What a crazy few weeks we have had! Inshore remains to be the best bet. We have experienced cold and windy to hot and calm, the weather just can’t seem to really make up its mind! Regardless, the nearshore fishing has been very slow. With water temps in the high 50s to low 60s, there hasn’t been much bait or predators other than a few sheepshead and pompano which seem to like the cooler temps. With this being said, the inshore redfish and trout bite really can’t be beat.

The past few weeks have been some extremely un-pleasant weather that has kept us off the ocean. With heavy winds from all different directions and cold front after cold front, it has definitely kept things interesting. Subsequently, the inshore bite has been pretty good! The few good weather days have been great sight fishing for large tailing black drum. These fish have been all over the Indian River in large schools tailing on small marine worms, crabs and any other organisms that might be living in the mud. These large drum can be picky at times but often don’t refuse a handpicked live shrimp on a light jig-head. As stealthy approach as possible and a long cast seems to do the trick.

Time to change things up! Last week was some really amazing fishing! I spent most of my time nearshore and offshore targeting triple-tail and cobia, but unfortunately that will all be coming to an end this week due to some really intense rain and hard cold fronts.

With this being said, this week my attention will be focused all on inshore fishing.

Finally some good trout action! 2019 has started out a little bit warmer than I expected, but since the last cool front the trout bite has really picked up. Most anglers can always find the typical 12-15 inch sea trout in large numbers along deeper drop offs, channel edges, deeper spoil islands and pretty much all year round, but I personally love to target large speckled seatrout in our cooler months. With that being said this week has finally been more consistent “gator trout fishing.”

We have had some very good fishing this week! The Indian river and Mosquito Lagoon have both been very productive! I encourage everyone to be a little more cautious with the upcoming week due to low water levels! With that being said the best bite has been along shallow water drop offs where anglers can find plenty of nice size redfish cruising in small schools along the edges of sandbars and shallow water flats that have a deeper outside edge.

Redfish and trout has been the name of the game this week! With more fronts moving in and some less than perfect conditions I have been doing most all my trips inshore…

Changing things up a bit! What a great month of fishing! From triple-tail and bull redfish nearshore to skinny water tailing redfish and trout in the flats, we have seen some good variety this month!

The nearshore bite is still hot so that’s where I’ve been focusing full attention this week! Despite some windy weather and unfavorable seas, we have still managed to get some good fishing done! Whether you’re looking for large bull redfish and sharks to tripletail and pompano, the bite remains to be pretty consistent all the way from Ponce Inlet down to Sebastian. Every drop off along the edge of the channel or trough along the beach has been full of large breeder redfish and some really good numbers of pompano which are awesome for the table!

What a week! This week has been very productive! With several fronts and cooler weather we have been experiencing a really good bite. This week’s hot bite has been nearshore. Despite the occasional blow out where the winds are just too heavy to get out the bull redfish, snook, and even some cobia and tripletail have made for quite the week.

The inshore bite remains strong! This week we have still been seeing good numbers of redfish and some nice trout! Most the fish this week have been anywhere from 17 inches all the way up to 47 inches which is pretty typical this time of the year. With the approaching cold front we will probably start seeing less numbers of large fish and more slot sized fish. Typically, we will see a better trout bite with the cooler temps as well! Most fish are reacting well to small pieces of cut mullet and ladyfish fish along the grass flats of Mosquito Lagoon around the Tiger Shoals area. If you’re looking for an artificial bite, a Gulp jerkshad in pearl white fished weedless has been getting the job done! The Bull reds have been biting well along the beach and jetties. A large chunk bait has been the ticket, anything from mullet and ladyfish to bluefish and mackerel — if it’s bloody, they’ll eat it!

Capt. Alex Hughey took a day off from guiding clients to treat himself to some tripletail.