The word for the week here in the New Smyrna Beach area has been hot, not only has the weather been hot but the bite has been as well. We have getting our standard afternoon summer thunderstorms this past week which looks as though it will continue into next week as well. These storms are not a bad thing as they are cooling the water temperature’s throughout the shallow water of Mosquito Lagoon and backwaters of New Smyrna Beach. The deep water bite throughout the intracoastal of Daytona Beach has been steady with a mix bag of species chewing. Moving southward into New Smyrna Beach and Mosquito Lagoon the bait has been plentiful in the backwaters and on the shallow flats. Look for the pods of bait early as the fish have been fairly shallow until the sun gets higher. As the sun gets higher moving to the deeper edges have been working well for all species like trout, redfish, black drum and others. Live bait and artificials have been working well throughout the day. Plugs and spoons early then moving to soft plastics later in the morning. Live bait like finger mullet, pinfish and shrimp have all been a go to bait for bites.