The fishing has been really, really good the last several weeks from New Smyrna Beach to Ft. Pierce … and we’ve been guiding charters everywhere on the Indian River Lagoon System. There would be much to report fishing-wise but we thought we’d use this report to ‘brag’ on several anglers who’ve had their pictures and fishing stories shared on TV or in the print media.
First, there is Derrick Brown from Cocoa Beach who, along with Mark his father, fished with us late last fall near Merritt Island. Derrick caught a big redfish and his picture and story was featured in a recent edition of Coastal Angler Magazine. He was selected as their ‘Junior Angler of the Month’. Congratulations Derrick!
Gregory Durham and his dad, Greg Senior, from Melbourne Beach, fished with us in January in the Sebastian area. Gregory caught his first redfish during the trip but it was a picture of him holding a trout that appeared on the highly popular Chevy Florida Fishing Report in March (Sun Sports TV). Way To Go Gregory!
Natalie van Hoose of Merritt Island (aka ‘The Champ’) went with her dad for one last fishing fling in February prior to moving to Prague, Czech Republic. Her picture and story also appeared on the Chevy Florida Fishing Report (Sun Sports TV). I’m proud of you, Nat.
Finally, Paul Oxendine from Naples, Florida, his mother, and a good friend from his church, fished in the Cocoa Beach area with Capt. Roland Jones and Capt. Don Patterson in early March. His picture and fishing account was featured on Chevy Florida Fishing Report last week (Sun Sports TV). Atta Boy, Paul!
I am frequently asked by out-of-towners, ‘what is the best time to fish in Florida?’ My answer is ‘anytime you can get down here … but if you can get down in May or June, you’ll be most happy you did’
We have finally put winter and the high winds of April in the rear view mirror and the fishing is absolutely stunning this time of year. In addition to the excellent redfish, snook and trout activity, we are finding tarpon crashing poggies gathered in the boat basins along the Indian River in the Melbourne area, pompano doing their sideways skip in the Grant area and breeder snook beginning to stack in the Sebastian Inlet.
Over the past month we’ve had good trips to New Smyrna Beach, catching fat, upper slot redfish and some enormous trout. The Tanners from Gainesville GA joined us for one trip to the northern edge of the ‘Lagoon’ and caught a number of trout in the upper 20 inch range. We also saw a monster fish that must have exceeded 35 inches.
The Banana River is as productive as I’ve ever seen it. There are at least seven large schools of redfish on the Pineda Flats. These fish range in size from mid-slot to 40 inches and we’re catching them by sight-casting lures to the fish in the clear water or chunking live finger mullet on long casts into the sandy potholes.
The northern reaches of the Banana are also producing. Curtis and Ann caught 11 redfish in the lower 30 range and 3 large spotted trot on a half day trip on the 26th. Rick and his buddy Sam from Indiana landed a 45 inch redfish on the 9th in the same area.
Finally, the Indian River in the Grant area has been good as well. We’ve had a number of excellent trips including Scott and his father-in-law John from Vermont on the 4th of April. These two anglers caught a number of reds along one mangrove shoreline before moving to ‘B’ hole where large trout have been holding. Among the 20 ‘gator’ trout (fish over 25 inches) was one that measured 33 inches and tipped the scales at 13 pounds (see attached picture). And believe it or not, we saw one trout in this area that was even bigger on a trip this past Saturday (May 6th). This trip with Donald and Brad produced multiple slams – snook to 29 inches, redfish to 30 inches and trout to 26 inches – and there were a bunch of them too!
Now you know why I love this time of year … the fishing just doesn’t get any better than May and June along the central east coast of Florida … and if you don’t believe me, give us a call and we’ll prove it
Winter still hasn’t arrived and the fishing is the finest it’s been in many years … and so is our charter business! We’ve hardly had time to re-spool reels, repair boats or even mow the grass (still having to mow once a week … and it is MARCH!). Finding time to write fishing reports has been difficult – I even missed a good portion of the NCAA March Madness because of the pace of fishing.
I’ll make this report brief … The fishing has been hot all over – from Titusville where we’ve had days of 25 plus redfish, caught sight-fishing to Ft. Pierce where the snook and gator trout are still stacked, holding to their shallow water, summer haunts. The Banana River in Merritt Island has had more redfish in it than I can ever remember. And I’ve been around long enough to remember ‘a long ways back.’
Winter is supposed to be about change – change in temperature, wind velocity and direction and the arrival of wave after wave of cold fronts. This triggers changes in our fish – their habitat, appetite, and activity rates – changes in patterns.
This winter has been very unusual thus far because our weather has been most unseasonable, more like summer and early fall than mid-winter. Consequently our fish really haven’t transitioned out of their summer patterns.
Over the past several weeks we’ve seen the fish active in the early mornings and late afternoons over the shallow grass flats – summertime patterns in summertime locations. For example, Shaun and Guy from Colorado, in the area escaping the cold and snow from home, joined us for a half day charter. The fishing was torrid as we caught six bull reds including three monsters over 40 inches. The fish were in shallow water and did not start their feeding frenzy until mid-afternoon.
Adjusting our pattern to afternoon charters, Jack and his son John from Satellite Beach, fished with us two days later (1/2 day charter). Again, the early afternoon, the heat of the day, was slow with several smaller trout and a slot red. When the sun sank lower in the sky (cooler temperature) the fishing picked up we closed the trip with six solid redfish and one giant who briefly hooked-up with us.
Nothing has changed. This is still summertime fishing and now it is mid-February … the weather is fabulous and the fishing even better!
It’s been more like summer than winter for the last several weeks and the fish are as confused as many of the local fishermen. We should be fishing the edges of deep holes in the morning while awaiting a daily migration to surrounding flats as the sun slowly heats the water during the day. Instead we have bait and predator alike camping overnight in shallow water and frolicking during the day like its summertime in the surf. We had three trips this week that prove the point.
Last weekend we took a precious couple to the pristine crystal clear waters between Ft. Pierce and Vero Beach. After finally finding the bait along the edges of mid-river spoil islands (they should have been in the muddy backwater holes and canals) we set up on one our favorite summertime fishing spots. We caught five trout and one snook within the first thirty minutes. All five of the trout were larger than the snook and exceeded 24 inches. Our fun abruptly ended when the captain of a cabin cruiser decided to anchor and sun bath directly over our fish.
Three observations need to made at this point of this report: 1.) do not ever anchor your boat where folks are fishing, it is incredibly rude and you are liable to have your ancestry disparaged, 2.) some people should not where Speedos, it can be an insult to nature and, 3.) don’t anchor a cabin cruiser in shallow water on a high tide, it may stretch your siesta a lot longer than you initially anticipated. (We did find several other pods of large snook and redfish holding along the east shoreline.)
Tuesday and Wednesday found us closer to home in the Sebastian Inlet backwaters. Tuesday started south of the inlet (Wabasso) and ended north (Grant). I think all fish left the former for the later. Redfish in large numbers and solid trout caught on Tuesday.
The following day we started and stayed in Grant finding snook, redfish and trout anxious to meet and greet us. Once again, these fish were along the eastern shorelines and holding to typical summertime patterns. (I lost count of the exact total of fish for the day sometime after we hit double digits – I do know we cleaned three reds and one trout while releasing the vast majority of the catch).
Friday and Saturday brought us back to our backyard in the Banana River and these were very much ‘red’ letter days. The half day trip on Friday yielded five reds (25, 34, 35, 36 and 45 inches), one 23 inch trout and one 24 inch snook. The reds were taken on finger mullet while the trout and snook were fooled by root beer colored jigs.
Saturday started slowly with only trout caught (two lost along with a snook) prior to 11:00 am and ended in fabulous fashion. Once we were positioned correctly on my redfish flat and the wind shifted from southwest to east/southeast, the redfish swarmed the shallow water to terrorize the schools of roaming mullet. We finished the afternoon with seven more redfish with the largest being close to 35 pounds (not inches). It was a great day … it was a great week … and it’s been a great summer this winter.
Three trips this week and Santa was good to all three parties. Monday and Tuesday were almost carbon copies of one another – both were half day trips on the Banana River and both scored double-digit catches of redfish (and a few trout) on artificials, sight-fishing the sandy ‘pot holes’ in shallow water. The fish stayed on the flats until early afternoon before sliding off into deeper water. Several fish were taken under docks on Tuesday we practiced skipping the Gulps underneath.
The wind and rain canceled Wednesday through Friday and forced us into domestic duties instead. (This is characteristic for December through February, by the way. We’ll have several good, fishable days interrupted by several nasty, unfishable ones. When we can get away from the docks, the fishing is good.)
My trip on Saturday began late morning as we waited for the skies to clear and the wind to subside. Once on the flats, the water settled down to glassy calm and made a winter wonderland for fishing conditions (well, as close as we get to it in central Florida). We located a school of bullies (redfish over 36 inches) and were able to introduce ourselves to four of them before they tired of our company. There were several others 30 inch fish and one ‘smaller’ 27 incher caught as well. (Again, we found trout mixed in with the reds.) This was a Titusville trip and featured some ‘wading’ which is unusually for late December … the water was comfortable and clear.)
The Banana River is located east of the Indian River and flows from north Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral through the Cocoa beach area and south to Satellite Beach (central east coast of Florida). Although it is not as well known as Mosquito Lagoon or Sebastian Inlet, it is quite fishy nonetheless.
We had a ½ day trip into the Banana River (my home waters) on Wednesday and found the action as hot as anywhere among the flats on the east coast and maybe even hotter. (Actually ½ day trips are a good idea for this time of year, especially for those not used to the heat.)
After catching bait in the canals of Cocoa Beach, we motored southeastward toward the skinny water along Pineda flats … we never made it to our intended destination. Observing a school of distressed mullet, I decided to render assistance. The school was being harassed by redfish and trout. We lost count of the final tally, but did preserve the moment for posterity purposes (see picture above).
The largest fish exceeded the measuring tape and was estimated at 48 inches. She also exceeded the Boca Grip which only measures to 30 pounds. The fight for that particular fish took over 30 minutes (caught on 10 lb test line) and featured a bull shark and alligator which lurked nearby hoping to prematurely end the battle royal.
The fish was successfully released to join the school from whence she had been a part immediately prior to our encounter. As a side note, there are a number of monster redfish in that school and they are just waiting to pit their incredible speed and strength against any angler with a heart stout enough to challenge them!
While Capt. Roland and I were occupied down south, Capt. Peter Deeks, Jr., took a pair of clients out of Titusville for an afternoon redfish trip. Now we thought we had had a phenomenal day but theirs twas equally good!
The final tally for their trip was a dozen or so hard-fighting reds between 18-35 inches with several fish too large to tame and a handful of ‘smaller’ trout around 20 inches … Good job Capt. Peter and crew!
I had the rare privilege of having my guide/business partner Capt. Roland along with me on a charter to the Ft. Pierce area on Wednesday. We picked up our client, Don Raubach of Baltimore, at dawn and headed north in the Indian River to do a little flats fishing.
After several miles on tranquil waters we dropped the trolling motor and positioned ourselves to fish the inside of a spoil island on the outgoing tide. There was a large school of very nervous mullet holding along the island and we dropped several fingers into their midst. It didn’t take long before a snook decided to dance with us … after a fight, pictures, high fives we repeated our offerings. The next fish was a monster trout which measured 32 inches … our client was now ‘hooked on’ the virtues of pristine Florida flats fishing.
It is hard to believe that any fish could have topped that first trophy trout but, after landing several trout in the 17-19 inch range, the next one did … nearly 34 inches long … the boat record for Capt. Roland Jones.
There was another trout measuring 30 inches, several in the 26-28 inch range and a mess of ‘smaller’ ones. (It was hard to leave that island but the tide slacked and started to flood so we decided to try another spot).
The final spot yielded another large trout (27 inches) and a decent snook (28 inches). However, the memory of the last spot was etched by a monster line-sider (snook) has gave us a good five minutes of top water, head shaking antics before tiring of our company. We estimate the size of that freight train to be around 25 pounds … and she’s still lurking in the waters.
It was a Great Day at Sea for Don Raubach and Native Sons Fishing Guides
It seems the only thing hotter than the temperatures along our coasts this time of year is the fishing – and it has been scorching hot! The monster redfish (some weighing in the 30-40 lb range) are schooling in several choice locations in the northern Indian River Lagoon system while their hard-fighting ‘slot-sized’ cousins seem to be everywhere. The large ‘gator-trout’ are in feeding frenzies as they are replenishing their weight and energy after their late spring/early summer spawn and we are finding them in abundance in sandy potholes from Titusville to Ft. Pierce. The tarpon are active along the beaches, in the inlet and rivers and even in the residential canals and boat basins. And the snook fishing does not get any better than this time of year as we are finding them along the sandy sides of islands, under mangroves and in the Inlet. It seems like the hardest part of our day seems to be deciding which species to pursue and where we want to catch them.
