I’m not gonna lie, besides a couple of trips I kind of packed it in last year and sipped on my “hot chocolate” until the early spring came along. This year I plan on continuing to fish as much as possible because I’ve decided life is too short not to be on the water for two or three months because of a little wind of cooler temps. So as the late fall / early winter weather arrives, this will be the first time I have fished this seasonal pattern. By saying this also implies that I know what the patterns are the rest of the year, but really I feel like I’ve been mostly lucky thus far haha, but the best part about fishing is the constant learning process. The more work you put in on the water, you are rewarded with more days “catching” rather than “fishing.” So I look forward to the challenge when it comes to the fall / winter season.

After hearing the news of Cocoa Beach finishing up another phase of its dredging project, I decided to scout out the area for any new signs of life. I have fished the Thousands Islands area a couple of times in the past and for how beautiful the area is, I did not find any activity. I am hoping that there is a similar positive impact on the area such as the dredging project has done for the Eau Gallie River. So after being tired of fishing in the wind in the main section of the Banana River, I decided to head towards the wind protected spoil islands of Cocoa Beach.

Making my way to the south entrance of the golf course, I tried to be clever and cut across the flats just west of the spoil islands. I thought this would save time rather than taking the main channel and idling in. This was the wrong thing haha, I found 15 inches of water which is exactly what my boat drafts and made very slow work of it. As I passed the first cove which leads into the shallow interior of the spoil island system, I did see a lot of small bait swimming everywhere. In hindsight, I should have tried making my way in and fishing this area because the bait activity was far less in the channels. Even though there was a bigger bay boat fishing back in there (not sure how they made in and out), I was too nervous to get stuck in an area I was unfamiliar with by myself. If you are comfortable with wade fishing or are able to bring a paddle board / kayak in the interior of the spoil islands, I believe that would be ideal.

Once inside the channels of the spoil islands, I put down my trolling motor and put my new box of Mirrolures to work. I looked for eddies or wind blown points, I also focused on any areas that had mangroves with deeper water underneath them. After only catching a couple of lady fish and speckled trout in the main river, the grind continued along the edges of the spoil islands as well. I caught a couple of small trout off the deeper edges of the channel / mangroves before focusing on shallower water. I rounded out the trip by catching a few more trout towards the entrance of the canals. It hasn’t been every cast for me like it was a couple weeks of go, but there are still good numbers in the Banana River if you are persistent. Wither or not the area is making a come back, the jury is still out for me, but the activity level is trending upwards compared to previous trips.

The water temps have been in the lows 70s / upper 60s, the most action I’ve had this week has been late morning and late afternoon in shallow water, mostly 1-2ft. I look for wind protected areas with good structure, like mangroves or docks that appear to be unkempt or abandoned. Also as you will see in the video, the MR17 gold redfish pattern or the Black/Gold/Orange Catch2000 has been the most productive for me. If you have any helpful info about the patterns for fishing this time of year, and are willing to exchange more info let me know. I’m always interested in hearing what is happening in your area or what you are seeing out there.

Spanky