Port Canaveral, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, and Orlando

July is here and the conditions will test even the most cool, calm and collected of captains.

It is crazy to think that some of the calmest days of the year can bring the most adversity. The key to success is being flexible and appreciative.

Live bait trolling is always going to be the go to style of fishing in the summer months. It is standard operating procedure. Go to the reefs and wreck troll around live bait and take what bites. King mackerel are the # 1 target with the occasional mahi, cobia, black fin tuna, wahoo and sail fish as welcomed bonuses. We usually see plenty of barracuda, bonito and a variety of smaller shark species such as sharp nose sharks and black nose sharks.

There will be days where the seaweed makes it impossible to live bait troll or to do any kind of trolling. There will be days the pelagic species completely disappear or it’s just too hot for them to bite. These are just a few reasons that a complete shut down can happen.

Switching to bottom fishing is the solution. The bite won’t be great but at least you will be able to fish and get actually get a bite. Red snapper will provide action but they are closed off for us to be able to keep except for July 8th & 9th. With the snapper you will occasionally score a grouper, amber jack or cobia. Most of the time the sharks will be so bad that getting up a large red snapper, grouper or amberjack will be next to impossible.

Switch to chicken rigging if you can’t get past the sharks and goliath groupers. You can usually get tasty vermillion snappers, lane snappers and trigger fish up before they get attacked.

If the stringer fish are not biting embrace the sharks and goliath groupers. A big fight is a big fight. Catch one, ware yourself and everyone else out and call it a day 😁.

This is where the appreciative part comes into play. Be appreciative you were free to spend a day in the water with friends and family. Appreciate anything you were able to capture to keep. Appreciate the power of big sharks & goliaths that come with big fights.

July can be tough but switch things up and appreciate how it works out. I guarantee the day will be a success. I love summertime fishing because it all reality we can always find something to catch and the ocean is usually calm. I personally would rather a calm ocean with slower fishing than a rough ocean with red hot fishing. We are going to see some decent catches with a lot of diversity. We will see catches of mackerel with a wahoo or mahi in the mix, right along with a trigger fish or two and some golden tile fish to boot. We will see a few mangroves mixed with a nice mutton alongside some sharpnose sharks. We will see a small stringer of vermillions and lanes with big smiles from the entire family working together to crank up a goliath grouper. The summer always works itself out if your flexible and appreciative.

The Suzuki Repower Fishing Report is sponsored by Mastry Suzuki Repower

Captain Greg Rapp
Sealeveler Sport Fishing Charters
Phone: (321) 794-3474
Capt. Greg on the web: https://www.sealeveler.com/
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About Captain Greg’s Reports and Forecast
Captain Greg has been fishing the waters of Port Canaveral and the Atlantic for over 30 years. He has the largest and most highly rated private charter business in Port Canaveral, Sea Leveler Sport Fishing Charters. Greg and his team of full time captains fish well over 200 days each per year. We have kept detailed catch history for every trip ran since 2010. You can access this history at www.sealeveler.com/reports. His engineer wife, Amber, has analyzed the catch history along with other historical data such as water temperature and weather patterns. Greg uses his fishing experience and knowledge along with his wife’s statistical analysis to bring you the best fishing report available for Port Canaveral. Greg will give you the honest truth on how the fishing has been along with his best prediction of what to expect by using all of this information.