SPACEFISH REPORT

Fishing this week has seemed to slow down a little, but there are still plenty of opportunities to find a good bite if you know what to look for. I fished a mixture of morning and evening trips throughout the week, and one pattern continued to stand out: bait and predators are both favoring areas protected from the wind.

Man, it has been hot, hot, hot outside, and the bite has been very hit or miss because of the heat. There are some whiting, black drum, and lots of palometas running around. The snook have also been chewing on live mullet and croakers around the jetties and beaches. It’s not the season for them, but it sure is a fun fight!

As we get back to school this week, I wanted to do something a little different. Usually when I sit down to write one of these reports, we’re talking about fishing. Maybe it’s what the snook are doing, a lure I’ve been throwing, somewhere I’ve been exploring in the kayak, or some new piece of fishing gear I probably don’t actually need.

Once again, the trout bite still continues in the lagoon using either popping corks or pigfish. Redfish have been tailing fairly well on the grass edges, but may be a little tough to target in the thicker grass. We’ve had a slight upwelling along the beach, dropping the surf temperatures down a little bit, which is causing the tarpon to move into the river a little bit more but should be starting to stack up on the beach again as the warmer water pushes back in.

The surf got a bit roughed up this week, but despite the water being cold and dirty, our lines were still connecting with plenty of pompano (plenty of catfish, too!). Yesterday (Sunday) we got one just over 11” to fork. High tide did push significant weeds into the surf, but it wasn’t enough to be a problem — they were pretty tight to shore and in not a particularly strong current; I don’t expect the weeds to be a lingering issue.

The Ocean Obsession out of Sunrise Marina in Port Canaveral has put their customers on some fun fishing lately. They have caught a mixed bag of different species such as mangrove snapper, triggerfish, dolphin and even a small tiger shark came to play.

The kingfish bite has been very consistent slow trolling both live and dead baits on the reefs. Both Pelican and 8A have produced kingfish with a few mahi mixed in. There were some bonita caught this week too.

All the recent cold water has made for some interesting catches on my fishing trips since my report last week. My customers have landed sharks, tarpon, snook, redfish, black margate, red snapper, black sea bass, king mackerel, bluefish, lane snapper, and big weakfish like the one pictured above.

Water on the beach has been cold which makes the bite tough depending on where the tide is. There have been plenty of tarpon, sharks and jacks around but the clear and cold water put a damper on the bite but it did help the lobster divers. Hoping the water warms up this week and the beach gets back to normal. The inshore bite will start firing up soon as the mullet become more prevalent in the lagoon.

We rounded out our summer vacations this year with a scalloping trip to Florida’s west coast. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. I’m 52 now and it’s a fantastic family vacation.

The Stick Marsh is still producing a good bite for us this past week. Finding an area with bait activity is important for the bass to be close by. Little subtleties will give the spots away, cormorants working the waters nearby or the osprey feeding in the area from up above are both giveaways to bait close by.

The recent rainfall has been a hidden blessing for Central Florida’s backwaters. It has cooled the shallow waters of Mosquito Lagoon and New Smyrna Beach, keeping the fish more active throughout the day.

I didn’t spend as much time fishing this past week as usual, but I still managed to get out for a few trips. Early mornings continued to be the most productive, with a nice snook coming from a spoil island on a small paddle tail. Speckled trout and a variety of other inshore species were around as well, keeping things interesting even if the action wasn’t especially memorable.

The hour is getting late in the summer season, but there’s still plenty of pompano out there looking to chew. The difference maker for me, I believe, has been phasing out Fishbites in favor of FishGum.

It’s time for those hot summer bites! August is one hot month, but the action can be incredibly good even though it feels like you just walked out the front door into a bowl of soup at 5 am on your way to go fishing.