Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River:

 We Hope You All Have A Happy New Year!  

Florida's recreational season for spotted seatrout reopens today for the Central East region and from the reports I have been getting, we should have some decent wintertime fishing this month for speckled sea trout, redfish, and black drum.  

Anglers in our area have also be targeting snook around the deeper shorelines and mangroves before the winter temperatures set in.

The weather has been a little wierd lately.  The wind and cold weather we get one day changes on a dime to warm, almost summertime weather but the fish don't seem to mind much.

For the past few weeks, the snook bite has been good for anglers fishing tight under the mangroves during the early morning and late afternoon hours when the fish are most active.  Skip casting dark colored 3 1/2" paddle tail baits on 1/8th oz. jig heads or 5" jerk shads on 1/8th oz. weedless hooks has been the best method for catching snook when they are tight to the bank.

In the New Smyrna area, the snook have been lingering around the deeper shorelines and just about any deep watrer structure.   With the fairly good shrimp run we have been enjoying, the fish have been targeting in on live shrimp and artificial shrimp patterns like the D.O.A. shrimp.    However, spoons and live finger mullet have also been working well in that area.  The redfish, black drum and sea trout in the Ponce area have been hanging in and around the bait pods in the shallows.

In south Brevard, anglers targeting snook have been using mostly artificial baits along the mangroves.   Both paddletails and artificial shrimp have been producing bites with most of the action coming from night fishing tight to the mangroves during periods of moving water.  The bite in this area has been pretty slow but anglers willing to put in the time have been landing quality fish.

For the past several weeks fly fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon has been really productive.  Small streamer flys and shrimp patterns have been working best on the numberous small pods of 8 to 10 redfish that are tailing on the flats up and down the eastern side of the lagoon.

If you're not a fly guy, anglers have also been getting good results on 3" straight tail baits like the Shad Assassin,  4" paddle tail baits, and D.O.A. Shrimp; especially in the clear with gold flake color.

Small schools of redfish can be seen this month working the flats in the Banana and Indian Rivers feeding on baby clams, snails, and shrimp.   

The reds have developed a new attitude; they are starting to actively chase artificial lures again.   The same fish that last month would barely chase anything that was moving are now chasing just about anything that they think looks edible.

Charter captains are reporting that the best catches over the last few weeks occured on straight tailed 3 to 4-inch soft plastic “dart” style lures like the Rapala Crush City Salted Ned Roll and the Bass (saltwater) Assassin Lil’ P&V.  The darker green or brown colors with a red or gold flake have been the best producers.  

Rig the dart style baits on a 1/8-ounce Ned style head in open water or when there is not a lot of grass or weeds around.  When fishing the deeper edges of the residential canals or the shallower mangroves along the flats, fish them on a 1/16 to 1/8 ounce weighted weedless worm hook.

The sea trout action has also been good on these baits.   

Redfish, snook, and some of the larger sea trout have been holding in the 18 to 30 inch depths.  The smaller schoolie trout are mostly in deeper, 30 to 48 inch depths.  The artificial bait bite should remain good until our next severe cold front which is occurring this evening as I compose this article.  Then the bite shuts down and everybody reverts to soaking medium size live shrimp and cut baits along the mangroves.

When the water temperatures this month really drop, you will find a lot of under slot sea trout stacking up in the deeper holes, channels, and sloughs throughout our lagoon system.   When this happens, live baits fished very slowly work best, however suspending plugs, plastic Saltwater Assassin baits, small jigs, and even Johnson Sprite type spoons will catch fish when worked very slowly.

A lot of anglers in our area like to go after gator size sea trout during the winter months.  Although big "gator" size trout are not as plentiful as they had been in past years; there are still a lot of females in the 6 to 9 pound category caught in our area.   A lively pinfish, croaker, mullet, or jumbo shrimp fished under a noisy popping cork is a hard bait to beat for catching large sea trout this month.   Look for them in the lee side sloughs and troughs sheltered from the winds and around the potholes soaking up the sun and looking to ambush baitfish or shrimp for an easy meal. 

In between the cold fronts, sea trout will generally hold close to their winter holes on the flats and move only short distances to feed.   Because winter time fish are usually less aggressive and will test or "mouth" artificial lures before they commit to a strike; live baits normally work best for winter trout. .  The best times to fish during cold weather periods is during the afternoon and evening hours.

During the winter months into early spring, black drum up to 12 pounds gather up into large schools in the Mosquito Lagoon, Banana, and Indian Rivers.  

Along Bio Lab Road in the southern part of the Mosquito Lagoon; anglers should be able to find single fish and medium to larger schools of black drum cruising the shallow flats.   A lot of bank fishermen target this area for black drum and redfish with live or fresh dead shrimp on sliding sinker rigs.   Most of the fish caught are just in the slot with a few well over size.

The deeper flats in the northern section of the Indian River and the deeper waters in the Patillo Creek area are great places to target black drum this month.  Anglers fishing live shrimp on sliding sinker rigs or plain jig heads usually catch some nice slot size drum in these areas. Live or dead shrimp, cut mullet, chunked lady fish, and fresh cut sections of blue crab all work well this time of the year on black drum and reds in these areas.

The shallow mud flats along Gator Creek and East Gator Creek road also hold small pods of slot size black drum.  On calm days you can occasionally see them tailing on the shallow mud flats along East Gator Creek Road.  Live or dead shrimp, sand fleas, and fiddler crabs are good baits for black drum in this area.    On Tuesday afternoon, just about all of the best fishing spots were taken by bank fishermen after black drum.

The bite for for sheepshead and mangrove snapper has been ramping up on structure close to moving water in both the Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River.
 
Cold water temperatures make most gamefish sluggish, but for sheepshead and mangrove snapper, the conditions couldn't be more favorable.  

Right now you should be able to find sheepshead hanging around any rough encrusted structure in our lagoon system.  Anglers dropping live shrimp or fiddler crabs around the bridge pilings, residential dock pilings, jetties, and rocky outcroppings have been hooking up with some nice mangrove snapper and good numbers of sheepshead.   
 
Small fiddler crabs, sand fleas, live shrimp, and just about any other crustacean you can get on a small hook will work on sheepshead.  These guys are bait stealers which is why most successful anglers use either a long shank #2 hook with a small split shot and about three feet of fluorocarbon leaderor a  dropper loop rig with a 1 or 2 oz. bank sinker and a sharp #2 or even smaller hook tied about 10 or 11 inches above the sinker to catch them.  

The dock pilings behind the condos in Titusville, both the fishing piers at the A. Max Brewer Bridge, the pilings at the railroad bridge, and the fenders at Haulover Canal are all good areas to target sheepshead this month.   The docks and sea walls at Port Canaveral, and the rocks at Jetty Park are also good spots to target sheepshead and snapper this month.