Covering Water to Find Fish

With the remaining higher-water levels, off-colored water, and breezy conditions most days, this past week’s inshore trips left me covering multiple bodies of water to find fish. Indian and Banana Rivers are holding fish, but the current conditions are still not conducive for those looking to sight fish on fly or spin. Most days have been spent blind casting on top water early, switching to soft plastics on mangrove lined shorelines later in the day. Water temps are still in the mid to upper 70s for the most part, so seatrout and Snook are still fairly willing to take a top water presentation even later into the day for those die-hard top water folks.

Larger schools of mullet and glass minnows are around which can be very productive for schoolie size trout with the occasional redfish mixed in. Some large Black Drum are starting to show up shallow, but I’ve not seen the larger wintertime schools as of yet. For the most part, early morning mangrove shorelines early or shadow lines later in the day have been producing a majority of the fish. One angler I had on board this past week actually scored a nice upper slot Redfish along the mangroves at 11:00am on topwater which is usually not the way things go, so anything is possible.

Get on the water while you can as once again, our mid-week forecast is not looking promising with another tropical system setting sights on our east coast. Let’s hope for the best…

Tight Lines!