August 2018 Port Canaveral Florida Fishing Report

July was really good for those that just wanted great action. I honestly thought our clean water would stay around for more than a couple days but it didn’t so that was very disappointing. The bait fish disappeared about the same time as the clean water. I’m not sure why that happened. I guess the big storm way North may have been pushing some funky water our way because we did have South current for quite a few days and that is very strange. Slow trolling for kings, cobia and mahi was really good but the bottom fishing completely shut down. The near shore fishing for sharks was hit and miss and we really didn’t get as many days live bait trolling the beach as I thought we would. All that being said we had about a 100% success rate charter fishing except for a couple day where customers only wanted to bottom fish. The AWA Shark Derby came to a end on July 4th. If you want to see some really neat stats go to the AWA Shark Tagging Derby on Face Book. The new Shark Tagging Derby will kick off January 1st 2019.

The bait is starting to trickle back in after its mysterious midsummer hiatus. With any luck some of the killer near shore fishing opportunities we get throughout the summer will peak this month. Focus your effort around the bait. You will find sharks, tarpon, kings, big red drum and cobia in the schools of pogies right now. Depending on the depth the bait is in will be the determination on what species will be prevalent. That being said, a good buddy of mine seen several absolute giant king mackerel sky in the surf just a few days ago. Typically tight to the beach you will find tarpon, sharks and snook and a little further off will be your king mackerel, red drum and cobia. A excellent strategy for those wanting the protection and comfort of being close to land is to run up and down the beach casting live bait into the bait pods and then slow trolling just outside of the bait. Fish the area for 30 minutes and if you don’t have any luck take a ride up or down the beach until you find more bait and repeat.

The 2018 six day red snapper season falls in August this year so what will be the best strategy to make the most out of this ridiculously short season? Right this very minute bottom fishing is poor but all the signs of improvement are here. The bait fish are biting and the sinkers come up warm. The visibility reports from the mini lobster season were decent. With any luck by the second week of August these conditions will move out to 140 ft plus and we will have a few nice grouper to go with our limit of snapper. The snapper have no size limit because the hope is that you will keep the first fish that hit the deck and stop when you get your limit. Everyone knows that this is not going to happen and most people will cull their fish. In all reality a 10lb and 15lb red snapper doesnt really yield much difference when you break it down in terms of feeding your family. The Sea Leveler boats will be keeping the first handful of respectable fish to come over the rail and then we will move on to target other species. Besides red snapper we should continue to see great action from live bait trolling with a good mix of king mackerel, cobia and the occasional mahi, bf tuna or wahoo. To answer my original question. The best bet to maximize your 6 red snapper days is to quickly take the first decent red snappers to come over the rail and then focus the rest of the day slow trolling live baits or dead baits in 100ft or less. If the surface water is not clean in 100ft then instead of slow trolling you should move out to 200ft and focus on trying for amberjacks and maybe a grouper or 2 possibly saving 1 snapper spot for a behemoth that may be lurking in the deep. If you don’t catch him just make a quick stop on the way home to finish out your limit.

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.