June grass update for Walton County  7/12/13:PM

0 on the June Grass Grossness Index. 

I saw NO JUNE GRASS! Nor did I see jellies and only a minuscule amount of seaweed. I’ve just been in the water for about an hour. Let me tell you what I did see: tons of ladyfish, I even got to see some of them chasing and catching smaller baitfish, mullet, a couple of kingfish, tons of baitfish, the usual baby pompano, some beautiful halfbeaks that looked like jewels, and a bunch of other fish.

I also saw the gigantic hook baited with a fish the size of my hand sitting, apparently unattended, out on a sandbar near a lot of swimmers. It’s pretty obvious that this was a shark hook. I like sharks but I have no issue with folks who like to catch them. A little common sense about where to fish for them might be nice though. I did not see the bull shark that was hassling some other fishermen at the other end of the beach, while I was swimming, but I heard about it when I got home. There are bull sharks here and they do come up to the beach, act accordingly.

I also saw some royal terns doing some crazy synchronized flying, more terns catching small fish out past the second sandbar, and a bunch of lazy laughing gulls loafing on the beach. Then I saw storm clouds approaching from the north and heard thunder, so I got out of the water. If you can hear thunder you are close enough to the storm to be struck by lightning, which is way more likely to happen than that bull shark biting you.

The waves were slightly better for boogie boarding and body surfing today but not much. Currently there seem to be three sandbars, instead of two, since last weekend’s storms pulled a bunch of sand off the beach. There were a lot of contrasting warm and cool currents running parallel to the beach but nothing strong. The water is a beautiful shade of emerald.

At the time this report was made the beach flags were yellow, but check them again before you head to the beach. In Walton County you can text “beachflag” to 67463*

I would love it if you would share your personal June Grass and beach condition reports on the Most Recent June Grass Sightings & Beach Conditions page, to further improve the June Grass Report. It would also be great if you left a comment to tell me where you’re traveling from to visit the beach!

If there isn’t a current June Grass report up on this site I suggest checking the link to local beach cams on the left side of this page. They can often give you an idea of what the water is like. It is also important to “Know Before You Go” and check local beach flags. They are updated twice daily at 9:30am and 1:30pm.

PLEASE ENJOY THE BEACH RESPONSIBLY!