jim red

This week’s report is going to be a little different than our last few. We’ve been spending more time in the lagoons with the heightened swell from hurricane Larry over the past week. This allowed us to fish some of the places that we hadn’t in a while and explore some of the shorelines that we usually find trout, redfish and snook holding on at this time of the year. Redfish in particular are starting to show up in much better numbers along many of the shorelines where mangroves are the predominant feature. Top water plugs like the Rapala Skitterwalk or Storm Chug Bug and Saltwater Assassin 5 inch jerk baits in the new watermelon slice or mullet color patterns are working extremely well on these fish.

One interesting thing to note is that many of the redfish are first year class and measure 10 to 12 inches in length. This is a good sign that our lagoon system may be getting slightly healthier because we have not seen this first year class of fish in a while now. Hopefully we will continue to see juveniles roaming the shorelines feeding on shrimp, mud minnows, finger mullet, glass minnows and various other bait fish letting us know that the lagoon is starting its recovery process from the devastation of lawn fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and septic intrusion that we have put it through over the past two decades.

Along the beach the snook bite is still strong. The mullet run is going to make that bite even better over the upcoming weeks. If you’ve never fished the mullet run you have no idea what you’re missing. Give us a call and we can take you out to show you this exciting time of the year where your next cast may get you a 12 inch trout or a 120 pound Tarpon, you just never know. To catch your next Memory call us at 321-636-3728 or go to our website finelinefishingcharters.com and book your fishing trip with us on our interactive real time reservation system.