Nearshore & Inshore
Our last few fishing charters out in the ocean have been very productive for Tripletail. These fish are holding on buoys and almost any type of floating debris that you come across. Weeds, boards, old crab pot floats, and even dead birds ( there are quite a few dead Gannets out there right now) can hold a Tripletail or two. Many of the larger fish are being caught in the 45 to 65-foot depths. Live shrimp are the best bait to get these fish to strike.
Freshwater Spawn in Full Swing!
Spawning behavior is definitely in full swing! Largemouth bass and crappie are heading to shallow hard bottom areas to reproduce. Now is a great time to get outdoors and cast around. Various soft plastics tricks work; senko and fluke style are my favorites. Anything in a watermelon red, junebug or silver are a necessity. You can fish these baits in many ways so it is good to experiment. Chatterbaits are another hot bait to have tied on, so try casting here around, too. High percentage areas that I target are isolated lilly pad clusters, reeds and coves.
Senko bite
Beach and inlet been quiet for me so I turned to my community pond; have done well earlier with poppers but cooler time required a different approach; realized it was time to try Senko....oh my; in six days have landed 35 bass, most on Texas rig; what a find; I'm [...]
New Flounder Regulations
Starting March 1, the following changes will go into effect for flounder regulations...
Tampa Bay February Snapper
2/20/21 The wind was wild and the bay was 3.9' We started out in the little Manatee River catching black drum and snook. After 2 hours the wind slowed down and we decided to head out into the bay for mangrove snapper. The wave height was 3' with a few 5' swells as we made our short run. The action was non stop fish were biting live greenbacks, shrimp pieces and cut threadfins. We barely had time to close the bail before the bite. We fished an hour and a half and finished with a nice box. Book a trip to experience the fun. 865-363-1388
Bull Whiting Keeping the Surf Bite Busy
We've been catching big bull whiting, pompano, drum and sharks in the surf. Last week saw an upswing in not only the number of pompanos, but the larger pompano mixed in with higher numbers than previous weeks. This can be attributed to the increase in water temps from the lows we saw weeks prior. While we still weren’t catching recreational limits of pompano, the ones we did catch were averaging between 13-16” to the fork of the tail. Beautiful 2-3 lb pompanos on the sandy shores of our Space Coast had clients grinning with joy.
Fish Enjoying the Warmth!
What a week! While the rest of the country is just about frozen over, we have had one of the warmest weeks in months and the fish were enjoying it! This week with the climbing temps it seemed as if the fish were coming out of hibernation, with large quantity days in upwards of 50 or more and species from redfish and trout to even snook and tarpon, this week was definitely one for the books!
Beach Snook in Vero
I’m from Iowa, and we do a lot of “snap-jigging” for walleyes in our lakes and rivers. I’ve had a lot of success using a Gotcha Plug on the beach - but instead of using it as advertised, I snap-jig it as hard as I can off the bottom and it it fall back to the bottom on slack line. It has produced amazing consistent fish for us.
River & Beach
In the river, anglers are catching really nice black drum around the bridges and along the sides of the channels. Sheepshead and mangrove snapper are also being caught around the bridges. Trout and redfish are in the canals around Satellite Beach. Also, a few reds have been spotted tailing in the Banana River North of Pineda.
Spanish Macks in the Port
Our nearshore bite has been pretty good this week. Spanish mackerel have moved back into the Canaveral area in pretty good numbers. You can actually see these fish rolling and busting small baitfish especially when it’s slick calm first thing in the morning. Some of this action is even occurring inside the mouth of the Port.
Slow Daytime Bite at Inlet
We had some great fishing with warming temps and light winds towards the end of the week. The inshore bite was a little better with some trout and jacks. However, the daytime bite in the inlet was slow for anyone looking for snook and redfish.
Stick Marsh — Just Like the “Old Days!”
I was able to find time and was able to put in some fishing time this past week. Last Thursday was a day in the Stick Marsh. We found the water temperature to be close to 70 and the fish were really chewing for us. Most of our bigger fish were females that have yet to spawn out. This day reminded me of what the old days were like, except it was almost every day back then.
