Member since: January 22, 2018
Capt. Jim is a professional saltwater fishing guide based out of Rockledge, Florida.
The snook bite is pretty good at the inlets this week. Live pogies, pilchards, greenies and majorra are the top live baits to try for them. Along the beaches, shark, tarpon, jack and king mackerel are striking slow trolled live baits. For the tarpon and jack, 60 to 80 pound test leaders and a VMC 7/0 circle hook work best. For the kings and sharks you will need to add a short piece of wire to this rig.
The snook bite on the lagoon is good this week. Live majorra, fingerling mullet, and shrimp seem to be the top three live baits to get them to bite…
With all of the heavy east wind we have not been able to fish on the near coastal or offshore waters this past week. We have found some redfish cruising the leeward shorelines, though, and quite a few trout and ladyfish, too. All three species are hitting saltwater assassin paddle tails in the gray ghost, silver mullet, and mamas 14K color patterns. Live shrimp are also working when rigged on a split shot rig.
It’s been a pretty good week for us here at Fineline Fishing Charters. Cobia are still coming over the gunnels on our offshore trips. Live Bates on a sliding sinker or knocker rig have been working best for us when fishing over structures like reefs and wrecks.
Snook and redfish are two of the main species we have been targeting this week. Live croakers greenies and pogies have been working on these fish during the daytime periods.
When the ocean has been calm, we have been able to get out and chase cobia between the Port Canaveral and Sebastian inlets. Many of the fish we have been catching are under the legal size limit so we have been betting these fish instead of gaffing them. Live greenies and pogies have been our best bait options on most days.
In the lagoons we are targeting speckled trout, ladyfish, redfish, and black drum. Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad tails in the Opening Night, Drunk Monkey, and Pimp Daddy colors are working well. Cut bait and fingerling mullet will also get these fish to bite.
The tripletail action has been really good for us over the past week. Good numbers of fish in the 4 to 12-pound range are feeding on live shrimp, pilchards, and fingerling mullet free lined or rigged on a light jig head.
It’s been blowing hard for the last few days but the redfish bite before the blow was really good. Most of the bigger fish are still running the near-coastal waters right now but I have started to see more big reds returning to the flats of the Banana River since these heavy easterly winds have commenced.
It’s been another fantastic week of fishing for us at Fineline Fishing Charters. The black drum bite has been on fire. Everyday this week our customers have caught their personal best fish. Most of these drum are running 25 to 40 pounds, but we have had fish that scale to 50 pounds as well. Sight casting to schools of drum numbering into the hundreds on the flats of the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon is one of the most exciting ways we know to fish.
“If you want to!”
Red Snapper soon is just around the corner with dates soon to be announced…
Capt. Jim Ross says he catches mangrove snapper like this one with light leaders and small hooks, which will get you more bites on the mangroves than standard bottom tackle.
Beating the storm, hitting that black drum bite!
The black drum bite is still booming in the Lagoon!
Big barracuda caught with Capt. Jim Ross
