SPACEBYTE REPORTS
Check out the most recent reports submitted by our readers and regular contributors!
Mahi-Mahi and Amberjack far Offshore
We got offshore out of Port Canaveral Friday and had a great trip. We knew the day before that the water was really cold and dirty out to the at least 180 ft, so we planned on jigging a spot in the 200-250 range than trolling east. This was our [...]
Bonnethead beach
Went beach fishing today and caught all the bonnetheads. I spent about 4 hours on the beach and caught 6 bonnethead sharks and 1 sandbar. Not a bad day.
Mangroves in the river
Hit up IRL this morning to get some fishing in. I hadn't hit up the river in a while and had been hearing good things. After grabbing some live shrimp I put in near 520. After about 5 minutes of having my shrimp stolen I landed my first keeper Mangrove Snapper. The next few hours I hit a few more small snappers before calling it. On my very last shrimp I hit a 13.5" mangrove with a little bit of heft. That shrimp barely hit the water when the snapper sent my spool spinning (lightweight reel and line today). Catching a larger snapper on a tiny reel was kinda fun. All in all a good day.
Gearing up for March Surf Fishing
We’ve had a couple good days this past week that produced some quality fish! Between the wind and rain it hasn’t been easy for us surf anglers. I figured I’d take this down time with you to go over a couple things that I like to do!
Halifax Reds
The fishing has been great this week targeting big schools of redfish. I have seen schools of up to 100 fish. If targeting trout, the bite has been best using a jig head with a natural colored paddle-tail.
Sebastian River
We headed out to the SR from McDonald’s park in our kayaks on Monday. Being our first time there we didn’t know what to expect. The wind was out of the south so we put in and headed north and tried the few dock with live shrimp. Dolphin was chasing [...]
The Jig’s Up
It’s the time of year when anglers can expect good numbers of small fish working just off the shorelines where mangroves are present. Soft plastics like the 4 inch Salt Water Assassin Shrimp or Sea Shad tails rigged weed-less on an 1/8 ounce head are your best options right now. Cast out in front on cruising fish and slide these lures across their path. Once the reds see the offering, let them approach it and strike. Don’t move the lures too quickly, this often spooks these fish and they rarely give you a second chance.
Sweet Water Fishin’ … I mean Catchin’
Since the sweet-water contributor add, I have a sweet-water fishing report. The weather was good enough to take the new paddle board out. I went out on a local lake on Saturday morning. The word of the day is beds, beds, beds. Holy Moley, there's fish on beds everywhere. Paddling [...]
We Got… One!
Conditions on the ocean only allowed us to get out twice offshore this past week. Unfortunately, you had to have a full-day trip and not half-days because we had to travel an awful far distance to find the fish! We found some dolphin out there, straight out, in roughly 400' depths. There was a little rip going on, but nothing major yet. Amberjack were in 250' depths on some of the deep wrecks but the sharks wouldn't give you the chance to get them to the boat. We tried some chicken rigging, but it produced disappointing results. On the bottom, it was cold and muddy and there were no takers on our squid. Further down south out of Sebastian, the kingfish bite has been going off, but it's
A Week of Fishing …And This is All I Get?
I took a week off of work to do some serious fishing this past week. I've been trying to take the week off to go fishing for a few weeks now, delaying it twice due to weather. Last week's weather was supposed to be the best of the past weeks so I took that. The fishing plan was to do a few days in the NIR/Mosquito Lagoon then go south to Sebastian for few days...
Tripletail Offshore AND In
Fishing is looking really good this week! The Pompano bite is off the hook on the beaches. Clams and live sand fleas are getting the job done well. In the Ranana/Indian River canals, mangrove snapper, black drum, sheepshead, and smaller-sizes reds are all being caught in good numbers. We're also hearing several reports of tripletail being caught in the lagoon down by Grant around the crab buoys. The tripletail are also holding offshore around the first weed line a couple of miles out. Rays and cobia are out there, too.
Push it to the LIMIT
I was running and working on the boat yesterday, but the crew held down the beach in my absence. All three anglers hit the pompano limit in the Melbourne Beach surf using Fishbites and blanched sand fleas on Pompano Riggs by Couture! I expect the pompano bite to continue to be hot well into April, so get to the beach!