The weekend fishing report, it looks like the river fishing has picked up around Mathers Bridge, with plenty of sheepshead, trout, and mangrove snapper to go around.

Meanwhile, at the beach, people are catching a lot of pompano, whiting, black drum, margate, and blue fish.

As for the offshore bite, there was a few dolphin caught in the 260 ft range. The bottom fishing bite has also been really good. A lot of Cobia are being caught, although there are quite a few shorts mixed in, there are plenty of keepers out there. Additionally, triggerfish and multiple species of snapper are being caught in good numbers.

Have a great week and good luck on the Big Catch!

With what appears to be a solid warming trend through the week, expect spring-like activity in our fish. Not that we won’t have another front or two sweep through, but I would not be surprised to settle into that solid spring pattern over the coming weeks. Near-coastal fishing will get increasingly better with more and more target game fish showing up week after week. Be on the lookout for massive schools and black drum, tripletail and the possibility of cobia popping up. Mellow winds and little swell should give way to some opportunity.

In the lagoons, look for the black drum schools to become even more prevalent than they have been. They are a spring spawning species and will be schooling to accomplish that goal. Look for them on the edges of bars and other features in 1-4ft. of water. Shrimp and crabs are both great natural baits and fly fishing for them can be an exciting way to score. Another spring spawning fish is the sea trout. Waiting for the full moons of spring, groups of mature male trout will shadow larger females. Flats near deeper holes will be best and get ready for this bite to take off. These fish will be looking to pack on pounds in preparation for the spawn. As a rule, I release all trout over 22.” It’s well known all trout over 24″ are females and should be carefully returned to the water. They have a job to do and that is to give us more trout.

The bite is back baby! Now that we have been able to venture offshore we can finally get some fishing in. On both 8A & Pelican Reefs the king bite has been hot with with sailfish and tuna mixed in. We have been primarily fishing cigar minnows. Stay tuned for next week as we have some deep drop trips scheduled where we will be targeting tilefish. More to come on that soon!

Indian River black drum are on fire this week! These are BIG fish. Most are ranging in size from 20 to 45 pounds. The best bait to use is live shrimp. Look for schools of drum holding in the deeper flats. They can also be found along the edges of channels and near the spoil islands in the Cocoa through Titusville areas of the river. Speckled trout and small redfish are possible on the flats of the Mosquito Lagoon using the same bait. Saltwater Assassin 4-inch Sea shad tail in the Houdini and Mama’s 14k colors are also working very well on these fish. Rig these on a weedless weighted worm hook or 1/8th ounce Assassin Spring lock jig head.

The inshore bite in the lagoon is still a little slow and there has not been a whole lot of activity. However, the bite at the Inlet is pretty good. Some Snook, Black Drum, Redfish and big jacks are eating now. Nearshore, there is some schools of jacks as well as bluefish and some cobia around the bait pods. Tarpon should be here soon!

With the warmer temperatures the redfish and trout have started feeding on larger baits such as jerk baits, top-waters and live finger mullet. Look for redfish schools pushing and give them space, they can be skittish if pressed too hard. Place your bait ahead of them and hold on! For trout, look for bait schools and work them with jigs or jerk baits.

The pompano bite is hot along our coastline. Also, tripletail have been on fire. Look for any floating debris, buoys or weed-lines. The water temperatures nearshore are looking promising for cobia. Keep an eye out for them following the rays.

Pomps are hot right now with some nice whiting mixed in. Sand fleas have been the go to bait. The snook bite has been a little weird. They are there but just been a little hit or miss. The redfish bite has been good. If you are fishing for slots, shrimp and finger mullet will get it done. For targeting the bigger fish bucktails, live pinfish & croakers work well. Jigs also work well for snook & redfish at the inlet. The sheepshead bite remains strong and some nice bluefish are being caught on spoons and mullet at both the inlet and in the surf.

Snook and big redfish are being caught in good numbers at Sebastian Inlet. The best baits typically seem to be pinfish and live shrimp. We did have a day this past week where all we could catch them on was dead shrimp. Also, there have been some decent tripletail caught fishing the crab buoys in the lagoon. Live shrimp seem to work best.

The pompano bite is back on at Playalinda in good numbers, lots of keepers with some under size fish mixed in as well. We are also catching really nice whiting up to 18” using live sand fleas for both.

In the river, there are lots of schools of black drum. Live blue crab and shrimp seem to be the bait of choice.

Haulover Canal is still producing nice size sheepshead, the best bait has been live fiddlers crabs. There have also been some decent black drum mixed it.

For the guys shrimping, there are not many shrimp being caught yet in Titusville. More to come soon.

In Mosquito Lagoon the water is clear and up around 7.” Small rat reds are being caught on DOA and Gulp lures with a jig head. There have been lots of trout, some up to 31.” Look for any grass and deeper holes.

For our fresh water anglers, the Crappie bite is on fire fishing from 46 Jolly Gator boat ramp and State Rd. 50 St. John’s River boat ramps. The shad bite is also on fire along with sunshine bass and hybrids. Our shop does carry a lot of fresh water baits including minnows, shiners, red worms and night crawlers.

We are also hiring part-time. Come to shop for an application.

Salty Sgt here with a little surf report coming from satellite beach on A1A and Desoto beach access. With the wind pushing north and waves with some chop and uneven wave sets it was still a great day at the surf. We found our spot around 1230 pm and set up. Baits for the day where fresh live clams, frozen mullet and 5 dozen live shrimp provided by Man Over Board bait and tackle shop and hand caught sand fleas form the surf. The bite started out strong with hits on shrimp and clams right out of the gate. Landing some nice whiting. The cut mullet was pulling in nice size blues. Some other local anglers where able to locate large patches of sand fleas and were raking in monster fleas. They offered up some to us, but the sand flea bite was weak. We went back to shrimp and landed some Black Drum, croakers and a Jack. We fished on thought the day landing a sheep head and more whiting. The last fish off the day was nice blue. We called a day around 600 pm. We left with a cooler of whiting and some nice blues and a great time. Till the next report keep on fishing and share your report here with our Spacefish community.

Salty Sgt signing off.