friday the 15th fishing out of sebastian. slow trolling live baits catching kings and dorado on the north end of melbourne 90ft bar we had a 12 to 15ft great white shark come to the boat. as fast as it showed up it was gone. very cool. ended up on the south end of pelican where the bite was pretty consistant.

The last week has ushered in what many of us kayak anglers wait for. Warm water and a flat ocean. The tarpon have showed up and the bait is here. Our traditional pogie schools have not come through so look to pilchards and threadfins to fill the gap. Slow troll live bait in and around rolling or crashing tarpon. Heavy tackle and stout leaders are needed to best the silver king.

Speaking of “kings,” a king of another kind is prevalent and should stick around with the bait. King Mackerel (kingfish) have flooded the near coastal region and it’s reminiscent of decades past where beach kings were a staple all summer. They make for some good table fare and a great fight on a kayak. Not all of those cutoff tarpon baits are due to sharks! Wire up and get a king.

Summer is here and the bite is hot as the temps right now. Mutton Snapper, Sharks, Bonito, big Jack Crevalle and Kingfish have been roaming the inshore reefs and the bite has been great. Live bait works best but we are getting them on chunk baits as well and some fish on Rapala XRaps and Hogy Lures.

Tarpon are also starting to move in and starting to feed on the bait pods along the beaches from Vero Beach to Melbourne Beach and Satellite Beach. Live Greenies, Pogies and Pilchards are the baits of choice for the tarpon. We’ve also been throwing Rapala Rap 14 shallow and the Hogy Eels with good success.

The near-coastal action remained really good this week. Bonito, crevalle jacks, shark, tarpon and king mackerel are some of the species we have been catching while slow trolling live pogies and pilchards in the 15-40 foot depths. Snook are being caught around the jetties using the same live bait.

In the Indian and Banana Rivers, the black drum, redfish and speckled trout are the three most abundant species we have been catching. Live shrimp will work for all three, but Rapala Skitterwalk plugs or the Saltwater Assassin 5-inch soft plastic jerk baits in the native shiner or new penny colors have been working extremely well when rigged on a VMC 4/0 or 5/0 weedless worm hook.

All three lagoon systems, the Indian River, Banana River, and Mosquito Lagoon are on fire with black drum! Look for these fish around drop offs from shallow sandbars and structures such as docks and bridge pilings. These fish can be caught using 1/8 oz. to 1/4 oz. Mission Fishin jig heads tipped with shrimp or blue crab. The sizes are ranging from 5 to 20 pounds on average and they are so much fun to catch.

Bruce enjoyed his trip to the Mosquito Lagoon by catching redfish and seatrout in the skinny water. What did he use? Top-water plugs of course!

It sure was hot this past week and the unseasonably warm temperatures helped kick-off the thunderstorm season in a big way! Between the heat and the possibility of late morning thunderstorms I’m starting charters extra early and hoping we can get our half day trips in without getting wet or fried.

We did have a fair bite in the Mosquito Lagoon last week. Top-water walking plugs did a banner job catching spotted seatrout in both the super skinny backwaters as well as the outer edges of the shallows. Watch for the subtle depth changes in these transition zones as the predators often prowl these contour lines in search of their next meal.

Tailing redfish have been giving my clients a tough time the past few days by either disappearing slicker than a Vegas magician or ignoring our soft plastic offerings. The few we managed to catch ate Z-Man Diezel Minnowz crawled along the sandy bottom. I just put my supply of the regular three inch Minnowz back on the Banshee hoping the smaller body will draw some additional strikes!

If you’re not a purist and have no aversion to feeding the reds and drum a dead, peeled shrimp threaded on a light jig-head or #1 circle hook will likely up the catch count. This technique is certainly not sophisticated, but it works extremely well at times.

Obviously (I hope it’s obvious), other forms of natural baits will also catch fish. Just prepare yourself for having to deal with the ever present catfish, stingrays and wee scavengers like pinfish and puffers. There’s a price to pay for using natural bait…

Offshore, the bite had been solid. We are getting reports of nice mutton snapper being caught in 15-40 feet of water. A little farther out, the blackfin tuna bite has been the talk of the town. There have been a few dolphin mixed in as well.

Reporting from Beyond Brevard AND Back

Local billfishing team, Wave Paver, competed in the Abaco Beach Blue Marlin Tournament, a Skip’s Tournaments production last weekend. The bite was pretty slow over the three days of fishing and extremely slow on the third day which only saw 9 fish released but the crew from Wave Paver put in the hard work and effort to find three of those fish and take the Day 3 Daily Prize. The team consisting of owner Jr Davis, Captain Russell Sinclair and his son Finn Sinclair, Garrett Van Orman, Ryan House, Cody Moist, Doug Southworth, Will Helton, James McNabb and his son Cole McNabb caught two blue marlins and a white marlin for a 900 point total.

Finn Sinclair walked away with the Junior Angler award after reeling in the white marlin on the third day. Finn is 11 years old and attends Audubon Elementary School in Merritt Island. With the name Finn, it is safe to assume this is a very “Fishy” family. His father Captain Russell Sinclair has been fishing out of Port Canaveral his entire life, Captains the Wave Paver for tournament events and when not tournament fishing is a commercial fisherman. Russel’s father and Finn’s grandfather, Henry Sinclair, was a Marine Merchant an avid recreational angler. He moved to Brevard County in 1976 where he enjoyed fishing out of Port Canaveral and throughout the lagoon. Unfortunately he passed in the early 2000’s.

Congrats Finn on taking the Junior Angler Award and for making many of us readers a little jealous with this picture! Maybe we can talk your dad into buying you a White Marlin Fish Mount for your room

Until Next Time.

Mike Davis and his daughter show off the elusive Asian Tiger Shrimp caught at Ponce Inlet.

Asian tiger shrimp are still being caught inshore and near shore. This invasive species was introduced into the water from North Carolina in 1985 after a lab accident. They have been mating with our local species as well as eating a lot of the food resources that sustains our native shrimpery.

The changing of nature’s seasons closes one door and opens many others to keep us engaged and entertained. As far as shrimping goes, the door remains open in Oak Hill and Brevard. Oak Hill is still producing small shrimp with mixed sizes in the area and there remains “hit and miss” pockets of action in north Brevard. The great news is that the shrimping on the south end of county has risen from the ashes after a miserable last few years. The shrimping season in south Brevard is shaping up to have epic potential. The hot spots right now are the bridges in Melbourne and trapping is on fire at the SR 192 bridge.

On the other side of the state, Tampa is on the radar and they are into the crickets. The best place to shrimp in Tampa is at Fort DeSoto (3500 Pinellas Bayway S., St. Petersburg, FL 33715), where you don’t need a boat. Scalloping season is now open for the popular areas such as Crystal River, Keaton and Steinhatchee (located in panhandle West Coast, Florida). There is nothing more joyous than chasing these little sea biscuits with snorkel and mask. Crystal River is about a two hour drive from Central Florida, and Steinhatchee is about four hour commute.

Shrimping intel changes daily, for up to the minute intel and reports visit us on Facebook at Florida Shrimping Academy – Tips & Tricks.

Just like last week, the fishing has been awesome! AJs are all over and we’ve landed some pretty big ones to boot. Kingfish and random dolphin are showing up on the reefs. We are catching our live bait way down south and in shallow water. We have had some luck catching fish on minnows, too, but live is working better. All of the wrecks and rock piles are loaded with red snapper and the grouper bite has also improved this week.

We’re also seeing some real bruiser sharks this week near shore.

Fishing for trout in the Mosquito Lagoon has been good on the deeper drop offs. Redfish have been hugging the shoreline and tailing on the calmer mornings as well. Nearshore has been loaded with bonita and there have been a few tarpon showing up too.

The big story has been the reefs! They have been loaded with snapper with some nice cobia mixed in as well. It’s a great time of year to get out and fish East Central Florida.

The Lindawg was pretty happy with herself on a productive day fishing the surf in Melbourne Beach.

On Friday afternoon we went down south to Coconut Point Park in Melbourne Beach for some surf fishing action. As we arrived, a ridiculously vibrant rainbow seemingly fell to the earth right at the beach access point. The beacon of light did not lead us astray and turned out to be a good omen for the day.

Fishing outgoing tide, the bite was going off. The whiting in particular were just LIT. You couldn’t have a line in the water for a minute without hooking into one. And the fish were running thick in the first trough, just feet from shore. I tried a combination of baits: live sand fleas, live shrimp, and fishbites, which all seemed to work just as well. The surf was a bit rough, so I tried going straight fishbites — and the fish did not mind a bit. I am now officially on board the fishbites train. TOOT, TOOT.

PRO TIP: I don’t know, this may be common knowledge, but I learned it from a pro, so I’m gonna go ahead and call it a pro tip. In the past when I’ve tried fishbites, I’d use a small square just cutting straight across the bait. The results were lackluster. But, recently, I learned from Spacefish surf fishing contributor, Caleb Couture, to instead cut the bait at an angle, as it apparently better imitates natural bait much more effectively. Low and behold, he’s right!

Anyhow, over a couple of hours on the beach, we caught a few JUST under-sized pompano, a few decent-sized croakers, and a whole BOAT LOAD of whiting. Most were around 10″ – 12″ but we ended up taking home 7 or so in the neighborhood of 15.” Good fishing, good eating!