An extraordinary heat wave has had the fish acting flaky at times this past 2 weeks. Higher than normal air temperatures, means higher than normal water temperatures. Fish will often tend to lay low in the heat of the day. Shallower waters will heat up by 4 degrees by the end of the day, especially if the sun is out. We even find the fish taking a siesta during the heat of the day offshore, in deeper waters as well.
We noticed many of the groupers we caught recently have been spitting up small crustaceans, Many types of offshore reef and spider crabs. This is a tell tale sign that the groupers are feeding during the evening hours, when its not so hot. That's when the small crabs leave their rocky hideouts to go looking for food. This is a common occurrence during a full moon phase (finding crabs in their stomachs). Now, even with full moon phase ended days ago , groupers remain to have crabs in the bellies.
It's always a good idea to investigate what is in the stomachs of any fish you are filleting , It opens the door of opportunity to see what their diet consists of. This allows you to match the hatch, by using the baits they are feeding on. We investigatekingfish, tuna, cobia, amberjacks and many other pelagic species also, to find out what their favorite food consists of for that time period. It's an ever changing diet, all according to what's available. This investigative tactic will improve your fishing skills in a monumental way, since it's always a mystery as to what bait a big fish will grab from your baited hook.
We had our first tropical system enter the gulf, stirring things up a bit. This will help the fishing for the rest of the month of July. Lots of much needed rain has dumped into our gulf along with hig winds and rough seas. As this weather settles the fishing should be outstanding
