SPACEFISH REPORT
1.23.2018 – 1.29.2018
A NEW AWESOME REPORT EVERY TUESDAY
The guv’ment already gone fishin’ this week, what about you?
Fishing Furlough!
It’s already Tuesday and we got another great report for you. There’s a lot going on this week, and still, one major question is dominating the thoughts of a good many individuals on the Space Coast, and countless others beyond:
- How long before a new federal budget is approved to end the government shutdown?
- How’s the fishing outlook shaping up this week, and when will going offshore again be a practical possibility?
EDITOR’S NOTE: The President signed a bill Monday night to temporarily extend the budget, thus ending the government shutdown.
If you were among the thousands of federal employees or contractors furloughed this week, hopefully you seized the opportunity to do some fishing. If not, you may have another big chance in just three short weeks.
Weekly Fishing Report: Overview
We’re now officially THREE reports strong and growing — heck, yeah! Now, let’s get down to the fishing!
We will be experiencing a short break in the wind at the beginning of the week which will provide some great opportunities, regardless of your preferred method or manner of fishing. In the surf, the bluefish have been plentiful and they are a lot of fun to catch. Many folks do not prefer their oily flesh, but I have to tell you, they make for some BANGIN’ smoked fish dip! Put that on a cracker with some hot sauce and its game on, baby! Just be sure to bleed them well and keep them cold on ice. I prefer a salt water slush with ice and salt water.
We’re hearing many positive reports on black drum, whiting, and pompano, too. The cooler water temps have pushed the pomps a little farther south, but as we start to warm up this week we should see them show up in better numbers along our coastline. The water has been a little cleaner down towards Sebastian Inlet and clean water does make a difference when targeting pompano.
In the Indian River and Banana River lagoons, continue to fish the canals and deeper holes around the mangroves. As the water warms up, trout, reds, black drum, etc., will start to move back out onto the flats. We are also still seeing sheepshead being caught in good numbers, so target the bridges, piers, docks and deeper holes. You can’t go wrong using live sand fleas or fiddler crabs.
Moving offshore, the water temperature is cold. Some anglers have reported success with bottom fish, most notably, lane and mangrove snapper just south of 8A. A couple slow swimming dolphin even joined the party, but the water is really still too cold for them to start showing up in good numbers. Hopefully the warmer temperatures will help, BUT, it is the wind that’s going to be the driving force in determining whether we can fish offshore or not this week.
So, About that Weather…
It’s nice to see the temperatures warming up and the wind calming down. Take advantage of the opportunity to venture offshore while you can because it looks like the wind may be picking back up as we move closer towards the weekend. Temperatures will fluctuate from the high 60’s to the mid 70’s and, as we progress throughout the week, we will experience the wind direction transitioning from south to north, then east, and finally, to west around next Monday and Tuesday. All in all, the weather should provide ample fishing opportunities this week, both inshore and offshore, so you best get that gear ready to roll!
Giveaway Contest
Congrats to last week’s BIG winner, Nathan Perry, from Merritt Island. Nathan is now gonna be the coolest guy on the water — or at least the guy with the coolest beverage, thanks to his newly acquired YETI Colster! Congrats, Nathan, and thanks to all who participated.
We have some pretty cool items lined up to give away over the next month, so stay tuned for details on what we’ve got coming down the hatch!
Nathan Perry of Merritt Island (pictured above) is the winner of last week’s YETI giveaway contest.
Word on the Bite
In every week’s fishing report, we look to both fishing pros and average joe’s for input on what’s happening in Space Coast fisheries. This information provides the crucial intel that fuels our report and keeps it fresh and up-to-date throughout the duration of the week.
Featured Contributors
To put it plainly, our featured contributors know WHAT’S UP. These individuals are local captains and other insiders that spend near everyday on the water, and have experience fishing the Space Coast for many, many years. Each week, they’ll explain what’s hot, what’s not, and offer tips that might help give you a leg up on your next fishing excursion. Here’s what they had to say this week:
I’m still fishing the residential canals and deeper mangrove edges in the Indian and Banana rivers this week. Live shrimp on a 2/0 circle hook with a small split shot are all I’m using. Sheepshead, black drum, red drum, and a few trout are biting for us. These fish should start to move back out onto the flats with the warmer temps expected through the first portion of this coming week.
We ran several trips once the weather cooperated. Unfortunately, there is not a lot to talk about at the moment. We caught some lane snapper and red snapper but the water was cold and the bite was slow. Hopefully the rising temperatures this week will help turn things on.
The sheepshead spawn is still taking place, so the bite is still ON! Sheepshead will be migrating to the structures from Port Canaveral to Sebastian Inlet and all of the bridges and piers in between. Target the deeper holes as well. The most consistent baits seem to be live sand fleas, fiddler crabs and shrimp. Fish these baits using a 20-30lb. leader with a very small J hook. Go with sizes 1-2 with a split shot six inches above the bait.
I only had a few trips this week but the Mangrove snapper bite is still on. Look for deep water in either lagoon, 8 feet deep or better, temps have dropped significantly and the fish are feeling it. I’m still getting trip limits of 12″-15″ fish, but slow down… The bite is slow but the fish are there. Trust your bottom machine, especially side scan if you have it. The Lowrance SideScan is marking trout on the causeways and the mangroves as well. The water south of Pineda causeway as far as 192 is very cold and dirty — I think that’s why the sheepshead here have disappeared. That combination is yielding no bites on live, dead, or artificial baits…
Port Canaveral sea walls and jetties are giving up good flounder, but they are slow, so be patient. A Carolina rig with finger mullet and or live shrimp or my favorite. A yellow buck tail ¼ oz with a trailer 18″ (light line) behind Gulp shrimp (nuclear chicken) will do the job, but be patient, go slow, the water is cold and so are the fish. I have had no luck in the Banana River Lagoon, Grand Canal, or Thousand Islands. Dirty water and cold are just not a good combination.
Hit up MOB (Man Overboard Bait & Tackle) for your fleas and intel on specific locations. Good luck and tight lines. Remember the world is our water park! Let’s play in it!
The pompano bite picked up over the weekend. Live sand fleas and clams seem to be working best. At Sebastian Inlet, anglers are targeting big bull reds using a combination of bucktails, or preferably, live pinfish and pigfish.
In the Grand Canal you will find mangrove snapper, redfish and black drum in and around the Mangroves. If you plan on surf fishing, the locations that have a rock ledge (which is PAFB to Indialantic, roughly) the main catch has been black margate, small reds and black drum. Farther south away from the rocks there have been solid catches of bull whiting and pompano. Low tide has produced the best catches this week.
A few guys that ventured offshore during the last weather window caught a couple dolphin. They were few and far between due to the colder water. However, a couple of folks did pretty well offshore targeting mangrove snapper just south of 8A.
The pompano bite picked up over the weekend. Live sand fleas and clams seem to be working best. At Sebastian Inlet, anglers are targeting big bull reds using a combination of bucktails, or preferably, live pinfish and pigfish.
The water has been choppy and dirty most of the week however, there have been decent numbers of trout caught around the sandbars once the sun warms them up mid day. The flounder bite has also picked up. Live shrimp and mud minnows seem to be the best baits fished on a small hook with a split shot. Black drum and sheepshead are still biting well and there are snook being caught in the river.
This past week we managed to fish offshore and tried again for a daytime Sword Fish. We fished about 60 miles south east of Port Canaveral — unfortunately, without a bite. I decided to move in a bit to 650’ south east of the port again and set up with small squid on a 5 hook rig using a 4 lb weight. After a short time we caught our limit of 3 Golden Tile Fish, including one monster that about 30 lbs! The water conditions west of that were cold and dirty. Hopefully, after this next round of wind things will start to change inshore.
Reader Reports
Here’s what everybody else is saying. And don’t forget, we want to hear from you! It doesn’t matter what your level of skill or expertise is. There’s value in your observations, no matter how vague or general, or ninja-like precise. If you’re out fishing, just let us know what you see and catch!
The snook and big redfish bite at Sebastian Inlet has slowed down at night due to the colder weather. More fish are actually being caught during the day. Smaller live pinfish and pigfish have been working best.
The sheepshead bite has remained solid. Sand fleas have been the ticket all week. If you’re targeting the larger fish, try fiddler crabs, which have also been producing great results.
In the Indian River Lagoon, small reds and trout are being caught on live shrimp. If you’re using artificial baits, white seems to be the color of choice. For best results, try working the bait with a nice and slow retrieval.
Team Spacefish Hits the Surf!
With the word on the street that the pompano are running down south, we decided to go see for ourselves. We started off looking for clean water at Spessard Holland, but the water just wasn’t what we hoped for, so we pushed south to Ponce de Leon, only to find the same situation there.
We finally found cleaner water at Bonsteel Park, but so did everyone else. Starting our day at the crack of noon didn’t play into our favor when staking out a good spot to fish. It was busy to say the least. Twelve and fifteen foot surf rods lined the horizon from both directions. Since I didn’t feel like walking a mile to find a spot to fish, we pushed farther south, just south of the inlet thinking it would be clean there, too, but to my surprise, it wasn’t. The thought was then to go find a piece of beach all to ourselves, which lead us north back to Ponce Deleon.
As we approached the beach, a couple other anglers were leaving and said they didn’t have much luck. We set up shop anyway. The tide was going out, which played into our favor. From recent reports the bite seems to be a little better with a falling tide. Within just a few minutes we were catching fish. I would love to tell you they were all pomps but it was just an active afternoon of all kinds of species. We caught black drum, sharks, croakers, pompano, whiting, etc. Really, that’s all I wanted to do anyway was have some good laughs with my boys and bend a rod hoping to bring home a few fish for dinner — and we did just that. What am awesome day!
It was a pretty great outing at Mathers Bridge. Armed with 1/2oz. bell weights, a nice fluorescent red bead, a 45lb. swivel and about 18” of 30lb. leader with a 1/0 needle point hook, and a bucket-o-shrimp, I got to work quickly. It started out with a couple of nice whiting. A school of Mangrove snapper showed up, but unfortunately there was not much size to them.
At dusk our shrimp count started to run dangerously low, but luckily a fellow angler was hanging it up for the day and generously donated us his remaining live mullet. Blessed be the Bait Gods, we were saved!
We tried free-lining the mullet with little success, but I tried a different approach, cutting the mullet into little snack-sized morsels. Then BOOM, the game was on! I seriously slayed some trout. There may not have been any size to them, but I was king of the bridge for a good 20 minutes and that makes up for the days where you would pay good money for a nice bite.
All in all it was a fantastic day of fishing at Mathers Bridge, a great place to make some memories with family and friends. I’m sure there’s more to come from Mathers. Salty Sarge signing off.
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CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Check out what’s been “caught on camera” in and around Brevard County this week. If you’ve been out fishing lately, we want to see what you’re catching, so please do share your photos with the Spacefish community!
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Thanks for Reading!
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