After receiving a tip about a hot midday snook bite going on in the Eau Gallie River, I decided to spend a couple of days to investigate. I’ve noticed the bite in the larger rivers such as the Banana/Indian has been good between 6am-8:30am and 6pm-8:30pm, but ZachTV aka the guy making fun of me for sloppy releases in my first Eau Gallie River Video, told me he has been experiencing the opposite in the EGR.

The first day I drove around the front part of the river by Ballard Park until I saw some “fishy” activity. I could see and hear snook feeding near seawalls and dock pilings. Thinking summer/warm waters, I started with a Slayer Inc 5 inch camo colored paddle tail. A few casts into the afternoon I was able to get a reaction bite by what would be the largest snook of the trip. First fish of the day was by 5m, and by the signs of how much feeding was going on, I thought I was in for a lot of action. After about 10-15 mins of casting and no more strikes, I could still see fish eating. Taking a closer look I could see that they were feeding on thousands of tiny fry. I opened up my tackle box and switched to the smallest lure I had, a 1/8oz Spro white bucktail jig. The next fish came quickly but was much smaller than the first. Convinced I had figured this out, I decided to move down the river to find bigger fish. Strikes were hard to find until I made it far back into the EGR. I could see what look like rain across the slick surface, which was thousands of the same fry that was near that first dock. I did not find anymore snook, but there were dozens of tarpon rolling. The tarpon varied in size from tiny juveniles, mid 20”, and one lone giant lurking in the middle. I switched to a DOA Terror Eyez, as I’ve seen guys catch tarpon them before using a slow straight retrieve. After about 30 minutes of casting, I felt my first thump, and then again moments later a strike. I wasn’t able to set the hook quickly/hard enough before it jumps and spits the lure.

The second day, I was convinced the tarpon would be there again, so I brought my father along with me this time. We started out fishing that first dock early again. This time I came prepared with small 2” crappie paddle tails to match the fry a little closer. Dad hooked up with a ladyfish early, and I was able to bring up two small snooks. The first one put on an air show, so maybe I should keep targeting more snook since they like to jump too? It did not make into the video, but we made to the back of the EGR again. This time there was no fry baitfish, and the tarpon appeared to have moved out already. So we decided to crush a bag of Munchies Flamin Hot Mix and hang it up for the day.

We did make it back there for a third day, but the tarpon was back but didn’t even look at the lures we were throwing. By the end of the three days, I probably had thrown 80% of what’s in my tackle bag with no success. I did manage to see some monsters roll near the entrance, along with a six-foot bull shark. That’s three sharks for me in the last week, 2 bulls and 1 bonnet head. Looks like it’s time for me to move on to live/cut bait next. Still on the hunt for my first tarpon!

Until next time, have fun, be safe and if you have hot tips share them with me haha ????

Spanky