Hi this is Capt. Chuck Butler with Charter SeaClusion, operating out of Key West Oceanside Marina where we offer full-service Deep Sea charters aboard my forty six foot Bertram sportfish “SeaClusion”.  July is when it gets hot, and I'm not just talking about the fishing.  We get a lot of really calm days and really strong sunshine.  If it was not for the great Dolphin fishing, it might just be too hot to get out on the water.  Maybe that's why I have an air-conditioned boat, a break under the air-conditioning can sure get a worn out angler ready to fight another fish.  July is also a great month for getting the kids out on the water. School is out, vacations are in full swing and for people in Florida,  Key West is an easy destination. Dolphin are the fish of the month and after the last couple of months I’m starting to dust off some old recipes, Dolphin for dinner two and three times a week is a perk in this business. The warm weather , calm seas and an absence of current typically make July Dolphin fishing a little more challenging. Finding debris is really the difference, especially when there is little or no current. A burned out migrant raft is a day maker, but a piece of dunnage that fell off a freighter a month or so ago will yield nice fish also if you find it first. Schoolie Dolphin are common, and a good place to look for them is on the leeward edge of a big mat of grass. When you find these schools  it's a great time to really do some catching not just fishing. Keeping a few schoolies behind the boat and throwing chunks will really produce big numbers of fish.  With a minimum take requirement of 20 inches, which   works out to about four pounds per fish and a ten fish per person limit a party of six can take home a lot of fillets.  Just to make things interesting during July,  Blue Marlin and a few White Marlin are  offshore of Key West hunting those schoolies.  The Marlin bite in July is strong enough that the Key West Marlin Tournament is held each year in July.  This year the tournament will be fished the 21^st, 22^nd, and 23^rd and is my favorite fishing tournament in Key West. This tournament is really a lot of fun and a great competition. Check it out at www.KeyWestMarlin.com .   With all the summer heat   July is a great time to start fishing at night.  Grey Snapper move to the reef  and are a predictable bite most of July.  I really enjoy getting the boat out on the reef a couple of hours before sunset  relaxing , watching the sun set and giving the chum time to work. Start off catching yellowtails and putting a bait on the bottom for grouper,  then after sunset catching Grey snapper till it’s time to go home..  The calm evenings and clear skies allow you to really see the Milky Way, sometimes you forget how many stars there are. So come on out and enjoy some great fishing day and night.    

I get a text from a friend here in Key West last night. ” Hey lets go Fishing”. So at a not so early time we take off to find Dolphin. Lots of weed lines and scattered weeds and Steve almost saying “your killing me” as he cleared weeds for about an hour . First fish a nice Dolphin.   No sooner had we got the baits cleaned and a full spread out than a feisty Barracuda eats half the baits before Trevor can bring him in.     With beautiful weather and a very comfortable sea breeze we picked through the weeds to put together a respectable catch of Dolphin.     Back at the dock we fileted the catch feeding our pet Tarpon the scraps . All in all a very enjoyable day of fishing with friends.