redfish

This week was very good in all places! On Monday and Wednesday, I fished the mangroves with live mullet and hooked some tarpon and snook. Unfortunately, I could not get much to stay on the hook or out of the mangroves. Fishing the mangroves is frustrating sometimes.

On Thursday, the topwater trout bite was on at dawn. I missed so many working the flats near finger mullet pods in 2-3ft of water. I had some missed strikes that were nearly 30 inch trout. I got 7 little ones to the boat. As soon as I found some black drum on the flat, the wind became 10 mph. Combined with clouds, the sight fishing was thrown out the window. I threw cut baits near spoil island drop offs and outer ledges to the flats and got a 45 inch red before storms chased me off the water.

I was greeted with slick and overcast conditions again on Friday. The topwater trout bite was much slower, but I managed to get a good one to the boat. After getting like 200 finger mullet in one throw, I went to the backwater for tarpon. They were rolling, and I got some jumps out of one and missed a few. They were not being too cooperative, and I knew change was needed when the sun popped up. I went sight fishing and found a school of 30lb tarpon. I had one take my mullet and miss the hook, but that spooked the school. I had 200 slot size black drum swim through and got one. Unfortunately, 15 mph southeast wind and clouds moved back in. I knew it was time to go for the bull reds. I got four nice ones and lost a giant.

The water level has come up about 18-24 inches this week with the rain. The water clarity is deteriorating in some places in central Brevard. The Mosquito Lagoon and north IRL are about the same; 4-5ft of bottom visibility in one spot, but only 2ft in the next. It seems to shift around too. The only places where I would avoid due to consistently poor water are Sykes Creek and the south Mosquito Lagoon.

On Sunday, we were hoping for grouper. Our live croakers were fed to endangered red snapper that were eaten by endangered sandbar sharks. Nice job, NMFS. The day was saved when we found six big triggerfish on the chicken rigs. I think we could have caught more if we had tried the chicken rigs longer and forgot about grouper. That said, triggerfish take some effort to fillet, and it is not the most exciting way to fish. We also had two barely legal mahi swim up to the boat. I got one and lost another. Apparently, some of the people who trolled scored big. We never saw any organized rip or weedline, but there was nice blue water starting around 100ft.

Check out my latest videos, and be sure to subscribe because I will have at least a few more videos out in the next week or two. Let’s hope 2020 continues to be an awesome year for fishing on the Space Coast, and tight lines!