One of the great things about the summer inshore fishing along the Space Coast is the wide variety of species roaming in our shallow-water lagoon system. So much variety, in fact, sometimes it is hard to narrow down our targets during the half-day and full day charters. We had a number of trips this past week where we set out to target one species and wound up catching several others instead. Our first report reflects such an experience.

Fishing with very old and dear friends from Sarasota, Levoie and Melva Hipps, I had some memory-making fishing along with my memory-recalling past. As part of pre-fishing for an upcoming IFA Redfish Tour event in Punta Gorda, I was mostly interested in finding redfish and the Hipps came along hoping to bring a few fillets home for dinner. The excitement of our adventure was an extremely rare 30 minute battle with a 50 lb. cobia hooked on a shallow grass flat outside Bull Bay in Charlotte Harbor and a monster 20 lb. snook boated in the backwaters of Stump Pass in Englewood. I doubt we’ll ever forget either fish. Pictured below are the Hipps with Melva’s trophy snook.

Dave Bailey from Palm Bay, along with sons James and Kyle and father-in-law Buck from New Jersey, spent a great Saturday morning in the Grant area of the Indian River, just north of Sebastian Inlet with Capt. Roland . The morning started with stalking the giant snook which had been frequenting the spoil islands. Instead of snook, the Baileys came home with six fat trout from the islands in the 20 – 27 inch range and several bluefish to boot. After warming up on the sea trout, the Baileys spent the rest of the half-day charter searching for the suddenly elusive line-siders. Pictured below are the results of their search: a 20 lb monster on 10 lb. mono line and a 30 incher which did a great aerial tarpon imitation with four spectacular jumps. “Wait till I show this one off back in Jersey,” Buck commented.

Another recent charter with Capt. Roland was Bob Jones and his son-in-law Jeff Loveday of Palm Bay. Taking advantage of the calm waters outside of the inlet, the trio spent the morning looking for tarpon along the beaches. They did manage to jump several, along with big spinner sharks, but lost them all. Bonita harassing the bait pods provided top-water plugging entertainment before a four ft. spinner shark crashed the party. Pictured below is Capt. Roland holding Bob’s shark. (Bob had heard too many bad shark stories and did not want to get any closer to the beast than necessary).

Last Saturday, Capt. Peter guided a family reunion party in the Melbourne Beach stretch of the Indian River. The family, driving down from Daytona beach, was treated to an unbelievable adventure. Chuck Ashley, a great son and brother, is the one who organized the trip to go offshore in the Atlantic. The offshore wind forced the crew into the calmer inshore waters. The day started out targeting tarpon and resulted in two outstanding catches: a 60 inch and 48 inch fish. The rest of the day was equally as exciting as redfish, snook, and trout were caught on the clear-water flats. What a great way to spent part of a family reunion!

The next report involves a familiar faces to Native Sons Fishing Charters: the father and son duo of Chuck and Mason from Orlando. This trip targeted “big fish” only in the Indian River near Melbourne and guide Capt. Peter Deeks hit the bulls-eye with huge snook and tarpon.

It was my pleasure to guide Dave and Maritza from Pennsylvania for a fishing charter in the Grant area recently. This great couple caught an inshore grand slam of redfish, snook, trout, and jack Cravelles. The half-day trip ended perfectly by enjoying a delicious seafood lunch at Captain Hiram’s in Sebastian. The pictures below were taken by Maritza.

Our final report for this week returns to the specie that started this thread: cobia. Capt. Peter, along with good friends Jason and Kenny of Orlando, went offshore to do some scouting when they stumbled across a pod of cobia. Along with catching the cobia, the trio had a blast bow-fishing a couple of kingfish. What a bunch of kooks!

Snook and Slams – It Must Be Summertime

Spring slammed into summer this week along the Space and Treasure Coasts of east central Florida, and the fishing action has continued at a frenzied pace. We have had grand slams and giant snook coming out of the Indian River Lagoon this past week from Melbourne Beach to Vero Beach and Ft. Pierce. The action has been simply amazing.

We start our individual charter reports with young Wesley Miller of Satellite Beach. Wes and Marcel Pope fished the Grant area yesterday with me as part of the FLFA Junior Angler Inshore Tournament. Wes walked away with the trophy for largest snook, largest fish, and largest smile. His 25 lb snook, measuring 39 ½ inches, will long be remembered by all involved. He also caught a mess of trout measuring up to 25 ¾ inches and a pair of big jack crevalle to complete a remarkable slam. It was an amazing day for Wesley, Marcel, and me.

Also participating in the Junior Angler Tournament was Jack Baney, his friend, and his dad. Fishing with Capt. Roland in the same areas as Team Wesley, young Jack nailed a pair of fine snookeroos measuring 25 and 28 inches. His comment, “Yeah, another fish for the wall of fame at the Baneys’ house” says it all. What a way to spend a morning!!!!!!

On Friday it was a pair of my old friend from Orlando, Florida: Scott Bell and Jesse. The last time we fished the Titusville area and had a grand time with the redfish. This year we traveled south to Grant and tangled with trout, jacks, and snook. The trophy trout that was caught measured nearly 28 inches and was taken in around a spoil island in the Grant/Sebastian area.

On Thursday both Capt. Rocky and Capt. Roland had charters. Roland fished the Melbourne Beach area of the IRL with Doug Herrell, son Mac, brother-in-law Schuyler, and his sons Schuyler and Case. The crew of Melbourne residents targeted snook with great results and also had some trout that crashed the party. Case and Mac had the hot rods of the morning landing snook, trout, jacks, and one small grouper – another early June inshore grand slam.

Capt. Rocky had the pleasure of the company of Todd Mahaffey Sr. from Atlanta and the two knuckleheads, Todd Jr. and his cousin A.J. from Chimney Rocky, NC. (This was the second trip of the week for the trio after getting caught in a rare summer doldrums-type day on Tuesday.) We ventured into the pristine reaches of the Indian River between Vero Beach and Ft. Pierce. The slam for the day consisted of monster trout, bluefish, and ladyfish. Besides the fish, other highlights included “wade-fishing” the islands, racing the boat, eating ice cold watermelons on a pirate island, and an ultra-fun tire swing found hanging over the river. The day ended by enjoying the fresh trout fillets perfectly prepared by the chefs of Grills Restaurant in Port Canaveral. What a fun and full day! By the way, the Mahaffey’s had a great stay at the Resort on Cocoa Beach while vacationing in central Florida (http://www.theresortoncocoabeach.com/)

On Monday, Dave Reinbold and his good friend Marlita from Pennsylvania were my guests for a half-day charter. Blue summer skies and calm water greeted us early turning to a gentle east breeze by late morning. Dave and Marlite had their inshore slam within the first hour by catching a redfish, snook, and trout. The trout was the biggest of the three weighing nearly 12 lbs, large jack crevalle up to 17 pounds, and several more trout completed another fantastic day of fishing.

Last Friday found Steve Young and his two sons Austin and Chase aboard the Flat Broke with Capt. Rocky for a half-day charter. Our purpose for the charter was to nail big snook for the boys. Pictured below are Austin with a 20 lb snook and Chase with a 15 pounder. We also caught redfish, trout, and jack crevalle to complete another early summer grand slam. All fish were released alive.

Our final two reports came from the logs of Capt. Roland from last week. Kevin from Satellite Beach, a good friend of Native Sons, fished with Roland in the Grant area and caught two monster snook including the one pictured below. The next day Jessica Jones, Roland’s daughter, fishing in the FLFA Taylor Creek Tournament, caught all kinds of fish including a personal record 24 pounder.

In conclusion, this has been an unbelievable start to summer for us. The fishing over the past six weeks has been as good as any I can recall in over forty years. If you have not had a chance to get out and enjoy this run, you are missing something very special.

This past May was one of the finest in memory for monster fish in the inshore shallow saltwater flats of the Indian River Lagoon system from New Smyrna Beach to Ft. Pierce. As such, we thought it would be a blast to put together a pictorial presentation for future posterity. Pictured below are our nominations for the top ten monsters of May. Enjoy their dreams.

Okay, so I know there are actually fifteen nominations in our top ten but Simon Cowell gave us permission to use a judge’s exemption or two because we just could not decide between the worthy candidates. By the way, June has gotten under way with an equally impressive showing.