If the Panhandle waters around Port St. Joe are your beat, this is one of the best times of the year to collect the makings of a gourmet dinner.

June is the month for pompano to run the Panhandle beaches and their preferences for particular depths and cover situations are well known. Look for a hard sand beach and get there on a rising tide. The key areas are normally along the sharpest drop-off to deeper water, but the pompano won't be deep. They like to get right in the trough in 2 to 4 feet of water where they will find their favorite food -- sand fleas or coquina clams.

If you really want to fine-tune your target zone, find those cuts in the outer sandbar that lead into the trough. Pompano come and go via these gaps.

You can fill the cooler from a boat or the beach, but the most effective approach for each is a bit different.

Boat bound anglers need to stay well off the beach and out of the feeding zone. Pompano can be spooky and if you run your boat over them they find less traveled waters. The top rig here is a 1/4- or 1/2-ounce Pompano Jig that all local baits shops carry. These are fished on a 6- to 8-pound spinning rig. If you can get sand fleas -- which are actually mole crabs -- by all means tip the jig with one. On the retrieve, remember that pompano are bottom feeders -- deep and slow beats shallow and quick.

If you're beach bound the jig will work. But a single sand flea on a No. 6 hook, with a sinker a couple feet up the line is often better. The weight should be just heavy enough to hold the rig on the bottom.

THE BOTTOM LINE
There are plenty of other places to catch some briny fish in the Sunshine State this month, but you won't go wrong with this Fab Five.

Find more about Florida fishing and hunting at: FloridaGameandFish.com