Spring is by far one of my favorite times of the year to fish here in east Central Florida. We are transitioning away from our winter patterns which typically provides us with better weather days to get out on the water. It’s obviously not as hot and calm as the summer months, but there are still plenty of advantageous opportunities to go fishing.

I was able to get out one time before the Stay At Home order was put in effect for the state of Florida. Even though fishing isn’t closed, I took it as a warning since the 65 year old and underlining condition rule to just stay home.

Wow! What a great month from purely a fishing POV. Hands down the best March we have seen in a decade. I just hate that so many people had to miss it!

We had a great week fishing the inlet and the beaches. The redfish and snook bite was pretty good to end this last week. Live greenies were good baits, but we got our fish on pigfish and pinfish. There’s been plenty of big jacks along with the snook and reds, and we even got some of the bigger bluefish over 10 lbs.

With the overcast skies, the topwater bite in the Mosquito Lagoon has been really, really good. Target the schools of mullet using a Rapala Skitterwalk in either black and silver/blue, silver or bone colored. These lures have been getting the job done with great consistency. Also, the site fishing for black drum has been great on the Indian River side. For these drum, target depths of one to two feet of water and look for either tailing fish or cruising fish along the sandy bottom mixed with grass.

I need to start this report off with an urgent message so that we don’t lose our right to fish or access to boat ramps. Please comply with the social distancing guidelines in place. Brevard County is one of the few places with no boat ramp closures yet, but failure to comply could shut the ramps down.

Capt. Jim discusses business practices and procedures in these unprecedented times, and also offers a discount to customers interested in booking a future trip.

On Saturday, my dad and I went south from Satellite and tried the river near the inlet. The water was very blue and pretty clear. We found some snook and some very spooky reds. The snook had no problem eating big threadfins.

Hot early trout bite on the Banana River. Top water was on fire early then switched over to 4″ DOA shrimp to put a couple more fatties in the boat. (5 total in the 25″ range) All released to go make baby trout. These females are full of roe and eating everything in site. One small red but couldn’t get a snook for the slam. 😥 All fish were caught up against deep water mangroves.

Went out Last Sunday the 29th and found some rips around 170 ft. Started to troll the edge and ended up with a nice dolphin around 15lbs.
Later in the day we picked up a Wahoo on the short line dragging a Nomad plug. The wahoo came in close to 40 lbs and was caught in 230ft. All in all a really fun day early in the trolling season.

Monday, March 30 – After a dismal morning on Sunday being overrun with catfish I chose not to fish this morning. Late in the afternoon I needed to go rinse some fleas. I gathered my gear and started my short walk to the beach around 3:30. I caught several small pompano, three big lady fish, and by 6:00pm, I was headed home with six nice sized pompano! The beach was empty and the few passersby maintained probably 20-30 feet!

Spring is usually one of the best times of the year for giant seatrout, but what’s really had my attention lately is the nearshore fishing around the inlets, from Ponce to Sebastian, even down to Fort Pierce and everywhere in between, the fishing is all pretty similar. Most fish are on edges of the rock jetties and drop-offs in search of large live baits, including jumbo shrimp, pilchards, pigs and pin fish. Match your bait with the appropriate hook from 3/0 circles for shrimp and threadfins to 6/0 j style hooks for your larger thicker baits like mullet and pin fish.