Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River:

Right now the water levels in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River are way down and the water is clear enough to sight fish.  The April showers we were expecting never panned out to the extent expected.

The waters in the mud flats around Gator Creek, East Gator Creek, Peacocks Pocket Road, Bio Lab Road, and other areas in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge are now mostly dried up.   

The good part about this scenario is that the fish are concentrated in what little water remains.  If you can find where they are at, it's like shooting fish in a barrel or fishing in a virtual fish hatchery.

If you are fishing the Mosquito Lagoon, you can find redfish under the mangrove branches off the canals.  If you are fishing the grass flats, the reds are around the schools of mullet; along with sea trout, black drum, and an occasional snook.   

Many of the guides have their clients casting a 5" saltwater shad assassin in the Gold Pepper Shiner, Silver Mullet, or New Penny colors rigged on a wide gap worm hook with a  Penn battle IV 3000 size reel on a 7 ' medium action Penn rod for these redfish.  

Right now in the lagoons, the biggest redfish are generally found in the deeper channels of the intercoastal and near shore along the beaches.   

Around our area, cut baits work extremely well on big redfish and they are really simple to catch.  Both inshore and near shore reds can be caught on a cut pinfish, cut mullet, or cut ladyfish on a knocker rig or sliding sinker rig with a 6/0 or 7/0 circle hook. 
 

When using live or cut baits, you can expect to catch redfish anywhere from 15" to 50".   Most of the fish inshore are commonly less than 30".  Bull reds up to 50" like the one below are now being caught offshore, along the beaches, and along the inlets.

The snook bite this past week has been extremely good and is expected to remain so throughout this month.  

In the backwaters, the fish have been congregating around ambush points near the schools of baitfish in the shallows and close to the mangrove roots.    Freelined jumbo shrimp or shrimp on a wide gapped jig head works well on these fish. 

Many areas in the Mosquito Lagoon, around Melbourne, EuGalle, and Sebastian that have plenty of mullet or greenies schools are holding good size snook around structure closest to the baitfish. 

A 5" assassin soft plastic jerk bait in the pilchard color or a top water chugging plug with a black top has been working really well to get these snook to bite.

The black drum bite in the lagoon system is still very good.  Black drum in the 8 pound plus category can be found in smaller schools along with redfish and in smaller pods .

The best bait to catch them with right now is with a live shrimp either freelined or fished on a jighead.  

On sunny days with good site fishing conditions, many anglers target them with soft plastic baits smeared up with Pro Cure or some other scent, and fly fishermen with flies patterns that resemble a shrimp or crab. 

Bank fishermen in the Titusville are have been catching black drum and redfish on live and dead shrimp around the causeway, under the bridge, around the dock pilings, and the dropoffs in the river.  

Despite the dried up mud flats along Gator Creek, Catfish Creek, Pumphouse Road, Bio Lab Road, Patillo Creek and other areas in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge around Titusville;  black drum, rat to slot size redfish, and spotted sea trout are still being caught around the shorelines and dropoffs.    Single fish and small pods of drum travel the shorelines mostly in the mornings and close to dusk where they are being caught mostly on live shrimp.    

The mud flats along Gator Creek and East Gator Creek are almost dried up.   What little water remains has the fish concentrated into small areas making them easy targets for anglers tossing small plastic Creme, or D.O.A. paddletail baits.    Slot and under size redfish, sea trout, and black drum are chasing glass minnows and mud minnows in these areas and can be caught in the early morning and late afternoon hours on those baits.

May is a good month to target pompano in the river system.  

Schools of spawning Pompano like to hang out around the spoil islands and sandy or shell strewn flats where they forage for tiny clams and crustaceans.  The pompano can also be found following stingrays, sharks, or manatees that stir up the bottom unearthing the mollusks that they feed on.

One of the best ways to locate river pompano is to slowly cruise along the deep edge of a point, flat, or spoil island and watch for pompano skipping out of the boat's wake.  When you spot a "skipper", immediately stop the boat and fan cast the area with live sand fleas or a small pompano jig.   

Pink or yellow banana style jigs or small shrimp imitations work well when hopped off the bottom. Hopping the jig or bait is important to create a small puff of sand that attracts the fish.

May is still a good month to catch gator sea trout in East Central Florida, especially on topwater baits.

The early morning hours, late evenings, and at night is when big gator sea trout can be found following the bait pods or mixed in among the redfish or black drum on the flats. 

This is when the fish become prime targets for anglers tossing topwater lures like the Chug Bug, Badonk-A-Donk, Skitter Walk, Zara Spook, or anything resembling a baitfish.

During daylight hours as the waters warm up and the topwater bite dies down the fish move off the flats into the deeper water along the drop offs adjacent to the flats.  

This is when plastic swim baits like D.O.A. Cal Shad Tails, Creme's Spoiler Shad, and saltwater Shad Assassin baits can be used to get down to the fish.    Normally 3″ to 5″ paddle tail baits will get more bites, especially when some Pro-Cure Gel is smeared on the bait, but baits over 6" or more will catch larger trout.

The Sheepshead bite has slowed down a bit but they can still be found around the bridge pilings, sea walls, coquina outcroppings, and rocky jetties in our area.   The fish that are being landed right now are smaller but they still taste great on the table.