June is always excellent in the nearshore and offshore waters out of Port Canaveral. We have been seeing shifty thermocline conditions, so don’t count on bottom fishing. The best bet right now is a live pogy or threadfin on a stinger rig over 8A and Pelican. You can also find the kings on shoal ledges, and shallow wrecks.

It may take some persistence, but you should be able to bring home dinner and get a workout on the bottom of reefs, ledges, and even wrecks. The key here is to avoid the red snapper as best as possible.

It’s starting to get really good offshore with blue water in only 60-70ft. We got out Tuesday despite breezy west winds and storms south of the port. There were not any pogies off the beach, but we did see a few tarpon while trying. Unfortunately, the weather forced us further north and way shallower than where I think would have been the best bet. We still managed to get a few snake kings and the usual red snapper in 100ft. What you didn’t get to see was a mangrove and a big lane snapper.

We went out Monday with a plan to catch grouper and (sorta) got it done. Our initial plan was to drop croakers on 27 Fathom for grouper and squid or sardines for smaller fish. The plan was foiled by red snapper, so we trolled for two hours and got one short mahi. There was only 1.5 mph of current over the Cones, and we got a porgy, snowy grouper, and a blackfin on the bottom! We would’ve stayed longer, but storms were popping up so we headed in.

The past week has been windy and busy enough that I didn’t get in the ocean. Sight fishing the flats right next to the mangroves for 15-30 inch reds has been productive when the sun is out in the afternoon tucked up from the breezy east winds. They have been surprisingly spooky too.

There’s never any consistency to mahi fishing. The gulf stream moves up to 6 mph. We were greeted with westerly winds and 2-3ft seas Monday morning. At around 200ft, the water turned from a 70° green to a 75° blue in about a mile. However, this temperature difference caused a moderate northerly wind in the stream. This collision with the current coming from the south caused a 3-4ft chop. We put out our spread of chin weighted ballyhoos with small skirts and started trolling.

Mahi-mahi have been hit or miss this week. We got one peanut and trolled five hours. Because of how migratory mahi are and the fact that the Gulf Stream flows 4-5mph, the fishing changes daily. Trolling skirts and ballyhoo will catch them if they’re around. After an epic kingfish bite on March 25, we tried Pelican Flats again. There were red snapper and a few smoker kings up top, but they were very hard to get past the sandbar and hammerhead sharks.

With the new moon and fairy clear water in much of the North/Central Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon, there has been a lot of 10-25 inch seatrout. Look for flats with a seagrass, a good ledge, or baitfish. Trout are often also found in and near channels and canals. Sometimes I’ll see a big 20-30 trout or two while sight fishing reds in skinny water.

We caught at least 25 kingfish within five hours southeast of Port Canaveral in 80ft of water. We knew bait has been extremely scarce, so we left early didn’t even bother trying. We used spot-lock over a place I’ve done well before away from the fleet, which was on North Pelican Flats.

We were going to tripletail fish out of Port Canaveral Saturday, but there were two or three boats on almost ever buoy by 7:00AM. There was a huge school of black drum off the beach. They would occasionally hit a shrimp. That meant using a smaller hook that could straighten. They turned off and went down by 8:30AM. This school of fish probably moved south with the cooler weather. If spotted, use medium to heavy spinning gear with large shrimp or crab. Sometimes, they will eat a cobia jig if you rip it through them out of defense.