SUPPORT COPY: Your September 2025🐬 Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River Fishing Report
Published: Mon, 09/01/25
Updated: Mon, 09/01/25
Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing
Newsletter Issue # 194September 1, 2025
Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River:
Although hurricane Erin did not affect us weather wise, it did push a lot of water and bait into the northern Mosquito Lagoon and New Smyrna Beach area. The higher water levels dispersed the concentrated bait pods and the predatory fish in these areas and for a short time changed the fishing conditions.
Speckled sea trout, redfish, and snook that normally hang around the edges of the bars and grassy areas moved on top of the grassy flats and sand bars.
In Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach waters south through the Mosquito Lagoon, the influx of baitfish moving in along the beaches has
created a frenzy with snook, tarpon, redfish, trout, jacks, bluefish and several other species.
As the storm moved northward, the water levels are returning to normal in the lagoon and Indian River and the bite for sea trout, redfish, and snook has been excellent throughout our area.
Up in the Mosquito Lagoon around Preachers Island, Middle island, all the way up to the Goodrich Lease and all the way up to the Hong Kong flats, the redfish are striking pigfish, finger mullet and shrimp under popping corks. The sharp drop offs next to shallow flats in the Tiger Shoal area and the outer bars towards Pardon Slew in the
middle to northern section of the lagoon are also good places to target larger fish.
Flats fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon and several places on the Indian River is where you are going to find sea trout right now. Some large speckled trout in the "gator trout" class and redfish are being caught on the upper Mosquito
Lagoon grass flats. Most of the trout are being caught in the 2 to 4 foot depths by anglers fishing popping corks with live shrimp, or small live pigfish and croakers.
"Walk the dog" topwater plugs and popping plugs have also been working really well first thing in the morning on the larger fish.
Zara Spooks, Rapala Skitterwalks, Chug Bugs, Super
Spooks, Bass Pro Shop's XPS Slim Dog, and Bad-A-Donks are some of the best top water baits for larger trout in our area, especially when smear them up with some Pro-Cure Inshore Formula
Gel.
When targeting big gator trout, try drifting a large live mullet or croaker under a float with the bait just off the bottom. Anywhere you find an abundant food source like pilchards, finger mullet, croakers, or pigfish near good cover is potentially where you will find a gator trout.
Our average size sea trout is running anywhere from 12 to 17 inches.
Most of the big trout caught in the Mosquito Lagoon are in the 24 to 28 inch category but a few
larger fish in the 28 to 30 inch category have been caught on large live baits in the northern and central section of the lagoon around the back of the spoil islands.
Smaller sea trout are more common and easy to find with a live shrimp or a saltwater assassin sea shad rigged under a "rattlin" or regular popping cork;
especially during the windier days.
Snook season reopens today. Anglers targeting snook in our area already know that the bite during the closed spawning season around the Space Coast has been red hot all summer.
The backwaters are full of smaller size snook and all of our inlets and beaches are holding bigger fish. Small mullet and smaller size artificial baits work best on backwater snook that are feeding on smaller 4 to 5 inch fingerling mullet in the area.
Night fishing the docks and bridges for snook in the Indian River from New Smyrna to Sebastian is extremely productive during the summer months and into the fall.
Live shrimp are working best at night along the New Smyrna north and south causeway bridges and the Dunelatton bridge. The snook
have been holding just inside the shadow lines under the bridges A live shrimp freelined along the shadows is deadly.
At night, R&R Flairhawk jigs, 5" to 6" Saltwater Assassin swim baits on a jig head, and Artemis Shads on a 1.5 oz jighead skipped under the docks are killer baits for snook and a variety of other species. Lipped diving plugs
resembling a mullet in the 5 to 7 inch range work well on big snook.
At Ponce Inlet and Sebastian, lipped diving plugs in the 2 to 7 inch range are the baits of choice for night fishermen right now.
If you're fishing during the daytime, live baits like croakers, pogies, pinfish or mullet are your best bet. With all the mullet running up and down our area beaches, mullet will obviously be the preferred bait around the inlets and in the surf.
The best place to find
inshore snook in the Mosquito Lagoon is to target the deep holes, creeks, and channels of the ICW.
Around Titusville and New Smyrna Beach, snook can be found holding tight to shoreline cover where they use the overhanging brush, mangrove roots, sticks, and docks as ambush points for baitfish.
One of the best ways to target these snook is with a large mullet or pinfish tossed tight to an ambush point.
Anglers walking Peacocks Pocket Road have been catching snook up to 30
inches using live shrimp and mullet.
Soft plastic D.O.A. Cal jerk baits, Saltwater Assassin 4" or 5" Sea Shad on a jig head, Gulp jerk shad, or any soft plastic bait skipped under a dock or tight to shoreline bushes will also produce bites. Smearing your lures with Pro-Cure gel or other scent will dramatically improve your
hookup ratio.
Our average snook is running 28 to 38 inches.
The black drum bite around Titusville has been consistent on the mud flats and around the sandy pot holes in
the grassy flats. Anglers targeting black drum on the flats have been using live shrimp, small crabs, or sections of fresh blue crab for bait.
The construction along the causeway prohibits bank fishing in that area but along the Catfish Creek, Gator Creek, Puckett Creek and Haulover Canal areas, single fish and smaller
pods of slot size Black Drum are still schooling in good numbers.
Live or dead shrimp and cut blue crab are baits of choice in these areas.
The two fishing piers under
the A. Max Brewer bridge, the railroad bridge going to the Cape in Titusville, and the Space Center bridge will be great places to catch both slot size and oversize drum this month. The deeper waters around the bridge pilings frequently produce black drum up to 40 pounds.
In our area, a lot of quality black drum are caught
along the mangrove covered shorelines and the drop offs in the ICW.
The ICW in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River is still producing good size tarpon for anglers fishing mullet or pinfish using 7/0 circle hooks. The fish have been ranging from 40 to over 100 pounds in our area.
The southern portion of the Mosquito Lagoon close to Playalinda Beach road has been holding some nice tarpon up to the 100 pound range.
The fish in these areas are hitting large D.O.A.
Baitbuster lures and anything resembling a fingler mullet.
Port Canaveral Nearshore and Offshore:
Offshore anglers out of Port
Canaveral slow trolling small lures and chin weighted ballyhoo are reporting good catches of dolphin, wahoo, and blackfin tuna near the rips associated with the western edge of the Gulf Stream, especially where it lines up over the tops of the Oculina Coral banks in our
region.
Wahoo are all over the place right now, especially over the 70 to 90 foot reefs where the bigger wahoo have been moving in and start feeding on the smaller kingfish. Don't be surprised this time of the year if you hookup with a small kingfish while slow trolling and have a big wahoo take your catch.
For the most part, Wahoo cant resist dark skirts and big swimming plugs pulled at 9 to 15 knots.
The key to getting them into the boat is not to slow down once they are hooked. They are fast swimmers and can outrun you once you slow the boat down or kick it out of
gear.
Our average wahoo is running about 35 to 45 pounds but fish up to 60 pounds are common on the space coast.
The other species that is showing up in decent numbers
right now is the cobia.
As the water clears up after the latest swell from offshore hurricane Erin, the reefs in the 75 to 140 foot depths are starting to come alive again.
The guys slow trolling for king mackerel with live or frozen baitfish on wire stinger rigs have been getting the most shots at the cobia right now when the fish come popping up behind the boat or when they are siting at anchor.
This time of the year you can find cobia around the bait pods in the 30 to
50 foot depths.
Pilchards, pogies, and croakers are great live baits to drop down and find cobia with.
If cobia show up
around the bait pods, rig up a Penn Slammer 5500 with some 30 or 40 pound test and a 50 or 60 pound leader and pitch a live bait or cobia jig to them around the edges of the pods.
The fish below was caught just outside of the buoy line at Cape Canaveral around a bait pod between buoys 3 and 4.
Fishing on the bottom with live or chunk baits just off the Kennedy Space Center launch pads in 70 to 90 feet of water is also very productive for cobia.
Because the cold water upwelling that we experience pushes the fish around quite a bit, a lot of the shoals out there hold good numbers of cobia.
Places like Chester Shoal, the Southeast Shoal, and Ohio Shoal can have cobia on them any time there is a cold water upwelling. The fish will move off of the shoals into slightly deeper water structures right after the upwelling subsides.
Kingfish are a staple catch in our area. The kingfish have finished spawning on the beaches and are moving onto the 60 - 120 foot reefs; 8A, Pelican Flats, etc.
Anglers slow trolling wire stinger rigs with two #4 or two #2 treble hooks to keep the baitfish lively have been
catching king mackerel in the 7 to 15 pound category. Live menhaden are abundant and work best but frozen cigar minnows work equally well.
Tip your live baits with some dusters to perk up the bite.
Closer inshore, snook bite at all of our inlets has been outstanding for anglers fishing with live
croakers, pinfish, mullet, or pilchards. The night time snook bite at all of our inlets has also been good for the past few weeks.
Night fishing anglers at Sebastian Inlet are reporting good catches of snook up to 38 inches.
Although anglers fishing large swim baits near the T-dock and cleaning table have been getting the most hookups, a lot of night fishermen along the docks and bridges use R&R Flair Hawk jigs, large 5 and 6 inch Assassinswim baits, and large 7" lipped diving plugs for
snook with great success.
Most anglers believe that the incoming tides are the best times to fish swimbaits at Sebastian.
Bottom fishermen out of Port Canaveral this month is a mixed
bag of triggerfish, lane, mango, mutton, and vermilion snapper from the 80 foot depths out with most of the fish coming from the northern section of our region.
The offshore mangrove snapper bite on structure in 80 to 120 feet of water has been really good with fish from 3 to 10 pounds. Anglers using chunk baits on 40 pound fluorocarbon leaders were
catching the larger fish.
The offshore mangrove snapper bite out of Ponce Inlet has also been pretty steady with anglers fishing live pigfish and cut baits.
Playalinda and Area Beaches:
September and October is the
best time of the year to catch snook in the surf.
With the opening of snook season today, a lot of surf fishermen will be targeting snook in the sloughs along our beaches as well as the jetties and sea walls at Port Canaveral.
The
mullet run along the Space Coast peaks this month throughout the Central East region and is now in full gear. Mullet and other baitfish are pouring down the beaches along with snook, tarpon, jack Crevalle and sharks in close proximity.
The snook off the beach and in the surf are feeding like crazy. The bite has been on fire at all the inlets as well as
along the beaches.
In addition to snook and tarpon being in full swing this month, we will also start seeing schools of migrating pompano pushing into Brevard County waters.
Generally, some early schools will start appearing on our
beaches this month, but the hottest pompano activity doesn’t really ramp up until late October and early November.
Snook and pods of tarpon are already feeding in the first troughs. The preferred method for targeting snook in the surf is the gorilla style surf fishing approach.
Unencumbered mobility is the key to this style of
fishing. Anglers have the freedom to quickly move up and down the beach to chase after predatory species while actively fishing for pompano and whiting.
Surf anglers using a single 7 1/2 to 8 foot rod with a 4,000 to 5,000 series reel and a pack with swim baits, jigs, plugs and/or live baits are able to quickly cast to busting snook or tarpon while fishing
for pompano and whiting on their 2 or 3 hook surf rigs.
Success is dependent on the waves of migratory baitfish passing through a given area, each week.
Before unpacking your tackle, start exploring several beaches for diving birds,
exploding baitfish, leaping tarpon or snook, or fish crashing along the shoreline.
When you discover a potential hotspot with clean water conditions, set out your surf rods for pompano with crab or clam flavored Fishbites, tipped with sand fleas or fresh pieces of shrimp.
Toss live baits caught from the surf, or large 5 inch swimbaits, Flair jigs, or Rapala X-Raps to busting fish.
The jetties and sea walls at Port Canaveral, the causeway bridge fenders at New Smyrna Beach, and the bridge fenders at the A1A bridge leading to Sebastian Inlet are all great spots to target snook
this month.
The surf around Patrick Space Force Base is also a good place for anglers targeting snook.
A large 12 inch mullet on a sliding sinker rig cast out past the worm rocks will usually get you a hookup if the
snook are in the area. If the snook aren't hitting, you can count on getting a shark of some species.
During daylight periods, most anglers fish with live finger mullet on a jig head or a knocker rig around the piers, sea walls, docks, and jetties. During overcast periods and periods of low light, anglers have been getting solid bites on a Rapala
X-Rap and X-Rap Long Cast baits as well.
Night time anglers targeting snook along the piers, sea walls, docks, and jetties have been getting good hookups on saltwater assassin Artemis Shads and R&R swimbaits. These baits minimize the fish throwing the baits. They look like a mullet but when a fish is hooked, the hooks pull away from the plastic bait.
A lot of night fishermen who target the inlet jetties, cat walks, pilings, and sea walls for snook prefer using large Rapala X-Rap 14 baits, or large Saltwater Assassin 5" or 6" swim baits on big jig heads with 7/0 or 8/0 hooks. Baits smeared up with some Pro-Cure gel or other scent will normally get more bites.
