Kayak Fishing – Downtown Melbourne

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone survived the cold front, holy moly that was a rough one! Today I am going to talk about fishing “Downtown Melbourne.”

Launch Spots

For the areas I am going to discuss today, there are two launch spots that will work. Scurrah’s Landing located along Riverview Drive, and Front Street Boat Ramp which for some reason will not hyperlink because it’s not recognized by Google Maps but is located right next to the Front Street Civic Center. Both of these launch spots are the best for accessing Crane Creek, Front Street is located just north of, and Scurrah’s landing just south of Crane Creek.

For this trip however, I did not have any success in the Marina, or in Crane Creek, but I did catch fish in the area just south of the Front Street ramp, back in that cove under the big condo, and I had success fishing some of the docks south of Scurrah’s landing.

I am not sure why Crane Creek was a bust for me, I usually catch something in there. My theory is that on a warming trend, these shallow water areas were comfortable places for the fish to warm up in the sunshine, and they could still relate to structure of the docks and mangroves.

Redfish

It was good to experience a good Redfish bite. I wasn’t catching big Bulls by any means, but I ended up catching 3 in that “fun size” range where they were big enough to put up a fight and pull some drag against light tackle. I caught 2 in the cove south of the Front Street Ramp, and I caught 2 more in the docks south of Scurrah’s Landing. I caught all of them on the NLBN K-Tail in the OverKast colorway. I rig this bait on a 2/0 BKK Screw-Lock hook. Weedless, and weightless, I fish it as slow as possible. I throw it on a 7 foot medium Inshore Spinning Outfit with 10 pound braid tied to several feet of 15 pound test leader, with a 25 pound bite tippet. This bait has been hot for me over the past month.

Snook

It would not be a weekly kayak fishing report without some “fun sized” Snook action. I usually catch at least one in the cove south of Front Street or in Crane Creek, but on this trip I went 0’fer in those places with Snook, but after making a run down to the docks south of Scurrah’s landing I was able to get on a half dozen Snook before calling it a day. Most of them were dinks. I used the same NLBN setup.

One thing I will say about these docks is that they do not offer much depth contours, so they can be kind of hit or miss. But if you go out on a sunny day after a cold front you may be able to catch some fish that are in that shallow flat to sun bake and warm their blood. These docks are pretty spaced out so usually if I don’t get a bite on the first two, I abandon the docks and move on to a new spot.

Rigg’s Outpost

If you are more of a live bait person, I highly recommend Rigg’s Outpost as the place to go stock up before fishing in the downtown Melbourne area. This has become one of the go-to routines when I take my kids fishing. I really appreciate how much the staff interacts with my kids, and lets them go behind the counter to see the different bait tanks, and to take part in the action. To be honest my kids like getting bait at Rigg’s more than they like fishing with the bait, they ask to go there all the time!

Now for me personally, I don’t use much live bait, but I have started using True Braid, which I get at Rigg’s Outpost, but the main thing I spend money on there is the seafood! It used to be Hornbelly’s Seafood, now the market is owned and operated by Rigg’s Outpost. This past week, I made a fantastic Blackened Grouper for dinner. If, like me you prefer to release our inshore game fish to let them go, let them grow – but you like to eat fish from the deeper blue waters, then make sure to stop in and see what they have fresh at Rigg’s.

Conclusion

Well, that’s all for me folks! I hope everyone had a great week, and I know they we are all looking forward to warmer weather!

If you saw the cover picture at the top of the report, you would be able to notice I am wearing a Fish Skinz shirt – this is what the logo on the back looks like, it is so sick! You can get this shirt, as well as a variety of other designs at Kayaks By Bo, shop local! I read a report in the paper a few weeks ago about the strain bait & tackle shops near Sebastian Inlet have been in since they closed the North Jetty, I think it is important for us as a community of anglers to shop local as much as we can to support our bait & tackle shops, and other small businesses that support the local fishing scene.

Have a great week everyone, until next time!