The lane and mangroves like to hang around natural bottom with a good ledge. A good ledge in the Gulf is as small as a foot to two feet. These days with the side scans and three D imaging you can find these places much easier today. Back in the day we had a paper bottom fish finder, we knew when it was working good you could smell the paper burning as it was showing the bottom. And there was no GPS it was LORAN that the lines were not as accurate to save your spots. oh and keep your eyes open you may find some cuda and or permit schooling around some of the wrecks and artificial reefs. And the man in the grey suit the tax collector better known as shark will be in the area all summer. So if you are interested in fishing with Capt. Bart Marx e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com or give me a call 941-979-6517 I have my own boat to take you out and I supply the poles and license. Or if you have your own boat I can do a training session on your boat with your boat and gear and I will show you where you can take your boat and how to rig your stuff. So contact me too if you need a gift certificate for a friend for a birthday or some one coming from the north tis fall to fish while they are here. With all that said always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{