Patty wouldn’t touch this barracuda, but she sure enjoyed the fight! This fish ate a four inch Diezel Minnowz pinned to a Z-Man Snakelockz jighead.
Hot and low is how I’d describe our water conditions at this time. This should be no surprise to those who fish the Indian River Lagoon the year around. It’s summer and the tides run low with water temps in the mid to upper eighty degree range. I’m sure we’ll see ninety-ish degrees soon.
We’re still beating the trees for snook, trout and jacks with top-water walking plugs at first light; switching to four or five inch Z-Man Diezel Minnowz once the bright light hits the water.
The last two hours of the incoming tide and the first two hours of the fall have given us the best results in the mangrove jungles. Open water areas like the deeper flats, spoil islands and channel edges should extend your bite, especially if you switch to live bait.
Fingerling mullet are abundant along many shorelines and pilchards are schooled-up sporadically. Small pinfish and mojarra are excellent offerings for snapper holding on structure. Structure can be obvious like docks or bridges, but can also be sunken spoil islands that have a rock, rubble or shell bottom.
I tend to use a fairly long fluorocarbon leader with a light wire circle hook and only enough weight to get the bait down. One rod straight down current and a second rod rigged to cast up-current and let the bait sweep near the structure as it heads downstream.
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