Happy Fishing! Here is this weekend's Big Bend fishing report

First sign summer’s over for fishing.

Red Snapper season comes to a close on the 31st. Still have weekends through October and November so all is not lost. Matter of fact, been so darn hot this past two weeks, looking forward to October fishing already. Thought I would never say that!

Speaking of hot, what a better way to stay cool and spend time with family than scallop. No boat, no problem. Inshore guides from Stienhatchee to St. Mark’s are doing very well in just half day trips.

August will give us an offshore break before gag grouper season opens back up. Seeing lots and lots of pictures and even more reports of all the big gag being caught while snapper fishing. Can’t wait.

Couple safety and general boating tips to finish the summer. Biggest one, ALWAYS wear your life jacket while running, especially kids, elderly and those unable to swim.

Attach your kill switch. It’s the law when running on plane. Grease those hubs. Just because you launch in a freshwater river doesn’t mean those bearings stay greased well. Almost any local marina can take care of that for you if you don’t already have the setup.

Until next week, be safe have fun and ALWAYS wear a life jacket while boating.

Cliff (JR) Mundinger

APALACHEE BAY

Otto Hough (Facebook @myhometownfishing) says,” Ma Nature definitely made the past weekend a bit tough with a steady dose of coastal boomers making it rough at times. Fortunately, over these next three days, if the NWS Marine Forecast holds true, it ought to afford some pretty decent conditions on the Big Pond, albeit east winds Friday, dropping from the southeast Saturday and Sunday, but light with relatively smooth seas!

High tides along the Big Bend coastline will be occurring late morning throughout the weekend. Plan on dropping in the hole as close to safelight as possible for the best chance to enjoy the morning cool that should help stimulate the topwater bite during the rise. For each of the next few days, a major solunar feed will be tracking along with the last couple hours of the rise on past the turn by an hour or so. Again, seas should be conducive to enjoyable running inside or outside, whether working skinny water for trout/reds or scalloping or scooting to blue water for red snapper.

Given it's the last week of red snapper season until the special fall three day weekend season, anglers ought to have one last opportunity to wrangle up some fine limits. The season closes at the stroke of midnight Monday, July 31st. As for the trout and reds, the early morning hours before that sun gets too high in the sky have been giving up the best fish. On that rising morning tide, work that favorite topwater plug. My personal favorite is the bone/orange gilled One Knocker for topwater plugging. Lately, the trout both east of the Lighthouse and way west around the fringes of Turkey Point Spit have seemingly been the most aggressive morning feeders. Those reds have been cruising just about everywhere along the coast from Aucilla west to SGI. If no success with a topwater offering for the reds, give 'em a shot with a gold AquaDream spoon. That species will devour a juicy cut pinfish offering. With the extremely hot Gulf water, acquiring live shrimp at a bait & tackle shop will likely not happen, it'll be frozen at best. Use an imitation Z-man or Gulp! shrimp sweetened up with a dab of shrimp ProCure tipped on a jighead.

Anglers targeting tripletails this summer have been enjoying good success when seas have been fairly smooth. Offerings of large, lively shrimp, when available, eased up to a bouy, piling or flotsam have been well liked by the trips. Again, the challenge has been locating big shrimp at the bait shops as that 86° Gulf water is making it tough to get good baits. A 3" Z-man imitation shrimp sweetened with shrimp scented ProCure is a good plan "B" choice that will snooker 'em too.

For those folks wanting some family fun this weekend, the scallops east of the Lighthouse are out there in goodly numbers. Limiting out on a ten gallon boat limit hasn't been taking too long for most folks. Remember, have that dive flag flying high! Safety always! Let's have no more increases to boating statistics the rest of this scallop season.

As always, here's my reminder to wear an auto-inflatable PFD when running, preferably all the time when on the water! If not worn, that auto-inflatable will not meet USCG safety requirements. It must be worn to comply with regulations. There must be one regular PFD available for each person on board. Go have some fun somewhere on the waters of the Big Bend. Just FISH!!

ST GEORGE ISLAND

Captain Russ Knapp (850-653-5072) reports, “The weather for the weekend as of Wednesday afternoon looks outstanding for wind and seas with winds blowing 5 to 10 knots both days and seas of 2 feet. The one kicker is a 40 to 50 percent chance of squalls so you will need to keep an eye on the radar.

It's been another "warm" week so be sure to pack lots of water and Gatorade type products in your cooler to avoid the getting dehydrated.

Tides this weekend at the Cut will feature a late morning 2.0 high tide followed by an early evening -0.3 low tide.

In the bay, Capt. Dan Fortunas (850 980 0101) reports overslot Reds are hanging around the Cut by don't get hungry until late near sunset. Capt. Dan is drifting both fresh shrimp and finger mullet with equal success.

Silver Trout can be found around most any structure in 25 plus feet of water close to the island and Capt. Jack Frye (850 247 8134) has been catching good numbers of Tripletail fishing around most anything floating.

If you have a boat of reasonable size, offshore is the place to be with this being the last weekend of the summer recreational Red Snapper season. While good numbers of Red Snapper have already been caught, based on the size of Capt. Clint Taylor's (850 370 6631) tournament winning fish from last weekend there are still big fish out there.

Capt. Clint reports trolling is hot right now and this week he found a large Wahoo that just pass up a Wahoo Wacker being trolled at 9 mph while 33 miles out.

The Mahi bite is strong right now so be sure to check any floating objects and weed lines and have a rod ready with a silver spoon or flat line with a half Spanish sardine to put some great eating fish in the box.

Tip of the week --- it's absolutely critical that people stay hydrated this time of the year so be sure to explain that fact to any new guests on the boat and also explain to them what the options are for going to the bathroom. Many times, guests are afraid to drink anything because they may have to go to the bathroom which is your worst nightmare so be sure to make things crystal clear to them that you have ways to deal with a "bathroom break”.

KEATON BEACH

Captain Pat McGriff of one more cast charters, (onemorecast@gtcom.net) says, “Trout were more than cooperative this week as I had Evan and Bennett Stokes with Shep and Ben Miller out Tuesday and we brought in 20 trout and three reds in just over four hours fishing time. These young men ranging from 12 to 17 years of age had a Great time as we had bites on most every bait and caught and released quite a few shorts as well to keep us busy.

We used live pinfish under Back Bay Thunders to land all our fish. The trout were mostly in 4 plus feet of water while the reds bit in 3.5 feet of water.

Wednesday, my charter had our limit of trout and reds again in under four hours and again all were caught in 3.5–4.5 feet of water. Oh yeah, we fished the falling tide each day as hi tide was around 7:00am Tuesday and around 7:30am on Wednesday.

I was out catching bait Tuesday afternoon, and jumped a tarpon in the 70–80lb class and fought it through five jumps in 24 minutes before the hook pulled on ten pound test.

MEXICO BEACH

Captain Kevin Lanier of (KC Sportfishing Charters 850-933-8804) says, “Red Snapper fish has really picked up this week and catches are becoming very consistent. Most of our quality fish have been coming from between 90 and 100 feet of water. This is unusual for this time of year when the water temperature is in the high 80’s. We have been able to chum these fish to the surface which make the fishing day a lot of fun.

Little to no weigh on your line makes this even more enjoyable and our customers have had a blast watching the fish hit their bait. Save that old bait for chum.

King Mackerel fishing has also been on the rise and just. In time. Slow troll Live Hard tails or Cigar minnows. You can also drift the same baits as well. Make sure you are around structure.

This Friday and Saturday is our annual Mexico Beach Artificial Reef association King Mackeral Tournament. Friday July 28th is the Captains Party from 5-8 central time at the Mexico Beach Boat ramp and the weigh in at the same location from 3 to 6pm Ct on Saturday July 29th. There will be live music, Beer and fun. Come join us, Make a donation to a Great cause and enjoy the activities. There will be a Calcutta pot for Red Snapper as well

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Happy Fishing! Check out this weekend's Big Bend fishing report