Newsletter Issue # 183                                                                                                                                October 1, 2024

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River

October is one of my favorite months to get out on the water along the Space Coast.  

The water levels in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River are up, the weather is beginning to cool down, baitfish are everywhere, and the action on most days is steady.  

This month, anglers fishing different types of live baits like croaker, pogies, mullet, shrimp, and pilchards can catch a variety of nearshore and back country species like speckled trout, snook, redfish, black drum, tarpon, bull shark, whiting, sheepshead, tripletail, flounder, ladyfish, bluefish, mangrove snapper, and big jacks.    

Anglers fishing the shorelines, shallow flats, and spoil islands in the northern Indian River and throughout the Mosquito Lagoon have been making nice catches of redfish, sea trout, and snook on a variety of live and artificial baits.  

The snook bite this past week has been exceptional.  

Good numbers of snook are coming from the Indian River and Mosquito lagoon flats and mangrove shorelines.   Live fingerling mullet, croakers, and pilchards are baits of choice to catch them, but many anglers use suspending plugs and 5" straight tail saltwater assassin jerk baits.    Some productive colors to choose are the root beer red flake in dirtier water or something like a green or white color with silver or gold flakes in clean water.

The 4 or 5 inch straight tail Slammin Shad on a 1/8th oz. jig head also works well on snook and trout.  Anglers wade fishing the shorelines for snook are reporting that an erratic zig zag retrieve has been working best.

A live fingerling mullet on a 2/0 or 3/0 circle hook fished tight against the mangrove trees continues to be one of the best ways to get a strike from a big snook or sea trout.

Our backcountry snook are running 22 to 35 inches with some really big bruisers being caught right up along the shorelines.

The speckled sea trout bite has been on fire in both the northern and southern part of our region.   

In the southern part you can catch them side by side with the snook along the spoil islands and over hanging mangrove covered shorelines on live shrimp, pilchards, mullet and small croakers.  

Lots of nice trout in the 16 to 20 inch category are being caught in the deeper portions of the flats and the spoil islands along the channel between Grant and Vero Beach.

On the flats in the northern section of the Mosquito Lagoon, anglers are catching trout in that same size range and even larger using live pigfish.

Rapala Skitterwalk topwater plugs and any topwater bait that resembles a finger mullet will work on speckled sea trout when fished correctly.  Especially early in the mornings.  When the top water action slows down, Saltwater Assassin 4 or 5 inch Sea Shads and straight tailed Shad baits will usually get bites. 
 

Right now anglers are catching a ton of 15 to 16 inch trout on the flats in the northern section of the lagoon, mostly on live pigfish.

There are plenty of redfish being caught in the lagoon system right now, particularly around the inlets.  

Along the ICW channel in the New Smyrna area, all the way down to Oak Hill, you can find redfish around the mangrove shorelines throughout the area.

In the northern and middle section of the Mosquito Lagoon, redfish have been busting on baitfish along the shorelines. Small schools of redfish can usually be found on the larger flats like Tiger Shoal and the Plantation Island flat.

Every year from late September through early October,  bull redfish in the 40 inch plus category gather up to spawn in the deep water flats of the northern Indian River across from the Scotsmoor boat launch.

These fish can be caught on live baits, cut baits, or blue crabs.    A variety of topwater plugs, gold spoons, and large plastic swim baits are also effective, especially when sight fishing.  

The black drum bite in our area is usually pretty consistent this time of the year.  Single fish and small pods can be found roaming along the banks and underneath overhanging vegetation in all the lagoon systems.  

Most of our local bank fishermen toss out a live or fresh dead shrimp and wait for a black drum to come along and bite. Shrimp is the bait of choice for black drum, but live sand fleas or fiddler crabs will often get more bites.

A lot of anglers like to sight cast to tailing black drum on the flats with a live shrimp for bait, however, a small 1/16 oz. R&R tackle yellow or white tail jig spiked with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula will often out fish a live shrimp.

Peacock Pocket Road is supposed to be completed but it is still not open to vehicle traffic.  Several anglers I spoke with who park at the barrier at Catfish Creek Loop and at the shallow water launch, walk the road to fish the ponds and waters along the banks.   

The dense vegetation along the banks make landing a good size fish next to impossible but with the rise in water levels, some very large sea trout, redfish, and snook can now be found foraging in the shallow marsh areas that were previously inaccessible during the summer months.  

The best way to fish the area is to sight cast to foraging fish from the bank.    Another way is to drop a live mullet or shrimp at the entry points to the ponds.  The fish move up and down the "ditch" next to the road from pond to pond.    Early in the morning and later on near dusk you can watch the wakes and often hear single fish busting on baitfish along the bank.

Surf and Inlet Fishing

The fall mullet run along the Space Coast is still in full swing.   Surf fishing for snook, bluefish, jacks, redfish, Spanish mackerel, sharks, and tarpon is the thing to do this month.   

As the baitfish migration moves farther south in a few weeks and the water temperatures drop, fishing in the surf for whiting and pompano will start to improve.

During the fall, the baitfish migrate from north to south.   When you locate heavy concentrations of mullet is the surf and the bite slows down to a trickle, move south to the next access point until you find the pods.    This is a proven tactic for surf fishermen that will keep you in the action.

Many surf fishermen in our area like to "wade fish" the beaches during the mullet run.   Along the Space Coast, most of the beaches are accessible to anyone and with the fall mullet run in full swing, wade fishing is a great way to catch a lot of fish.

For this type fishing you will need a reel that is basically waterproof.  

A Penn Slammer or Penn Authority reel in the 4500 or 5500 size fixed on a 7 foot or 8 foot medium/heavy action rod with 15 to 30 pound Power Pro or other type braid, with a Saltwater Assassin Artemis Shad in the Silver Mullet, Green Hornet, or the new Pilchard color lure is all you need to catch fish.  

Surf fishing along the Space Coast is always a mixed bag of species.  Right now big snook are the target for most surf fishermen.

The stretch of beach from Patrick Space Force Base down to Sebastian Inlet is the best area for catching large snook in the surf.   The Coquina worm rocks, troughs and run-outs harbor snook, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, sharks, and tarpon during their feeding frenzies. The best bait to fish is what is migrating through the area at the time.    

A  6" Artemis Shad mimics pretty much anything that's in the surf right now, but surf anglers using live or chunked mullet and any artificial resembling a baitfish will usually get bit.   On many days, glass minnows and horn bellies (Atlantic Bunker) are the best bait for snook.

This is one of the best months for surf fishing in East Central Florida and Playalinda Beach in the the Canaveral National Seashore is one of the better, least advertised "hot spots" for pompano during the winter months.    

   
Surf fishermen targeting pompano, whiting, and juvenile black drum generally use long rods with 2 or 3 hook dropper rigs with sand fleas, fishbites, clams, or fresh peeled shrimp as bait.   

A lot of anglers walk the beach casting into the nearshore first and second troughs with Goofy Jigs or live baits for whiting and juvenile black drum.

Most of the pompano in our area right now are in the 1 to 2 pound category, but later on in the month  as the water cools down, larger fish will be the norm.

With all of the migrating baitfish running up and down our beaches, the shark bite has been on fire.  

Almost any species of shark can be caught in the surf this month, regardless of whether you are targeting them or not, but from Cocoa Beach to Melbourne Beach, blacktip sharks are the most commonly caught species.

All sizes of tarpon are also being hooked from the beach around the bait pods from Playalinda Beach all the way down past Melbourne Beach.    Live or cut mullet and large swim baits are baits of choice for hooking a big tarpon from the beach.

Port  Canaveral Offshore and Nearshore 

October is when the Wahoo and sailfish bite peaks out of Port Canaveral.  

Wahoo and sailfish both prefer cooler water temperatures and fast moving baits.  

Offshore anglers pulling high speed lures or fast moving baits like Bonita, blackfin tuna, small kingfish, and flying fish along the rips, temperature breaks, and ridges like the Oculina Bank and the 27 fathom ridge should have an extremely productive month.

Large dark colored lures pulled at 9 to 15 knots or more will usually get hookups from wahoo.  Purple and black Islander lures are used by a lot of captains out of the port for wahoo, blackfin tuna, king mackerel, and sailfish.    24 to 36 ounce inline trolling sinkers help to keep the lures down to where the fish are.  

The wahoo out of Port Canaveral can run anywhere from 20 to over 40 pounds, with most of the larger fish coming in during the winter months when the water temperatures are in the 73 to 76 degree range.

Offshore anglers out of Port Canaveral have been catching good numbers of mangrove snapper on the reefs and wrecks in 90 to 130 feet of water.   

During the winter months, a mixed bag of triggerfish, black sea bass, snapper, AJs, Scamps, Red Grouper, and Gag grouper is available to bottom fishermen.  Live and cut baits are normally fished on a knocker rig or a chicken rig, but deep jigging with vertical speed jigs also works well when the currents warrant.  

The amberjack bite along the Space Coast is good all winter long.   Right now the amberjack are on the reefs and wrecks in 180 to 250 feet of water north of the port.  Grunt plugs, sardines, and any live bait reef fish are usually used for AJs, grouper, and snapper.    

When the currents are light in the northern part of the central east region from Canaveral to Ponce many anglers prefer to use lighter weight finesse jigs or slow jigs to catch amberjack.  

Our average amberjack is running 20 to 40  pounds, with some reef donkeys in the 50 to 80 pound range..

Our inshore and nearshore coastal waters are loaded with Tarpon right now that are migrating down with the mullet.    You can see them busting on mullet and rolling along the beach within easy access of surf fishermen and anglers running close along the beach.

A lively mullet on about 6 feet of 40 to 80 pound leader with a 7/0 to 8/0 circle hook, with or without a float, is one of the best ways to hook into one of these fish.

Beach tarpon this month have been running anywhere from 50 to 150 pounds.

Tripletail in our area usually arrive about 3 to 4 weeks into the fall mullet run.   Right now they are being spotted in better numbers. 

A select jumbo size shrimp or a live or cut finger mullet rigged on a saltwater assassin 1/4 oz. jig head is a good way to get Tripletail to bite.  When they get picky, use a 2/0 size circle hook with a split shot weight on a live shrimp. 
 
The fish are normally spotted nearshore outside of the surf zone among floating debris, color changes, and the channel markers.  

Most of the tripletail in our area run around 3 to 8 pounds, but fish up to 15 pounds are not uncommon.
 
The October king mackerel bite is always good in our region.   Slow trolling a live mullet, pogie, sardine or bunker on a stinger rig around the bait pods is the most popular way to catch them.   Target the bait pods, small ledges, and scattered bottom structure close to the beach for kingfish this time of the year.

A black and blue Sea Witch or a diving plug pulled on a down rigger or planer on the 60 to 90 foot reefs will also produce fish this month.

Most of the kingfish caught in our area run anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds, with some larger ones in the mix.
 

Haulover Canal

We write about the variety of species that can be taken in Haulover Canal just about every month, but during the October spawning migration; "bull redfish" is definitely the name of the game in the canal.
 
Unlike the redfish in other coastal areas that migrate offshore to spawn, the unique redfish population in our area spend their entire lives in the shallow lagoon estuary.

The redfish use the deep waters of Haulover Canal to travel from the Mosquito Lagoon into the deep water flats of the Indian River for their annual spawning ritual.

The five mile wide section of the Indian River between Mims and Scottsmoor, just north of Titusville, is where the redfish gather into huge spawning schools during September and October.

Shore fishermen using a sectioned or whole live blue crab, a large pinfish or mullet, or a large chunk bait have an excellent chance of landing a trophy redfish in the 40 pound plus category as they travel through the canal this month.    

Fish the baits on or near the bottom with an appropriate weight and use a heavy fluorocarbon leader with a 5/0 or 6/0 VMC circle hook as terminal tackle.

Anglers who fish Haulover Canal on a regular basis will tell you that it's a good idea to use Power Pro or some other braid as your main line.   Braided lines are stronger and considerably more resistant to cutoffs from the Coquina rocks that line the banks of the canal.   The Coquina can easily abrade and weaken monofilament lines, especially with a really big fish.
 

Until next time,

Tight Lines and bent rods!

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