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The Mosquito Lagoon, Indian, and Banana River

Spring is here and anglers are targeting speckled sea trout, redfish, Snook, and black drum on a variety of lures and live baits on the Mosquito Lagoon, Indian River, and Banana River flats. 

Although the windy conditions during March made fishing a hit or miss proposition in most areas, a lot of anglers were finding redfish and some good black drum in the northern part of the Mosquito Lagoon from George's Bar up to around J.D.s Fish Camp with live shrimp being the most productive bait for these fish.

Normally around mid March, the wintertime schools of redfish start to break apart into small pods and singles.   These fish average 20 to 30 inches in size and can be caught by anglers using cut baits and sections of blue crab.  

For the past few weeks, slot size redfish have been hanging close to the shallow mangrove shorelines around the pods of glass minnows.  These fish can be caught by anglers tossing small plastic Creme, D.O.A. paddletail baits, and Gulp baits.   Live bait anglers free lining small live shrimp on a 1/0 hook tight to the mangroves can also get solid bites from redfish, snook, and sea trout.

Right now the best action for snook, reds, sea trout and even a few black drum has not been on the flats, but in the trees. 

For some reason, there are not a lot of fish cruising the flats in the areas where you would normally expect to find them.  Although there is a ton of baitfish out on the flats in a lot of areas, there just are not a lot of fish on them yet.

If you want to find fish right now, find some hard structure, particularly where mangroves and trees are overhanging the shoreline and especially where you have some undercut areas under them along the bank.  Trees along the channels or along residential canals or in residential canals where trees are nearby are especially good areas to target. 

It seems like the fish are still trying to transition out of the winter feeding pattern into the spring pattern, so things can change within the next weeks. 

Right now the best baits for fishing along the trees are live fingerling mullet, live pilchards, and live shrimp.  Plastic swimbaits like the 3" Storm Wildeye Swim Shad and D.O.A. Shrimp have also been producing when fished slowly.

Anglers looking to catch a trophy size bull redfish have a better than average shot of hooking into one this month. 

The deep channels adjacent to shallow sandbars normally hold good numbers of fish in the 35 to 45 inch category.  Cut baits or half of a blue crab on a 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook with a 30 pound fluorocarbon leader is what serious anglers favor for these fish.  Darker colored 4 to 5 inch paddletail baits smeared with some Pro-Cure Inshore Formula gel or other scent will also getting hookups.

The black drum bite throughout our lagoon system has been pretty consistent and should continue through the upcoming months.   Fish from 5 pounds up to 50 pounds are being caught by anglers on a variety of baits.

The smaller drum in the 2 to 10 pound category are being caught along the shorelines and around the mangroves.   The larger fish seem to be out in the middle of the river concentrated along the rocky edges in the ICW channel, the bridges, and Haulover Canal.   Cut crab is the bait of choice for these fish, but live shrimp and Fishbites in the crab flavor will also work when the fish are aggressive.


In our area April, May, and June are arguably the best months to target giant gator sea trout in the Mosquito Lagoon and upper end of the Indian River Lagoon.   Quality fish in the 20 to 30 inch category will start showing up closer to the middle of the month.  Right now a lot of the bigger trout are in very shallow water chasing after glass minnows and early mullet. 

In the northern section of the Mosquito Lagoon, the black drum have been hanging around hard structure like docks, piers, jetty rocks, and oyster bars.

In that same section of the lagoon, Snook, speckeled trout, and redfish are being caught in the shallows around pods of mullet in areas of new sea grass growth.  Soft plastic jerk baits, small sea shad tails, and swim baits will get bites from most of these fish.   If artificial baits are not producing, a live shrimp will almost always produce in this area.

Gator size sea trout will also hang along the deeper channels, drop offs, and bridges in all three of our lagoon systems.  A variety of hard baits and soft paddletail baits smeared with Pro-Cure gel or other scent will work on them this month.

As our inshore waters continue to warm up; the large, egg laden females transition into their pre-spawn feeding mode from shrimp and crustaceans to finned fish in their traditional spawning areas on the inshore flats.  This is when anglers targeting gator sea trout can get into some extreme topwater action on the flats.  

The best bite is normally from first light until about 9:00 am.  The evening hours until a couple hours after dusk and at night are the best times to target big sea trout. 

Top water plugs like Chug Bugs, Zara Spooks, Badonk-A-Donks, SkitterWalks, Mirrolures, or any bait that mimics a baitfish will get a  strike.

Female sea trout are super aggressive during the spawn and will often smack a topwater bait completely out of the water if they don't get hooked on the first hit.  It's not uncommon for them to strike at a lure all the way back to the boat for a second, third, or even a fourth shot at the bait.

Big baits will usually produce big fish when it comes to catching gator size sea trout.    

Fishing a full size mullet, a large croaker, or a big pilchard is one of the best ways to go after big gator sea trout, however, this does not mean that you cant catch a big fish on very small baits.   The general rule is to "match the hatch" and if the "hatch" happens to be glass minnows or small fry type baitfish, and the fish are targeting them; a small bait is often the only way to catch them. 

One of the best baits to use when the fish are targeting small fry type baitfish is the smallest size Storm Wildeye Swim Shad and the Saltwater Bass Assassin Crappie Dapper.   These lures are also effective on big tarpon, snook, redfish, ladyfish.

Our backwater Snook bite has been heating up with good numbers around the mangrove covered shorelines and docks.  Live fingerling mullet or shrimp are good live baits for these fish. 

Small lures that imitate glass minnows like the Assassin Crappie Dapper (a 2 inch long sea shad style plastic tail) rigged on a small Boodah style jig head are killer for snook when they are targeting glass minnows and small baitfish fry.  

Anglers targeting snook can expect catches in the 18 to 30 inch category.   

The month as the waters continue to warm up in our area, juvenile tarpon will become more abundant in our lagoon system. 

In the southernmost section of the Mosquito Lagoon around Pelican Island and around the mouths of the shallow creeks in the lagoon system, juvie tarpon can be caught on a variety of soft baits.   D.O.A. Bait busters and the large size D.O.A. TerrorEyz usually produce well in these areas.  As the temperatures continue to warm up and more baitfish invade the lagoon system; expect the tarpon bite to improve dramatically.
 

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Playalinda and Area Beaches

During March a lot of whiting, pompano, and juvenile black drum were caught on fresh sand fleas, cut shrimp, and fresh clam in the surf zones between Melbourne Beach and the tip of the false cape.   

At Playalinda Beach some pompano, bull whiting, bluefish, juvenile black drum, and a lot of sharks are also being caught in the surf.
When the windy conditions permitted surf fishermen along the space coast to wet a line, some decent catches of whiting and pompano were made by anglers using live sand fleas, sand fleas tipped with fishbites, and small pieces of shrimp for bait on standard 2 or 3 hook pompano rigs.  

Clam flavored fishbites tipped with a live or dead sand flea is becoming one of the baits of choice for many surf fishermen in our area.  The fishbites stay on the hook during heavy surf conditions and keep the sand flea from rotating off the hook.
 
This month surf fishermen using live and cut mullet can also expect to catch bluefish, Spanish mackerel, and a variety of sharks off the beach.  Small silver spoons, Gotcha plugs, and Mirrolures pitched into the troughs can be deadly when the bait pods are thick in the surf. 

When the baitfish run peaks along our beaches, live baits, Lhure Jensen spoons, and small lipped hard baits become baits of choice for Spanish mackerel and bluefish.
 

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Port  Canaveral Offshore and Nearshore

Towards the end of March when the seas settled down a bit, the charters that got out of Port Canaveral reported a decent bite for cobia, lane snapper, mangrove snapper, and triggerfish on the reefs and wrecks in the 90 to 150 foot depths. 

Amberjack were also holding on deeper structure in the 160 to 250 foot depths.   Live or cut pogies, thread fin herring, pilchards, and Spanish sardines are good baits to target them.

Offshore trolling this month for anglers pulling ballyhoo or mullet should produce some action for wahoo, blackfin, and dolphin.  High speed trolling offshore with black and green or blue and red lures usually works well for both wahoo and tuna.
The staple fish for many charter fishermen out of Port Canaveral is the king mackerel.  This month you can expect kingfish up to the 30 pound plus range along with some Mahi and blackfins to be over the reefs and ridges in the 75 foot depths. 

Slow trolling frozen minnows on a stinger rig naked or with a nice skirt works well for kings and the occasional Mahi.

Deep water bottom fishing this month should be good for lane snapper, mangrove snapper, porgies, triggerfish, grunts, and black sea bass.   Two and three hook chicken rigs with small hooks and cut baits are standard bottom fishing rigs on Port Canaveral "head" charters.    On occasion a cobia will follow a catch up or pick up a bait on a chicken rig to make a bottom fisherman's day.

Bottom fishermen can also expect nice by catches of grouper and Amberjack this month.  

On most days this month, you can expect to catch Spanish mackerel and bluefish almost anywhere around the mouth of Port Canaveral.  Most anglers catch them on small silver spoons or plugs like the Lhure Jensen and Gotcha type plugs.    

The water temperatures nearshore is in the mid to upper 70 degree range and gradually rising.  As the waters continue to warm up, we can expect the bluefish, sheepshead, and Spanish mackerel bite to slow down a bit.

Last month anglers had a good mixture of winter and summertime species available nearshore.  Black drum, sheepshead, snook, pompano, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, jacks, and tripletail were all available to nearshore fishermen.
 
The tripletail bite this year has been pretty much on schedule and despite the weather, the bite has been decent when we had a chance to get out and find them..   Apparently there are a lot of shrimp off our beaches keeping the tripletail around. 

The bite along the buoys, beaches, and inlets all the way down to Grant has been good for tripletail and should improve throughout the month of April.   A lot of fish have been holding around the weed lines that form up along the south side of the southeast shoal between the end of the Canaveral shipping channel and the #2 buoy.

Live shrimp free lined or rigged on an Assassin jig head is one of the best ways to target tripletail.  As we progress into the spring and summer months, more and more fish will be showing up around the weed lines, crab traps, and floating debris near shore.

Cobia are still offshore so hopefully we can expect some good sight fishing as the month progresses. 

When the cobia show up in better numbers behind the Manta Rays; bucktail jigs or live baits tossed at them will usually do the trick if they are eating.    Toss the bucktail jig first and if there's no interest, follow up with a live bait.   Cobia aren't usually very picky, so almost any live bait will do.

During April, anglers can expect to see better numbers of flounder, sheepshead, black drum, and snook around the jetties, sea walls, and docks at all of our inlets.  
 
The jetty fishermen at Ponce Inlet have been reporting good numbers of black drum, snook, pompano, sheepshead, bluefish, and Spanish mackerel in their area.  Small jigs tipped with pieces of shrimp are the bait of choice in this area.
 
This month is also when Snook fishing usually fires up around the jetties, docks, and mangrove islands in Port Canaveral and inshore. 

Good numbers of snook are in the Indian River lagoon around the docks and mangrove covered shorelines.  Live finger mullet or shrimp are good live bait options for these fish.  Small lures that imitate glass minnows like the Assassin Crappie Dapper (a 2 inch long sea shad style plastic tail) rigged on a small Boodah style jig head are killer lures for snook.  

On warm sunny days you can often spot snook laying up along the mangrove shorelines in 2 to 3 feet of water soaking up the sun's rays.   On days with very little wind or on windy days along the leeward shorelines, a live hand picked jumbo shrimp free lined on a 3/0 or 4/0 hook or a "Lil Mullet" rigged without a weight are hard baits for a snook to resist.

Most anglers fishing the jetties target snook with pilchards, greenies, fingerling mullet, or croakers rigged on a circle hook and just enough weight to get the bait close to the bottom. 

Night fishing around the lights at the Port with lipped diving plugs is also extremely productive, especially for larger snook.    The best bite for snook is just before the full moon.
 

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Haulover Canal

The black drum and redfish bite in Haulover has been relatively consistent for anglers fishing with sections of blue crab and large chunks of fresh cut ladyfish or mullet for bait.

Around the bridge pilings, a lot of fishermen at Haulover are using live and dead shrimp for bait to hook up with slot size black drum and mangrove snapper.
    Live shrimp, cut baits, and sections of blue crab are baits of choice for most anglers fishing Haulover. 

The deep holes located at both mouths of the canal usually hold some very large black drum and bull redfish.   Most anglers after a trophy black drum or bull redfish anchor just off the holes and fish a whole blue crab or live pinfish on the bottom. 

A heavy rod with Power Pro or other braid tied to a length of 40 pound fluorocarbon leader and a  6/0 or 7/0 circle hook is good enough insurance to bring them to the boat.

Tossing a jumbo live shrimp tight along the banks of the canal this month can hook you up with a snook, especially before a front moves through the area.
 

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Until next time, Tight Lines, and bent rods!