Right now, fishing (and catching fish) is 'off the hook'

It has been very hot lately. Cooling rains have been sporadic at best. I do remember many years when the first real afternoon thunderboomers would not reach the coast until the 4th of July though. Fortunately, many of us have seen a few already.

These afternoon rains are the one thing that help to moderate our water temperatures in summer, keeping them from getting totally out of control. A combo of cooling rain and late day cloud cover is just the ticket to keep our inshore fish happy and hungry.

Whatever the right balance is, it is happening right now because all of the reports I'm receiving are, for the most part, fishing (and catching) is "off the hook."

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You can take the inshore situation and triple it offshore, as the diversity of the action out there is beyond believable. American red snapper are running big and plentiful, as are red grouper and the whole gamut of lesser snappers. Gag grouper seem to be holding their own with big numbers of them in deeper bay channels as well as offshore.

Many offshore charter skippers are reporting catches including sailfish, wahoo, permit, mahi, black fin tuna. Some of these species are being encountered within a scant few miles of shore as well.

And then there is tarpon, the silver king. This season kicked off with fits and starts but when it got into full bore it was spectacular. I've been around a while but from all I'm hearing this has been a banner year for tarpon, not only in numbers but in above average size.

Hopefully, a measure of this good fortune can be attributed to stricter management policies across the board.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Right now, fishing (and catching fish) is 'off the hook'