The Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River:

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Port Canaveral Offshore and Nearshore Fishing:

Many nearshore anglers have reported that the last half of February has produced some of the best shark fishing they have ever seen along East Central Florida's coastline.  The shark fishing is still on fire and should continue throughout the month of March. 

Except for the past few days, the heavy winds amid the cold fronts cancelled far offshore fishing for pretty much the entire month of February.    Last week, on calmer days, the bottom fishing offshore was good for Amberjack, American red snapper, grouper, and a ton of sandbar sharks on the wrecks and reefs out of Port Canaveral in 180 to 250 feet of water.  

The AJ bite in particular has been on fire but the sandbar sharks have been nailing them on the way up.  Apparently only 1 in 5 or 5 are being landed whole.  Deep jigging works especially well on amberjack but unless you have deep pockets and don't mind losing a jig every time a sandbar shark grabs your fish on the way up, you might want to stick with live or chunk baits.
The offshore bite has been slow on the troll, but some bonita, blackfin tuna, and dolphin here and there were reportedly caught during the past week on the 60 to 90 foot reefs.  The kingfish are apparently farther south around the Patrick AFB area and are not biting that good.  
 
Fortunately, the nearshore fishing has been very good.   Large blacktip and spinner sharks are migrating thru our area right now and are providing nearshore anglers with countless hookups. 

This month the kingfish bite should ramp up and we should start seeing more cobia show up along the coast.  

The Cobia bite has not yet ramped up to the "March Madness" hype, but a few nearshore anglers have been catching Cobia out from the beaches in the Cocoa area. 

When the seas calm back down this month and the surface water temperatures hit 60 to 70 degrees, the Cobia bite will improve dramatically outside of both Port Canaveral and Sebastian Inlets.   

The Mantra Rays that the Cobia shadow move according to baitfish patterns governed by water temperature, so when we see the giant rays coming nearshore, we can expect the cobia to be right there along with them.   The deep, 400 foot wide ship channel that extends 3.5 miles offshore from the mouth of Port Canaveral plays a major role in attracting baitfish, which in turn attracts the rays and the cobia.   

Normally during the first two weeks in March, we can expect good numbers of Cobia to show up outside of Port Canaveral following the Manta Rays.  
This month is when nearshore anglers start looking for tripletail along the weed lines south of Port Canaveral and around any type of floating debris.  The tripletail will be holding on the buoys and almost anything floating on the surface that you come across.    Palm fronds, tree limbs, old crab pot floats, boards, and even floating coolers can hold Tripletail.

A lot of larger tripletail are caught out in the 45 to 65 foot depths by anglers using live shrimp as the bait of choice.   Small plastic or hair jigs, DOA shrimp, jig heads with a piece of shrimp, etc. all work on these tasty fish.

Closer nearshore and just outside of the surf break this month, nearshore anglers will be targeting Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and jacks by trolling or casting small spoons, jigs, or lipped diving plugs around the schools of glass minnows that hang around Port Canaveral.  

When good numbers of Spanish mackerel move into the Canaveral area, you can sometimes during the early morning hours when the seas are calm, see them busting on baitfish on the surface.   Occasionally Spanish Mackerel can be seen actively feeding inside the mouth of the Port.
   

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Playalinda and Area Beach Surf Fishing:   This month pompano, bull whiting, slot black drum, and a variety of sharks will be reeled in by surf fishermen along East Central Florida beaches.

Although the weather fronts have made surf fishing in much of Central Florida an up and down proposition, spurts of action have put pompano, whiting, black drum and sharks on the beach.  

The passing fronts have cooled off water temperatures in the surf giving surf fishermen good opportunities ahead of the fronts to fill their coolers.

At Playalinda Beach, sand fleas, Fishbites, and peeled shrimp are all good baits for whiting and pompano.    Long casts to the sand bar about 100 feet or more from the beach are where the bigger whiting and pompano are holding.   The most optimal conditions for pompano fishing is during the last of the incoming and the beginning of an outgoing tide, just ahead of a cold front.

Longer casts with small silver spoons or jigs have also been producing hookups with Spanish mackerel and bluefish that are chasing baitfish farther out.    Because of the numbers of sharp nose, lemon and blacktip sharks in the area, it pays to reel your catch in quickly.

In the Cocoa Beach area, surf fishermen are seeing good numbers of bull whiting schools but are only making a few single digit catches of pompano per outing.
Surf anglers have been targeting the whiting using 2 and 3 hook pompano rigs with Pink Shrimp flavored Fish Bites, live sand fleas, and small pieces of shrimp for bait.  Although the fish in the Coca Beach area are normally caught closer to shore making long casts unnecessary, it pays to set out several rods at varying distances until the fish are located.

Surf fishermen near Cocoa Beach and around Cape Canaveral have been catching really good numbers of whiting, along with some keeper pompano and black drum.    Crab flavored Fishbites tipped with fresh peeled shrimp or blanched sand fleas on a pompano rig were baits of choice.
 
Most of the fish were caught on extremely long casts on a falling tide.    Bluefish are also being caught in the surf by anglers using fresh chunked baits and small casting spoons.

Pompano fishing throughout the Space Coast region seems to be most consistent in the Melbourne Beach area.  

Small schools of keeper size pompano have been cruising the beach creating flurries of activity when they come in contact with a set of baited rods.   Unlike pompano in the Playalinda Beach area that are often under size, the majority of pompano caught in the vicinity of Melbourne Beach are slab size.  

During high surf conditions many surf anglers use longer rods and heavier tackle to toss 5 or 6 ounce pyramid or Sputnik type leads over 100 yards to reach the outer sandbars where the pompano were running.    Standard pompano rigs with bright colored floats and live sand fleas tipped with clam flavored Fish Bites, blanched sand fleas, or Fishbites tipped with peeled shrimp are baits of choice on small circle hooks.

Medium to heavy surf rods between 11 to 13 feet, and 6000 to 8000 series reels spooled with 12 to 15 pound monofilament is needed to make long casts in heavy surf conditions.   Even though small diameter braided lines cast farther than mono; they do not stretch like mono and will pull your sinker along the bottom to the shore during heavy wind and surf conditions.
 
Although pompano and whiting are the primary target for surf fishermen along East Central Florida during the winter months, black drum upwards of 40 pounds are a common catch during periods of fish migrations.    Sand fleas, peeled shrimp, Fishbites, small plastic jerk baits, and bucktail jigs are all baits of choice for black drum in the surf.  A dark colored splotch of water in the surf could indicate a big school of drum.

Shark fishing along all of our area beaches has been off the charts for the last couple of weeks and that pattern should continue throughout the month of March.    There has been a steady flow of black tip sharks, lemon sharks, and Atlantic sharp noses in the surf with Melbourne Beach remaining as one of the top areas to hook up with one.
 

When you're targeting shark, beef up your tackle with a heavyweight rod and reel, braided line in the 60 to 80 pound class, a 200 to 300 pound mono leader with large circle hooks.    A live or freshly cut bait will usually out fish a frozen bait hands down.  

Make sure you have a shore fishing shark permit and have completed the educational shark fishing course.  The permit is geared to fishermen who target large sharks from the beach and takes about a half hour to complete.  It is a free add on to your fishing license that you need to print out and keep on your person while fishing.

To get the permit, you need to complete this educational shore based shark fishing course which consists of a quiz and some educational videos.

 

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Until next time,

Tight Lines and bent rods!