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
