SPACEFISH REPORT

Kingfish, or king mackerel, are running strong up and down Florida’s Space Coast right now, offering fast-paced action for anglers from Cape Canaveral to Fort Pierce and beyond. With summer heating up, bait is plentiful and so are the strikes.

This week, my report is going to be about something a little different — I’m calling it a summer-time special.

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend last week. I count my blessings that I live in a country where I’m free to go fishing for a living and I owe it all to the men and women who have served and are currently serving in the US military.

Not much has changed in terms of the strategy that has kept our customers on the fish. The goal is to find live bait before running offshore.

Inshore fishing is super tough right now. Water quality from the sewage spills a few weeks ago and all of the rain has made inshore fishing tough with live bait during the day.

Last week, John and I went to Headwaters for a change of pace. I haven’t been there since this past April. Sure was different looking, everything is grassed up, compared to the wide-open waters of the Stick Marsh.

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet fans and anglers, hope everyone had a nice, safe July 4th holiday weekend! Aside from the rain, it was nice.

The trout and redfish bite has turned on this week with lots of fish being caught using live pigfish or croakers. Don’t forget this coming Friday and Saturday is our illustrious two-day red snapper season so plan accordingly.

The bite has continued to be strong after the influx of holiday boat traffic that had scattered from Daytona Beach south through New Smyrna Beach and Mosquito Lagoon for the Forth of July.

It was a grand day yesterday, Monday, June 30th for the reopening of the north jetty! Was a fantastic turnout to say the least! The weather was great, water was clean and clear, and the fish were there in abundance!

Summer’s heat is in full swing, and our waters are buzzing with life! The backwaters continue to produce, although many of the larger snook have moved to their spawning grounds. Don’t worry, though – plenty of smaller snook and redfish are still around, and juvenile tarpon are abundant.

Snook are still the stars of the show outside of Port Canaveral this week. Live baitfish are the number one way to get a bite, but you can also cast 4 to 5-inch soft plastic lures to schools of fish that are holding in the surf break.

Today I’m finishing what I started last week: A Tale of Two Jungles. If you missed Part I — my urban bass adventure on Lake Ivanhoe — you can check it out here.

Except for the rain, not much has changed since last week. The goal is to find live bait before running offshore so we start looking inside the Port and if it’s not there, we make our way out to the beach.

The summer heat has slowed the bite down this past week. We did manage to get some willing bass to eat at the Stick Marsh in the first two hours of our morning but it slowed to a halt for the later part of the morning.