Beginner-friendly Fishing Tactics

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone is coming off a nice holiday weekend. The weather threw us a nice little late winter curveball with an arctic blast of wind bringing us chillier temps. This past Friday Valentine’s Day, February 14th. This date marks a special anniversary of sorts for me, as this was the day my family and I moved to Melbourne in 2020. Weirdly enough that date was also on a Friday that year.

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic lately, thinking about our early days as Brevard residents; and I have been thinking about my early days learning to fish here on the Space Coast. I also have been working with high school students in a school anglers club. We have a few talented anglers, and we have a few that are new to the area, or new to the sport of fishing that just want to be able to go out when they get some free time and just catch a few fish.

Honestly it reminds me of myself in February and March of 2020. I was interested in enjoying the fishing this area of the world has to offer, but I didn’t start my journey in the world of kayak fishing until later that spring, thanks in part to the Covid pandemic lockdowns. Then of course, for me on a personal level, the rest was history.

But going back 5 years ago, I remember moving here and not even owning a fishing rod, at this point in my life, I hadn’t been fishing in over 5 years. I remember going out and buying a cheap rod & reel and a few basic necessities to just be able to go out and fish the bridges & piers from foot. Now that I have a 4 & 5 year old, they have their own basic combos and they have a shared tackle bag with the necessary items needed for this beginner style of fishing I am going to break down today. So without further deliberation, let’s dive in to today’s report about beginner-friendly tactics.

The Bare Necessities

So I am going to focus this more on the inshore side of fishing; The Indian River Lagoon System which also includes the Banana River, The Eau Gallie River, Crane Creek etc.

You can get started with a standard rod & reel combo; even though I have advanced far beyond where I was 5 years ago, I still don’t use expensive stuff. Because #1 I can’t really justify, or afford to spend more than 150 bucks on a combo; and #2 kayak fishing brings some inherent risks, and the juice is not worth the squeeze for me.

Good starter brands for reels that can handle saltwater are Penn, Tsunami, and Shimano, you can get good saltwater reels in these brands for under 75 bucks. For rods I like the Ugly Stik Inshore Select, the Ugly Stik Inshore Carbon, and the Berkley Amp Saltwater; these three rods, along with a Jawbone casting rod I got from Dick’s (under 30 bucks) a year or so ago, that I mainly use for topwater plugs, comprise my 4 rod lineup I bring on any inshore fishing trip. When I got out with my kids for simple fish from foot outings I usually bring my 7 foot Ugly Stik Inshore Select (roughly 75 bucks), which is paired with a Penn Pursuit 3000 Series (roughly 60 bucks). I use either 8, 10, or 15 pound test braid on all my set ups, and carry a few rings of leader. I’d recommend always having some 20 & 30 pound test leader to tie on your main line. Good brands that offer affordable value are Ande for Monofilament and Seaworx for Fluorocarbon.

Once you have a good solid combo, and you have it set up with your braid, and your leader, you will need proper hooks and terminal tackle. For live shrimp fishing, all you really need is some small circle hooks, and maybe some split shots to add to your rig. I like the size 1, or 2 circle hooks. I like small hooks because they allow your shrimp to look natural in the water. If you go with too big of a hook, or hook it in the wrong place, then you may turn off potential suitors due to the shrimp being unnatural. So small hooks are pretty important. Also, if you fish areas with hard structure like bridges or docks, you will be able to experience a much higher hook up ratio with Mangrove Snapper; and Sheepshead.

When it comes to the hooking of the shrimp, the number 1 mistake I see people make when fishing bridges is either having too big of a hook, or hooking the shrimp in the body. I really like hooking them just under the horn, being careful not to impale their brain and kill them. A well placed circle hook under the horn will allow your shrimp to swim naturally, but will also keep them alive longer.

Other gear that you may find helpful will be a pair of braid cutting scissors, a pair of pliers, and a dehooking device to deal with the catfish you are inevitably going to catch while fishing using shrimp as bait.

I recently hired a high school kid to look after our dogs & cats while we were out of town; instead of giving him cash, I gave him his first fishing combo, with all of the necessities I mentioned above. I was able to get all of these items at wal-mart for $121. So if you have stumbled across this report while looking for a “how to” article to get started inshore fishing in Florida, and you don’t have any of the necessary equipment I would look at a starting price point of 120-150 to get yourself started with the necessary equipment.

Best Places to Fish

So I thought about making a list; but honestly there are way too many places I could list. I will tell you the type of things you need to look for when picking a spot, especially from foot. You need to find a place that is “public” so that you don’t get in trouble for trespassing. Beyond that, as far as the water goes you need to fish areas with…

1. Structure: Bridge Pilings; Docks; Rocks; Seawalls; Seagrass; Oyster Beds…Structure can be anything that is a physical object that is in the water that offers fish something to relate to, hide from larger predators, and/or ambush smaller prey.

2. Moving Water: Unless you are fishing the inlet, or the port, this will be predicated by winds, since tides are not much of a factor here in the lagoon system. The nice thing about bridges are they create natural chokepoints so the water will move faster and harder through bridges than other areas.

3. Depth Change: There are free apps and websites that you can look at for depth contour maps, but I can make it easy for you…bridges. Bridges, especially the causeway bridges will offer depth change along the bottom; areas close to boat ramps, and river/boating channels offer depth changes as well. Depth contours offer fish ambush opportunities as well as the ability to regulate their body temperature by seeking relief from cold/hot weather in the depths, and by pushing into the shallows to get sun on sunny days after cold fronts. If an area has both deeper, and shallow water, there is a high chance this areas will hold fish.

So recently I took my sons fishing, we went to one of our tried & true game plans. We went to Rigg’s Outpost on Melbourne Ave to get live bait (shrimp), and after that we went over to the Geiger Point Park off the 192 Causeway and fished from the bridge. We were able to catch close to a half a dozen Trout, and were able to catch a handful of small Mangrove Snapper, Sheepshead, and Catfish. I would venture to say that any of the causeway bridges in Brevard County would offer similar action if it was a good enough day to fish, and you showed up with a bucket of live shrimp and gave them a proper presentation.

My first time fishing in Brevard

So I remember getting out of school on a Friday afternoon about a week or so after moving in. When we first moved here, we weren’t ready to buy a house yet, so we rented an apartment along the Eau Gallie River. Those apartments had a boat ramp. I got out of school on Friday and stopped off and got a dozen live shrimp. I freelined the shrimp right off the boat ramp. I remember that day there was a nice little east wind blowing so I’d cast my shrimp as far to the east as I could from the bottom of the ramp, and just let it drift with the flow of the river.

Within an hour I was down to my last shrimp, I had caught several Mangrove Snapper, a Sheepshead, and a Black Drum. Of course I had 2 or 3 catfish in the mix as well. But anyway, here I am down to my last shrimp, I casted it out, was letting it sweep with the current when all of a sudden the line starts flying off the reel with the open bail. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. I flipped the bail closed and gave the rod a subtle hook set (circle hooks hook themselves…there is no reason the “set the hook” about the only thing you will accomplish at this point is pulling the bait out of the fish’s mouth). I gave the rod a twitch and all of a sudden whatever picked up this shrimp on the move, knew that it had been hooked. The drag on my reel started screaming…I didn’t know what to do, but I realized I better do something because I was about to get spooled to have my line wrapped up in the mangroves just south of the boat ramp there.

I started reeling against the drag, then it happened….the surface of the water erupted, and a flash of silver somersaults above the water. An ancient, prehistoric predator that has captured the imaginations of anglers around the world for the last 150 years…The Silver King.

Of course I was not prepared to properly fight or land this fish, and he spit my hook within the first leap. But man oh man…I was hooked from the moment he spit my hook. An addiction was fostered, an obsession born. Later that summer I would land my first Tarpon just a few hundred yards up the river from my first Brevard fishing outing. That will be a story for another day.

Conclusion

So I tried my best to put myself in the shoes I was wearing 5 years ago, if you stumble across this report and you are still confused, or have any questions, feel free to email me at knoxrobinson1604@gmail.com

I hope everyone has a great week ahead, remember, if you are in the market for any kayak, or kayak fishing accessory, make sure to stop in at Kayaks By Bo in Cocoa!

Stay safe, be happy, and catch some fish this week! Until next t