Schools of redfish have been consistently eating live finger mullet or Z-Man paddle-tails all week. A lot of fish have been found along the shorelines with the higher full moon. With warm weather expected this week the fish should be even more aggressive.

We had several days of calm seas this past week and some of the guys with bigger boats ventured to the Otherside to look for yellowfin tuna. They did pretty well for themselves, to say the least. Adrian Martinez of Handler Fishing Supply in Merritt Island and some friends were among those with really impressive hauls. Nice job, guys!

Offshore, water temperatures plummeted to 65 and basically shut off the kingfish bite. There is a nice temperature break in 450 feet with a few Mahi on it, but nothing to get too excited about. If you want the Mahi you can certainly find them, but most are on the other side in millionaire alley. Not for us, but the rich are out there getting richer… lol. Amberjack have been great on the deep wrecks and on 27. These are donkey sized fish and are taking live bait well. There’s also a bunch of almaco jacks in the mix, too. On the ledge and reef, there’s loads of red snapper if you want to stay busying catching and releasing, which can still be a good time even though you’re not taking any home for dinner. Meanwhile, nearshore, sharks and red drum remain pretty steady.

The Bass bite is strong and the fish are on bedding. We are seeing tons of beds and, although all the beds are not occupied, they are clean and being attended to. Here are the lures we are finding the most success with right now…

The trout have started to bounce back from the cold weather and we are finding good numbers of them around the docks and pilings in the Indian River Lagoon. The black drum have started to really thin out but you can still find them around the drop offs and structures around the river.

Our week started off slow with windy weather and cold water temps. The Mackerel and Bluefish were hitting and a few trout and triple tail were inside but the inlet bite was slow during the day. Late in the week the reds showed up and were feeding but the snook still haven’t been active. Look for the warming trend we are having to help improve the bait situation inside the Indian River and the beaches and the bite should get better everywhere. Live pinfish and Mojarra should be great baits for the snook as the water warms up and the redfish will eat the same. The rays should be moving through with the warmer waters as well and should bring some cobia with them!

Finally some nice weather! A warming trend allowed the waters to reach ideal temperatures. However, the best bite of the day is still well after sunrise. Indeed, finding fish early in the morning has been relatively simple. Getting the low-light prowling redfish and trout to bite with enthusiasm has been tough. To be honest, I’m a bit perplexed by this with water temps starting in the low sixty degree range.

This week on the Treasure Coast, the strong inshore bite is still going on with flounder as they move away from the inlet and onto the flats. As typical, mud minnows are the bait of choice right now for these flat boys. Meanwhile, trout had been a bit scarce in recent weeks, but they are starting to wake up. Some anglers are swearing that big shrimp are the ticket to elicit a strike, but others are paying hand-picked prices for the smallest available shrimp. They tell us that a little shrimp on a smaller gold hook seem to be irresistible to the trout right now. Either way, it’s hard to go wrong with a well placed live shrimp.

What a crazy few weeks we have had! Inshore remains to be the best bet. We have experienced cold and windy to hot and calm, the weather just can’t seem to really make up its mind! Regardless, the nearshore fishing has been very slow. With water temps in the high 50s to low 60s, there hasn’t been much bait or predators other than a few sheepshead and pompano which seem to like the cooler temps. With this being said, the inshore redfish and trout bite really can’t be beat.

We got offshore out of Port Canaveral Friday and had a great trip. We knew the day before that the water was really cold and dirty out to the at least 180 ft, so we planned on jigging a spot in the 200-250 range than trolling east. This was our first time adventuring this far out, so it was definitely a learning curve.

Went beach fishing today and caught all the bonnetheads. I spent about 4 hours on the beach and caught 6 bonnethead sharks and 1 sandbar. Not a bad day.

Hit up IRL this morning to get some fishing in. I hadn’t hit up the river in a while and had been hearing good things. After grabbing some live shrimp I put in near 520. After about 5 minutes of having my shrimp stolen I landed my first keeper Mangrove Snapper. The next few hours I hit a few more small snappers before calling it. On my very last shrimp I hit a 13.5″ mangrove with a little bit of heft. That shrimp barely hit the water when the snapper sent my spool spinning (lightweight reel and line today). Catching a larger snapper on a tiny reel was kinda fun. All in all a good day.