Happy Friday, everybody. Looks like the surf fishing bite IS ON! Pompano, whiting, redfish, sharks and a lot of sheepshead are being caught on the beach. Check out the cooler in the photo above, and congrats to the anglers who filled it! The choice of bait for the beach fishing is sand fleas, clams and shrimp.

Despite current conditions of the lagoon, there are still some trout and redfish and sheepshead being caught.

It looks like the weather might be promising for an offshore bite this weekend. For those anglers who are going to venture out, keep an eye out for that elusive cobia hanging around the rays. Also, on the troll, the dolphin bite was good earlier in the week. And on the bottom, the snapper and triggerfish were snapping. For offshore, the best bet for trolling baits is ballyhoo and, for bottom fishing, turn to squid, sardines and threadfin.

Have a great weekend from all of us at Man Overboard Bait & Tackle!

Tired the afternoon bite. Ended up with two short pomps and 15 whiting on a mix of clams and shrimp. Kept 8 whiting on the bigger side let the rest go to grow.

It’s that time of year again! Space Coast surf fishing has been absolutely great this past week! With black drum, large whiting, pompano, Spanish mackerel and permit. Dead high or an hour after has been producing solid catches as well as early morning and an hour before sunset. Pompano Riggs by Couture in chartreuse or pink and white rigged with fish bites in shrimp scent and pink color have been catching Spanish mackerel and pompano. The permit are wanting large live fleas with chartreuse floats. Look for clean water, find a nice outflow with a beach holding birds that are working the fleas.

If you want to get more advanced in surf fishing or learn how to further your casting, you can book a charter and I will provide you one-on-one instruction. With a little bit of work, you, too, can start catching great quality fish from the beach!

This week’s fishing will be a bit tough with the high winds mid-week, however, look for it to be real nice as the weekend sets in. For kayak fishing search out the backwater areas of the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. The water will fluctuate some but it has been mostly steady with the spring rise. This opens up dry mangrove lined mud flats for hungry redfish. We have been tapping the adventurous side of kayak fishing for a few weeks and it has paid well. Artificial lures like the Slayer SST (Paddle tail) soft plastics work great in this type of “search” fishing as it allows you to cover a lot of water. Bring bug spray!

Some flounder are being caught and that will continue over the coming weeks as they move in from their winter spawn on the continental shelf. The brown water has been tough to get away from and it’s obviously not our typical fishing. Look to other dark/dirty water fisheries for hints and tips that will undoubtedly help in our situation. Dark or glow colors, flash/gold, noise and other tactics are used daily in other areas and they can be used here.

Many of us that guide regularly on these lagoons are concerned for the water quality and even more so for some of our resident populations of fish. As a person that hopes for a bright future, I have looked at ways to help in using this resource. I have dabbled in catch and release for the major two (reds and trout) for years but were willing to take drum, sheepshead and mangrove snapper. As of the most recent browning of the Brevard County lagoons, that will no longer be the case. All lagoon fish should be released using the best possible techniques. So join me and many others in insuring we have some fish left as we limp into a hopeful recovery.

The water in and around Sebastian Inlet is the cleanest I’ve seen since last summer. The crystal clear water in the inlet should hopefully move into the lagoon and help clean it up quite a bit. Water temps were low this week which slowed the inlet bite for Snook and Redfish a good deal. There have been a lot of Mackerel, Blues and Pompano in the inlet and on the beach just outside. The flats around the inlet have had a lot of ladyfish, blues, jacks and some trout. Snook are on the spoil islands around the inlet in the clean water.

The blacktip shark migration has started and there are quite a few around following the schools of mackerel and bluefish to feed. Just keep an eye out for them jumping and pitch a bait out and have a lot of fun. If you like tarpon fishing, you should enjoy catching blacktips as well.

Inshore there are plenty of trout and the occasional snook and red. Most trout are small but there have been some real gator trout along the mangrove shorelines. March and April are both good months to target the gator trout in the lagoon as the spring bait run gets into swing. Start with topwater plugs early and subsurface baits as the sun comes up!

Bottom fishing never lets us down we fished a number of wrecks hoping to catch some other species but the snapper attack was unreal. With cobia season on its way a number of fish are starting to show up if you find that right manta ray or turtle. Jigs and live bait are the ticket. Offshore Deep drop trips still have resulted in nice Tile Fish. Swordfish action will be heating up again for those looking to run to the deep.

Big redfish are still roaming the channel edges in the Indian River and Mosquito lagoons. My clients are catching them on live shrimp or Saltwater Assassin 4-inch shrimp cocktail plastic shrimp imitations rigged on a 1/8 to ¼ once jig head. Along the beaches we are getting a mixed bag of bluefish, Spanish mackerel, jacks, sheepshead, tripletail and pompano using the same technique that is working for the redfish inside the lagoons.

With the colder weather last week the water in the Mosquito Lagoon is gin clear and the schools of redfish have started to scatter and break up a bit. We have been catching them on jerk baits or jig heads using a paddletail for artificial. Live bait like shrimp and small finger mullet have been working well also. With the strong winds forecasted for this week finger mullet will probably be the best bait to use. Focus on 1-2 ft. of water with grass and sand bottom.

Hey everyone, Salty Sarge here. We have a great action-packed Surf report for Satellite Beach this past weekend. First and foremost, the winds have finally calmed down and there was little rip tide action. This gave team Spacefish the perfect opportunity to target the big bluefish run that’s been happening all up and down Satellite beaches.

We fished the Magellan and A1A beach access and Sunrise and A1A access. Although these areas are full of coquina rocks, we managed to land the blues we were targeting. Using only frozen shrimp and cut mullet we were pulling in choice blues one after another. The blue fish tend to swim in schools so we were getting consistent bites in waves. One person would get a fish and the others would get bites down the beach as the schools of blues would make there way down the beach. We landed some very nice blues; some of which were well into the 20″ range (tip: bluefish have to be 12″ min and only 10 can be harvested per person per day).

Blues weren’t the only fish we landed. We also caught three keeper Spanish Mackerel (which have to be 12″ and a bag limit of 15 per person), and these fish are not seen too much off the beaches in the area. Next up, we pulled in some bull whiting reaching 15.” These fish are not regulated and are one of my favorite eating fish with it’s white flaky flesh. We hammered one good size black drum which have to be 14″ and a slot up to 28.” We hit the mark around 18.” One of my good friends landed a 2.5′ – 3′ long Bonnet Head shark that gave him a nice solid fight. Some of us landed some juvenile African Pompano but not on size to make it count as for these fish have to be 24″ to keep. We also pulled in two under-size jacks out of the surf.

Satellite beach was full of action this weekend, and Team Spacefish nailed it again in the surf. We love to bring you what’s HOT and what’s NOT every week. This weekend the beach was hot and delivering many different species. Fishing with a group of friends and family leads a great time, so go on and make your own adventures and keep coming back to spacefishreport.com.

This is the Salty Sarge signing off. OVER AND OUT.

Surf fishing was killer this weekend. Bluefish, Spanish mackerel, jacks, sharks, black drum, pompano and whiting were all caught in solid numbers with the bluefish taking center stage. They are fierce hard fishing fish that you don’t want to miss out on. At the inlet, the snook bite was decent.

At Playalinda we have lots of big bluefish being caught using cut mullet and silver spoons. There have also been some nice sharks mixed in as well using the same bait. The whiting and pompano remained strong. The preferred baits seemed to be clams, shrimp, sand fleas and fish bites in sand flea flavor.

In Mosquito lagoon lots of big trout this week using top water when it’s calm and shrimp with popping cork. Slot size redfish are being caught on large shrimp, look for deep sand holes. Black drum are hanging out in big schools at the whales tail area — use frozen shrimp for the best results.

There have been lots of undersized trout and redfish inshore in the Banana and Indian River Lagoons. Live shrimp is the go-to bait for these little rascals. In the Sebastian River, look for tarpon rolling in the morning. You can still find sheepshead on the docks and oyster bars. Offshore, the snapper were going off on the shallow reefs. You needed a lot of chum to get them going but once chummed up, it was on. The water is still dirty offshore, hopefully it will clean up soon.

While most of my fishing charters are shallow water oriented some folks would rather fish for a broader mix of fish than just the seatrout and redfish we typically catch on the flats. When I receive this request or when I know I’ll be hosting non-casting clients, it time to head to my favorite deep-water docks, dredge holes or bridges.

Dock fishing generally is approached with popping floats and a live shrimp suspended below them. Cast your bait near the structure and wait for the float to disappear and set the hook. When necessary I’ll do the casting while the clients do the catching!

Dredge-hole fishing allows for both casting and vertical drop styles. Most anglers do well simply dropping their bait straight down. Often I’ll pinch the tails from a live shrimp and thread the critter onto a jighead using the newly formed opening.

Bridge fishing is almost completely fished in a vertical fashion. The biggest issue with fishing bridge pilings in snagging the rocks, rubble and construction debris on the bottom. The trick here is to drop to the bottom and raise your bait up a foot or so. A live shrimp head pinned to a jig-head works well. If the “bait steelers” give you a hard time try threading the shrimp onto the jig-head like I mentioned above.

Spotted seatrout, weakfish, mangrove snapper, ladyfish, white perch, sheepshead, pinfish, puffers and are commonly caught at these locations. Of course, you might still hook into a redfish, black drum, grouper, or shark as well!