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!
