As the weather heats up on Florida's Space Coast and the love bugs begin their annual ritual this May, plenty of big gator trout and slot size redfish will be caught on the flats of the Mosquito Lagoon and northern Indian River.
 
This year, sea trout from 1 1/2 to over 5 pounds are plentiful in the shallow flats of both the Mosquito Lagoon and the northern Indian River. 

Because of the mild winter we had this year, the trout haven't bunched up as much as in  previous years and with the influx of baitfish in both the lagoons, they are happily eating and growing to larger proportions.

The redfish will be found along with the sea trout in the same areas of these shallow flats, usually around the pods of finger mullet.

The finger mullet schools stir up small crabs and crustaceans that the redfish eagerly feed on, along with the occasional straggler mullet.

When you find a school of mullet on the flats, stick around and fish the area.  If the mullet are jumping a lot, start casting ahead of the school and you'll soon be catching fish.

Sea trout will often follow redfish and sometimes even larger stingrays, waiting for them to flush out mullet or other forage to feed on.

If you want to catch large quantities of fish, bounce a Gulp shrimp on a jig head off the bottom in three to five feet of water, along the edges of the flats. 

If you don't get a hookup in ten minutes or so, move off to another area.

You can hook some big fish this way, but for every gator trout you catch, you will hook up with ten to fifteen smaller sized sea trout.

Wade fishermen and those using kayaks, canoes and other shallow water craft, are catching from 30 to 80 sea trout a day in the shallow flats around the Kennedy space center.

 

The flats around the Peacocks Pocket Road shallow water boat launch are loaded with redfish, sea trout and schools of juvenile black drum.

 

Although fishing pressure in this area has increased, there are still lots of nice fish in the marsh areas if you know how to catch them.

 

In the northern Indian River Lagoon above Titusville, some real monster redfish are being caught on both live and topwater baits. 

 

Unfortunately, Shiloh Marsh road remains closed for some unknown reason so access to this area is limited to foot traffic or bikes.

Early morning fishermen throwing top-water Storm Chug Bugs and Rapala Skitterwalks around the moving schools of finger mullet are catching some nice bull redfish and "gator" sea trout.

 

Playalinda Beach and South

 

Surf casters who fish "the rocks" between Indialantic and Patrick Air Force Base during May will have great fishing for  Black Margate, sheepshead, juvenile black drum, whiting, lookdowns, snook, pompano and even an occasional flounder.

Sea Bream or Black Margate are excellent table fare and in some areas during May are often the most prevalent catch.  

 

They average 2 to 4 pounds and are occasionally caught up to to 10 pounds around the coral heads. 

 

The current 15 1/2 pound world record black margate was caught in Fort Pierce Inlet.

In the vicinity of Patrick AFB; shrimp, crabs, sand fleas and small baitfish are attracted to the coquina worm rock and dead coral heads that are visible in the surf during low tides.

 
During these low tide periods, surfcasters who use long surf rods capable of casting well past the outcrops, do exceptionally well catching a mess of fish.

Sometimes during really low tides, local surf fishermen use long 10 to 12 foot surf rods with 1/4 oz to 1/2 oz barrel sinkers, a swivel, and a small hook tipped with sand fleas or peeled shrimp to wade waist deep and drop baits into likely looking pockets of coquina.

 
Don't try this method unless you're sure footed and the tide is less than three feet.  Also make sure to keep your baits in water tight containers.  There are a lot of sharks in this area.

In addition to dolphin, an occasional wahoo, sailfish or blackfin tuna should also be making their appearance.  Troll naked ballyhoo rigged on mono leaders if you're targeting dolphin and sails.

 

The warm weather also kept the kingfish hanging around last month and some giant fish in the 30 to over 50 lb. range were caught around Cris Benson and the Coast Guard Bottom.  Hopefully they will be around during May.

 

The kingfish on 8A and Pelican flats are running smaller but those areas are also holding more dolphin and an occasional wahoo.

 

Grouper opens back up in May!