What a week of fishing! I was able to dodge the red snapper zoo and I couldn’t have been happier! July in general has been a pretty great month but the last few weeks I have been seeing a lot more bull redfish than expected for this time of the year which is a great sign for the months to come!

Back to fishing! A much needed week-long vacation kept me off the water for a bit, but this week I got back in the game and the fishing was incredible. I focused my attention back into the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon this week, and it showed why this is my favorite time of the year! We had shots all day at large breeder redfish, gator trout, snook, and plenty of opportunities with tarpon, which have been very hard to keep buttoned up!

The snook must know the season is closed! The past few weeks the snook bite has been going strong! From Sebastian inlet all the way to Ponce and everywhere in between, from the river to the inlet the snook bite is about as good as it gets! Snook is by far one of my favorite fish to target. Aggressive eats, fast runs, and awesome table fare make them one awesome species!

I decided to change things up a bit this week. With the tournament traffic, heavier winds than I’d prefer, and several reports of a hot flounder bite, I decided to give it a go!

Plenty of reds to go around this week! This week I have been fishing all three lagoon systems — the Banana, Indian, and Mosquito Lagoon and it’s safe to say the redfish bite has been very good! Most fish this week are between 18-30 inches, which is pretty typical until we start getting more into the summer. Although Mother Nature decided to give us some breezy conditions, the redfish still haven’t seem to mind.

With the warmer weather lately the tarpon bite has picked up! Some schools are showing up off the beaches and we are starting to get a good influence in the lagoon as well. Tarpon are one species that do not handle cold water well, although we do have some resident tarpon which hangout in residential canals and small ponds the majority of our tarpon fishing is best during the late spring and summer months and into the fall.

It looks like we might finally be done with the cooler temps. As the water temperatures pick up the fishing has done so as well. This week has been really good.

Inshore, the bite has been very productive in the Indian River and Mosquito lagoon for large seatrout, black drum, and redfish. I have even started seeing some tarpon and snook, which is expected as the warmer weather pattern continues. In the lagoon, redfish and trout have been up shallow around the mangroves and docks, feeding quite well early on Rapala Skitterwalk topwater plugs. Look for the finger mullet schools and the predators will be close behind. My favorite pattern is holographic silver and chartreuse. These two colors are great low light mullet imitators and work really well.

The spring trout bite has been living up to its reputation! This week has been some nice weather and the trout bite has really picked up. The trout this week have been ranging anywhere from 15 to 25 inches. Pretty much every spoil island, drop off, and trough in the Indian and Mosquito lagoon have been holding these toothy critters.

This week has been really good, lots of large drum still roaming the flats and bridges along with large redfish and some nice seatrout as well. This week we managed a few days of slick calm conditions which was just what I hoped for. I focused my attention on the northern Indian River Lagoon this week and changed over from spinning to fly fishing, the slick calm conditions made sight fishing ideal. After a few small trout and redfish we decided to go after some larger black drum, most of the fish were between 10 and 20lbs and proved to be a great battle on fly.

Windy week of fishing! The wind has really picked up this week but the fishing has been pretty good. I have shifted most of my fishing around the Indian River and some in Mosquito Lagoon. The black drum have made another good appearance around the docks and bridges, a dead stinky shrimp has really been the key. Don’t be scared to let you bait sit in the sun for an hour or two to get some added funk!

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