Randy, Pier Master of Juno Beach Pier, reports exciting Fall crossover migrations. This includes pulses of bluefish and finger mullet, and also a rare showing but welcome appearance of slot size redfish! We’re also seeing resident 6″ to 10″ pompano appear like ghosts in the lightly silty aqua water, and early and late appearances of jacks and ladyfish as large as 6 lbs. Croakers and small sand perch are also showing up in solid numbers. Here’s what’s working on the Pier for various species:

• Reds and Snook
  The baits of choice include live finger mullet for redfish and, for snook, live croaker, whiting, or sand perch make for a much desired meal.
• Blue and Spanish Mackerel
  For bluefish, use a popper rig with a large pink peg float with 4′ of mono threaded through a soft squid, and tie it to a long shank mustad 92611 2/0 hook. If you want to take on Spanish mackerel instead, all you gotta do is eliminate the squid and tie on a Clark Spoon, and BANG, you’re all set.
• Pompano
  Pomps are smacking pink/wghite jigs in ½ and ¾ ounce size. Tie your jig with 25 lb. fluorocarbon and a 6″ loop knot accented by a quill. Folks, it’s windy and the jig weight must be jerked no more than 8 inches off the bottom to achieve the best results.

Surfcasters are also catching keeper pomps at Loggerhead Park and just south of the Jupiter Reef Club. Here, try a fluorocarbon leader with 6 inch droppers and large floats. Use blanched fleas for bait. I always push Fishbites, but they’re currently only attracting catfish and bluefish.

There’s a good bite on slot snook at the Jupiter and Palm Beach Inlets. Snook expert and manager of Juno Bait and Tackle, Trey Waller, says the Yuzuri Darter in the color purple is the current “go to” lure. Trey said if it doesn’t dive and wiggle, you’re wasting your time.

The big seller in the local shops are the pompano dropper rigs with a big white float and a pink/white pill float. Fluoro leader is imperative. Strangely enough, after producing these rigs for over ten years, they are now available in 28 tackle shops, and in stores as far away as NW Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Despite all the time I’ve been doing this, I still feel complemented when a fellow angler says my rigs work!

Next time around I will talk about optics and light diffusion to help all of you read the water. To learn more and find out about my free seminars, go to www.pompanorich.org. Tight Lines!

The presence of karenia brevis cells (red tide) have not yet been found north of Sebastian Inlet in the daily water samples tested by FWC. However, Brevard residents across the county are observing conditions on the beach that are synonymous with outbreaks of the toxic algae, e.g., dead fish, itchy throats, etc. We’ll be providing updates as the situation continues to develop and we welcome you to share any of your own personal observations.

The FWC has created a daily sample map, which tracks the presence of red tide on our coast. You can check it out on the FWC website here.

Really awesome fishing this week! From Bull redfish and speckled trout to juvenile tarpon and large black drum the inshore bite remains strong!

This week the fishing couldn’t have been much better. We’re finally starting to see lots of small finger mullet on the flats and plenty of predators lingering close behind. The early mornings prove to be the best bet working the mullet pods. Top water plugs and small swimbaits have been producing quite the variety of species, from redfish and trout to some nice tarpon.

As the sun rises and and the artificial bite slows the live and dead bait bite has been the way to go. Start shallow early and continue to work deeper edges as the sun rises higher in the sky. This should continue to be a good pattern until we start to see some more consistent, cooler weather. As the cooler weather approaches expect to see less fish on the flats early in the morning, and less tarpon and snook as they make their moves into their winter holes. Typically, after we get a few fronts, sleeping in a little isn’t a bad idea. The hours between 8:00am – 12:00pm tend to be the best bite for me.

As always try to practice catch and release as much as possible!

Kevin and Tom with a pair of reds!

The Mullet Run is finally getting going with a lot of bait in the lagoon and the beaches getting some action as well. Inshore bite has been good with a lot of trout as well as slot redfish and some snook. Artificial baits have been working well. Storm 360 Coastal jerk baits in mullet and red glitter have been the best colors for us. Jacks are grey hounding the mullet in the lagoon from Palm Bay to Sebastian. If you are looking for some great action, seep your eye out for the whitewater and mullet trying to get away from the jacks. It looks like you are on a bombing range and its a heck of a lot of fun with topwater and poppers providing the best action. Bull sharks are following the jacks and trying to eat them once they are hooked.

Dimitri with a big snook!

The Inlet bite is good with a lot of redfish and a decent number of snook but they aren’t as plentiful as the reds. Most Redfish are over slot fish with a few slot fish mixed in. Jacks are thick on both tides as well and will eat any bait that gets in front of them. You may have to week through the jacks to get to the Reds and Snook. Live pigfish are producing well as are pinfish and mullet.

Mullet just showed up on the beach in numbers and there have been tarpon jacks and sharks mixed in. Depending on the size of the mullet and how big the school is determines the predators that you will find mixed in. Tight to the beach and smaller mullet are holding jacks snook and bluefish and the bigger schools with larger mullet have tarpon sharks and big jacks. Its a lot of fun if you can find them and get the predators to eat.

Water in the Sebastian River is still dirty. There’s a lot of catfish, glass minnows, pinfish and some croakers, ranging from around 8″ – 12,” but no sign of mullet around. We’re still waiting on cool air and water to push the trout and pompano to the Wabasso Causeway. And to all the people affected by Hurricane Micheal — we all have your backs, hang in there, it will get better!

This week has been a very good week, the winds were down and the ocean was fairly clean. Bunker have been in the port almost every day and pretty easy to get for a change. We have had no problem getting kings on 8A and pelican. I like to fish my baits using stinger rigs with #4 wire and size 4 hooks. Mixed in with the kings have been several mahi — and decent-sized ones to boot. We have not targeted them but it may be a good time to start trying with the mixed bag we are seeing. We are still catching random cobia as well. If you are in need of bait, Nick at fish and dive has all the tackle and frozen bait you need!

Fishing can be tough. Sometimes you can wait around all day without even getting a bite. Whose got time for that? Certainly not Ryan Wood. In his latest video, Ryan goes shark fishing at the beach and shares his secret trick to eliciting a quick strike.

Inshore we have noticed an increase in the trout activity around the docks on both sides of the Indian River. Using top water baits in the morning and swapping over to twitch baits as well as subsurface lures as the sun starts to come up, seems to be the best way to get a positive response from these fish.

The black drum have been sticking to the deep water around the channels and structure. They have primarily been feeding on shrimp and crabs. The redfish are schooling up very early in the morning but by 9 o’clock have typically gone down and we haven’t seen much activity from them after that. We recommend using cut bait on the flats or top water plugs when you can find the school. The offshore bite is picking back up and the tarpon have been very active around the bait pods in the nearshore waters. Make sure to give us a call or check out our website finelinefishingcharters.com for more info on how you can book a trip with us.

Greg is all smiles as this little snook completed his slam on a recent trip with Capt. Mark Wright!

We only made it out a couple of times this week because I decided to wait for the winds to back off a bit. I fished the central lagoon region with top-water Tony on Friday. As usual Tony tossed his Skitterwalk at schooling mullet and quickly scored a lower slot redfish. He also experienced lots of short strikes from schoolie trout and jumped a juvenile tarpon. Not really a fantastic outing but I did find a sheltered cove where several little snook were chasing fingerling mullet. Unfortunately the few blow-ups Tony had from these small line-siders did not result in a bent rod.

Saturday I had a new angler from Washington state on the bow. I was pleasantly surprised and totally thrilled with Greg’s fishing abilities. Though he’s never fished in Florida before and never seen a saltwater flat in his life, Greg’s past experience catching largemouth bass, walleye and northern pike was all he needed.

I handed him a K9 Walker and asked if he could “walk the dog”? While he did tell me “yes” a verbal response was not necessary. The rhythmic back and forth sway of the plug making its way back to its master was all I needed to see! This fella can fish!

Unfortunately, the fish didn’t care about his absolute ability to properly manipulate a piece of hard plastic. After fifteen minutes of great casts and expert retrieves he caught nothing. Indeed, only a couple of tiny trout slapped at the plug. I however, lost a redfish at boat-side and caught two slot trout on a Deizel Minnows in the Sexy Mullet color.

It was certainly time for a change in Greg’s lure; a Diezel Minnowz in the Green Lantern color proved just ticket. He once again proved his abilities and went right to work, boating three redfish, a trout, and a snook.

None of the fish were trophy material, but Greg added three new species to his long and growing list of fish species caught. Too bad the wind was cranking over fifteen mph out of the north by mid-morning, I would have enjoyed taking him to a place where he could have added ladyfish, jacks and maybe a few other species too!

The redfish bite as Sebastian Inlet has been insane. Slots and lots of overs are being caught mainly on finger mullet. Seaweed has improved slightly, but it’s still been pretty windy.

We have been experiencing some very windy conditions lately. For most people this comes off as a bad thing, I can’t tell you how many customers or even friends that have backed out on a trip simply because “it’s too windy.” I personally love the wind, when fishing on windy days it definitely makes it very hard to fly, or sight fish, but staying tucked up in tight coves or residential canals, the opportunity to catch still exists. My favorite way to fish the wind hands down is by using it to my advantage.

First things first, safety always takes priority, so no matter how big or small your vessel is, know your limits, use a ramp or drop off area where the wind isn’t going to beat you or your vessel up. If the wind is out of the west, then pick a drop off spot on the West Bank, also try to avoid running long distances. If you fish out of a kayak or SUP make sure the wind doesn’t blow you around so much that you can’t get back to your destination!

When it comes to the fishing, look for the same indications as if it was calm: bait, edges from shallow to deep, or maybe even an area where the water changes from muddy to clean. These are all areas the fish will hold. Next, instead of fighting the wind use it to your advantage. I like to set up wind and toss my bait as far in front of the boat as possible, drifting across windy grass flats can really produce! If you feel you’re moving too fast, or maybe your seeing fish push out, drift socks or even simply a bucket attached with a rope behind the boat to slow you down can be very helpful.

If bait fishing is more your style, fishing wind blown points, or edges where the water is really moving with baits such as cut mullet, ladyfish, and pinfish can be deadly! Set up as far ahead as possible of where you believe your fish are going to be, but close enough to where you can still reach them with a nice long cast, the nice thing about the wind is it allows the smell of your bait to travel further than if it was slicked out.

In the river we are seeing big redfish along with a lot of ladyfish and jacks. For the big reds, it’s hard for them to pass up a live shrimp or piece of cut bait. The best action seems to be in the early mornings and evenings. There are quite a few tarpon in the river right now as well.

Fished the IRL after dropping the boat in at Grant. Caught 1/2 dozen trout for the first 1 1/2 hours after sunrise. Stumbled upon my first red in the IRL. It was only 16″ long but was nice to catch one of my targeted fish. Still trying to find larger red’s and more numbers, but it is always nice to get the 1st one.

On Friday night, the Salty Sarg and Matt had a pretty good outing at Mathers Bridge, with the highlight being this 42″ redfish.

I was hoping that conditions on the beach would finally open up for some nice surf fishing this weekend… Unfortunately, it remained pretty rough out there and weeds were also still being churned up in the shore break. Since the conditions were less than optimal, I settled for a trip to Mathers Bridge with my brother.

I heard from Mathers Bridge frequenter, the Salty Sergeant, on Saturday morning. He was all fired up because he and his buddy caught a nice 42″ redfish at Mathers on the night before (pictured above). I was hoping to follow his up with a red of my own, but it didn’t pan out.

We got out to the bridge just before sunset and there was a lot of activity in the water. We usually favor the north side of the bridge’s far end, but the crowd was pretty thick, so we settled for the south side along the mangroves. At first, our lines were seeing a lot of action, and we caught a handful of mangrove snappers and croakers. Shortly after it got dark, the bite cooled down. We stayed for a couple of hours but not long enough to see it pick back up again. On a positive note, it wasn’t catfish crazy, and we only caught one on the night.

A big school of mullet was hanging out the whole time around the bridge. They were all pretty large in size. We netted a few and tried some cut baits for a big red, but there were no takers.