Known for their aerial displays, sneaky tactics and powerful runs, snook are a favorite target among the elite four game fish in our shallow water flats (redfish, snook, tarpon and trout). A warm water resident, much like our tarpon, snook have begun to move into their familiar late spring haunts over the past several weeks such as the edges of islands, mangrove shorelines, docks and mouths of inlets. Even though most are caught during daylight hours, they are also nocturnal feeders and make a thrilling adversary to hunt after sunset. (See the picture below of the 18 pounders caught by Capt. Peter last night near Sebastian Inlet). By the way, we offer evening snook charters during the summer to those who have the stamina and adrenalin sufficient for the challenge of the snook.
The fishing over the past week has been warming along with the weather. We still had to contend with the lingering blustery winds of early spring and a freak cold front on Easter weekend but conditions have improved overall … and so has the fishing.
Our lead report stars young Scott Martin and his dad Gary, both of Satellite Beach. Scott is quite a fishing fanatic and was anxious to catch his first snook during a Ft. Pierce adventure with Capt. Rocky. Despite the early start time and strong winds Scott succeeded on his mission with a 31 inch beast. He also caught a 31 inch trout during the charter to join the elite 30/30 fraternity.
A day later, Capt. Roland took Greg Mihalak from Michigan to the same area and had a pair of great guide trips on half day charters. He caught a bunch of fish including snook and large trout.
The Mulla family from Palm Bay, Florida are featured in our next report. Chartering with Capt. Roland, parents John and Marjorie along with daughters Sarah and Rebecca, fished the Melbourne Beach and Grant stretch of the Indian River. The crew caught a number of good fish and had a grand time on a picture-perfect day. It was tiny Rebecca with the biggest fish, a 32 inch, 8.5 lb gator trout.
Another recent Capt. Roland chartered starred the Georgiades family from New Jersey. Fishing on a freak cold spring day (temps in the low 40s), this hale and hardy crew found protected waters in the Melbourne Beach area. They caught 15 to 20 fish including redfish, trout, ladyfish and jacks. George’s two sons, Mikey and Andreas are pictured below holding a redfish and jack.
Finally, Charles and Anna from the UK chartered Capt. Rocky on a half-day guide trip to stalk redfish in the Titusville section of the Indian River Lagoon system. Among the trophies caught on the day was this 32 inch brute which took Charles on quite a wild ride before being subdued.
Capt. Grizz (Roland Jones) and his friend Perry of Melbourne went hog wild on Tuesday evening by bagging six large wild boars in one afternoon. The largest hog weighed near 200 pounds while the smallest tipped the scales near 80 pounds. By the way, according to the latest Poor Farmer’s Almanac, there is more wild pork roaming Brevard County, Florida than any other area of the country except, of course, Washington D.C. And the exact location of where these hogs were shot, only the ‘shadow’ knows (see photo below).
On our fishing trips we are used to being entertained by a wide variety of wildlife such as manatees, alligators, dolphins and, occasionally, otters, raccoons, armadillos or wild hogs roaming along the shorelines. On Tuesday, however, Capt. Roland spotted and photographed the rare spectacle of a deer swimming across the Indian River towards one of the small spoil islands near Grant, Florida. This was quite an oddity in this area.
April is such a great month on our calendar as temperatures rise, rains come, trees leaf, flowers bloom, cobia migrate, mullet flood flats, breeder trout invade sandy potholes, redfish roam the shallows, snook return to their summer haunts and tarpon begin to roll. Indeed, it is a great time to be a fishing fanatic along the central east coast of Florida.
Our first early April fishing report is provided by Capt. Roland as he took the three Ryans boys on a short sunny Saturday adventure. Michael, Daniel, and Joey joined Roland along the Indian River side of Melbourne Beach to hunt redfish, snook and trout. Using live finger mullet the threesome had a blast hooking and landing fish. Pictured below are Daniel and his trout, camera-shy Joey with his redfish (held by his brother) and Michael holding a jack crevalle.
Colton and Karen Graham, a mother and son duo from Washington, spent two days using the long rod while casting flies to a variety of species. Capt. Peter, our fly-fishing aficionado, guided the Grahams in Titusville on one day and the Grant/Sebastian area the next. Pictured are Karen holding our first tarpon of the spring and Colton with an alligator gar.
Charles Coleman and his friend Anna, both from the United Kingdom, had a blast on the Indian River near Titusville with Capt. Rocky last week. The official record of the charter finds Anna with the first fish of the day (it was her first fish ever) and Charles with the most, biggest and last fish. Best fish among the half dozen caught were a fine 37 inch, 18 lb. redfish and the huge gator trout in the picture which weighed about nine pounds.
Another charter of mine last week was Tim and Lawrence Horn on the Banana River for a half-day trip. The day started with a springtime-like calm but ended with strong winter winds. The change in conditions confused fish and fisherman alike. However we did have a number of hits along with two big trout and one large redfish caught.
Our final report concerns a day and night adventure of Capt. Roland and the Rinkus men, Mike, Michael and . The day portion of the adventure took place on the Indian River south of Melbourne while the night portion found them deep in the bush hunting wild boar. Redfish and trout were caught while fishing (pictures below) and deer, turkey, gator, and hog stalked while hunting. Since only hogs are in season, the other wild game appeared merely to taunt the outdoorsmen.
The following reports were written by Capt. Peter Deeks, Jr. Peter guided these charters during the last days of March.
One of our frequent flyer clients, Howell Riggs from Huntsville, Alabama, kicks off our fishing reports. Howell wanted to get Michael, his good friend and fishing partner, on some of the Space Coast’s giant trout, redfish, and snook. We fished for two days. On the first day, we targeted trout and redfish on the Banana River for an afternoon half-day trip. Howell and Michael, landed a handful of redfish and trout including this 25 plus pound redfish.
On the second day, our goal was to target giant trout and snook before a nasty cold front was due to roll through our region. We fished a stretch of the Indian River in the Ft. Pierce area with big live baits. We landed six or so trout including this 32 inch trophy in the picture below. The front arrived around noon and shut the fish down before we were able to get on the snook.
Our next report features a nice family from Orlando. Ashraf, Ali, and Aisha wanted to spend a relaxing morning out on the Indian River, and do a little redfish and trout fishing. We started the day off targeting large trout around docks, and fished schools of redfish for the rest of the morning. Our final tally was nine redfish and three trout – with all the trout being between 24 and 27 inches. Aisha was the hero of the day putting the boys to shame by catching the most and biggest fish.
Our final report starred a pair of father and son duos. These fellows had been canceled by another guide at the last minute fearing the windy weather forecast. We fished from my 22 foot Pathfinder which provided a smooth and dry ride on the bumpy Banana River. The two sons out-fished their dads on the day by catching redfish and trout.
