Sunrise Marina - Port Canaveral, FL

WEEKLY FORECAST

3.12.2024 – 3.18.2024

CENTRAL FLORIDA’S BEST FISHING REPORT

black drum flats fishing

Don't miss Paul MacInnis's great piece on flats fishing for black drum featured in this week's forecast!

The weather looks to be shaping up beautifully for some great conditions on the water this week. Plus, we’ve got a load of great content for you in this week’s forecast, including Paul MacInnis’ writeup on flats fishing for black drum and another stellar kayak report by Knox Robinson, reporting from the Pine Island Basin area. Last but not least, we’ve got another really cool giveaway prize from Carroll Distributing…

Florida Sport Fishing Association

WEATHER & CONDITIONS

BITE OPPORTUNITY INDEX

OFFSHORE

6.9

INSHORE

7.2

SURF

7.3

FRESHWATER

8.0
american air and heat of brevard

WEATHER OVERVIEW: TThe week ahead looks pretty good overall. The wind will be lighter and predominantly out of the S/SE all week with the exception of Saturday morning where the wind is currently showing a short switch out of the SSW. Rain chances will be low this week and high temperatures will hover around the low 80’s. Spring is in the air so get out and fish!

cocoa ford

GIVEAWAYS

Strike-Zone Shimano Symetre Spinning Rod and Reel Combo Giveaway

shimano rod and reel combo

Up for grabs this month is another Shimano Symetre Spinning Rod and Reel Combo, courtesy of Strike-Zone Fishing. One winner will be randomly drawn from all entries and be announced in the weekly fishing forecast on Tuesday, April 2. Enter below for your chance to win!

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

Goose Island Cooler Giveaway

cornhole

Congrats to last month's winner of the Goose Island Cooler, Scott Lamb, Melbourne

Mich Ultra Dartboard Giveaway

dartboard

Since 1960, Carroll Distributing has been keeping the local shelves stocked and taps flowing for a long list of everybody’s favorite beverages. Now, they are going to be distributing some awesome prizes to Spacefish readers every month. This month, the prize is a 36″ x 24″ Michelob Ultra Dartboard. One winner will randomly drawn and selected in the weekly forecast on April 16th!

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

Caroll Distributing - Anheuser-Busch

Weekly Strike-Zone Giveaway

strike zone gift card giveaway Each week, we’ll randomly draw a name from our email subscriber list to award a $20 Strike-Zone Fishing Gift Card. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to our weekly forecast email (once subscribed, you’re eligible to win EVERY week).

Congrats to this week's winner, Kenneth W Moye, Palm Bay

NOTICE: If you are announced as a winner, you must EMAIL US within 5 days to claim your prize (please include your phone number and mailing address), or your prize will be forfeited and added back into the giveaway pool for future winners.

LATEST Reports

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Fish Are Chewing in Chilly Weather
December 5, 2024

Fish Are Chewing in Chilly Weather

snook fishing

It’s been a chilly, windy start to the holiday season but the fish are chewing! Despite crazy cold fronts and heavy winds the fishing has been nothing short of incredible, with all the wicked weather offshore fishing has been pretty much out of the question but the inshore bite remains strong!

Most anglers can find a variety of species from snook, redfish, tripletail, black drum, pompano and more in and around the surf and inlets. These cool fronts really bunch the fish up and tend to slow down their metabolism. This typically makes fishing really good with smaller profile baits such as shrimp, fiddler crabs, sand fleas and a variety of small jigs such as the gulp shrimp. Those in search of larger species like snook and redfish, a free lined shrimp with a small pinch weight can be extremely effective especially fishing near any sort of structure with good water depth.

Many anglers get really excited about the pompano and sheepshead fishing that is found along the entire surf from new smryna and as far south as Sebastian. On the calmer days, try fishing a double hook rig with a 2-3 oz pyramid sinker. Most of the troughs are very close shore. The best approach is to set several rods varying different distances and or depths. The “go to” bait in these situations is a fresh sand flea tipped with a small chunk of fish bites soft plastic. Apply the chunk of artificial bait over your fresh sand flea or even peeled shrimp. This setup can produce some quality fish!

The most important factor this time of year when fishing along the beach is looking for clean water. It’s as easy as find clean water and find the fish! I wish everyone the best and hope you can all get out and enjoy some of this wonderful winter fishing!

by Capt. Alex Hughey
Coastal Fishing Expeditions | (321) 795-8566

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Winter Patterns
December 4, 2024

Winter Patterns

redfish

We have had some back to back cold fronts dipping down into Central Florida the past couple of weeks bringing cooler air temps along with water temps. The fish have really started to move into their winter time patterns looking for warmer water conditions. Look for your trout, redfish and black drum to move off the grass and more onto the sand or mud bottoms. The snook who are way more sensitive to the temperature drop will be moving to deeper water looking for there.

We are moving into the time of year where down sizing and settle retrieves work best. This is a great time of year for sight fishing and artificials as the cooler water temps will make these fish active. The weather looks to be stable through the weekend with another possible cool down next week.

by Capt. Patrick Rood
Spot N Tail Charters | (386) 566-1394

Sunstate Pest Control

Timeout fishing
December 3, 2024

Timeout fishing

Went to Soque river in North Georgia near Clarksville. Spent 4 days fly fishing for giant rainbow and brown trout. It was cold but the fishing was outstanding and we had 8 over 10 lbs and each of us 3 anglers had over 20 each per day

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. I am back and have days open in December

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
December is Banging
December 2, 2024

December is Banging

  • snooks
  • redfish
  • tripletail

December has started off with a bang! The fish are big and hungry. Snook, bull redfish, tripletail and black drum are the main species captain Justin and I have had come over the gunnel this past week. Live baits like croakers, finger mullet and shrimp seem to be working best. We continue to rig these live baits on a 3/4 to 1-once knocker rig or 1/4 ounce Assassin jig head. As long as the water temps continue to stay in the lower 70 degree range along the near-coastal waters you can expect this incredible bite to continue.

If you missed our Black Friday special of $75 off any trip booked with captain Justin or myself for the 2025 season, we are extending it for our Spacefish readers through the end of the week. That’s right. You can get our once a year Black Friday special toward any trip booked with us in the coming year and save. Call 321-505-8217 and captain Justin will provide you with the discount code so you can book your trip with us online at your convenience.

Let’s go catch your next memory before the fishing slows!

by Capt. Jim Ross
Fine Line Fishing Charters | (321) 636-3728

cocoa ford

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Kayak Bassin’ in the Winter – Best Spots
December 2, 2024

Kayak Bassin’ in the Winter – Best Spots

KAYAK FISHING REPORT

Kayak Bass - Winter Spots

Kayak Bass - Winter Spots

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We traveled to Georgia over the break to see family on both sides, we returned home on Saturday night. I was able to get out and fish yesterday. It was a new spot in my ongoing research to find the best winter inshore fishing spots. It was “ok” I will go into more detail in a future report about this spot, one of the reasons I did not do as well as I hoped to write about it, was because of the wind. It was a classic winter time North wind, and it made it difficult to fish. Now there are certain times of the year when breezy weather can be beneficial to inshore fishing, but the winter is not that time, especially when it is bringing in chilly air temps.

But it did get me thinking about something, I thought about my fishing trips over the past 2 years on the weekend after Thanksgiving. They have both been freshwater, Bass trips, and they both were pretty successful.

One of the things I do, or at least try to do, is to keep a log book of fishing trips. Whether it was good, bad, ugly, or epic. I try to write down my thoughts going into the trip, and my thoughts afterwards. It helps me to build on positive trends, and nip negative ones in the bud. So I went back and looked and I saw that I had picked the spots I did to gain protection from the north winds.

Kayak Bassing – Winter

So I am not sure honestly what my all time PB Bass is, but I know that I have caught some of the bigger ones in the Winter-Early spring time, this time of year I enjoy Bass fishing more than inshore fishing. Inshore fish tend to slow down with their metabolism, the weather gets colder, they don’t move as much and don’t eat as much. Now this is true amongst Bass as well, but they also spawn earlier in Florida, so you will see them eat more to gear up for spawning season than an inshore species like Snook, who spawns in the summer.

Also Bass tend to be more aggressive and bite lures more than inshore fish as well, so with all that being said, Bass fishing can provide more action during the colder weather months than inshore fishing. Those factors are why I tend to do more Bass fishing in the winter, and more inshore fishing in the summer. The Bluebird skies and the post frontal high pressure days affect Bass too, but I have had more success catching Bass in good size, and numbers on those type of days, than I have catching inshore fish.

December Bass

December Bass

Spot #1 – The Stick Marsh

Stick Marsh - North Bank

Stick Marsh - North Bank

One of the areas that has been good to me in December-January is the northern part of the Stick Marsh. Launching out of Fish Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area I get through the canal that leads boats to the main lake, but instead of going south, I head west where there is roughly 3 miles of wind protected shoreline and structure. To be fair, I have had great days in other times of year fishing this same path, but getting the protection from the wind in the winter is pretty clutch. My best areas have been working that area about halfway between the east & west sides of the lake when you can push in behind the submerged palm trees and work that pocket about a mile or so down. Sometimes the fish are in the trees, sometimes they are on the outside, and sometimes they push up in the shallows near the shoreline. It may take a while to find the pattern, but once you do, you should be able to catch a lot of fish, and catch some of quality size as well.

The pegged weight Texas rig Speed Worm has always been good to me in this area, during this time of year, but a Watermelon Red Fluke style bait, and a Black/Blue Senko works well too, especially if the fish are moving slower and want something more subtle. I fish both of these baits weightless and weedless. They are both all time-classic Bass fishing staples, but remember to be patient and fish them slow and patiently. Both baits are designed to trigger bites on “the fall” and Stick Marsh does not have the same type of underwater vegetation as most Florida lakes.

Lake Toho - Winter Bass

Lake Toho - Winter Bass

Spot #2 – Lake Toho

So for Lake Toho I have two spots within this large lake that both offer the same advantages. The two launch spots are Whaleys Landing Public Boat Ramp which is located in the south-eastern corner of the lake; and Brownie Wise Park or Big Toho Marina in the northern part of the lake.

They both offer lots of places to fish with plenty of structure/cover that not only serves as vital fish habitat, but it serves as a buffer from the chop on the water that can be a real pain in the you-know-what when you are fishing from a kayak. The first spot I’ll talk about is the north end of the lake, here is a map of the areas I like pictured below. I drew lines of the areas I went to from the Big Toho Marina.

Lake Toho - From Whaley's Landing

Lake Toho - From Whaley's Landing

I fished this spot last year during Christmas break, and I went to the outside edges of the grass line first. I launched early in the morning and it was chilly out, so I targeted this area with deeper water, somewhere between 6-8 feet. As the sun rose and the weather warmed I gradually went into where it was shallower. I did well in the area around the channel where I could target depth contours and still works baits in the emergent vegetation which is the #1 type of cover on Lake Toho.

I never caught anything of great size, I just caught a ton of fish on this trip, it was a 25+ catch day on two presentations, a Gambler EZ Swimmer in Copperfield on a screw-lock belly weight hook, and a pegged tungsten Texas Rig with a Zoom Junebug Red speed worm. The T-rigged work around the contours and the Gambler in the grass.

Lake Toho - From Downtown Kissimmee Marina

Lake Toho - From Downtown Kissimmee Marina

The other spot that worked well last winter was this area of Lake Toho launching out of Whaley’s Landing and heading SSE towards Friar’s Cove. This is a great place to fish during pre-spawn and during the spawn as you can find good spawning grounds inside the outer edge of Kissimmee Grass. I’ve caught some decent fish out of this area. Mostly I have caught good numbers here, but I was with a guy who caught an absolute tank in this spot in January of 2023. That was the day I became a believer in the Swimming Senko style of bait, which works well here on a Texas Rig, the same way I do speed worms. But I have also had success with fluke style baits, especially targeting pockets around the spawning areas.

The color pattern that has worked well for me is a natural green pumpkin/watermelon color with red and purple flakes. Also anything natural with some additional gold flake works well too. I don’t know why, but those colors seem to outperform the Junebugs and the Blacks/Blues in this corner of the lake.

Lake Toho - Winter Bass

Lake Toho - Winter Bass

Summary & Conclusion

These two fishing spots are not the be all, end all. There are other spots out there that offer protection from the harsh winds that sweep down from the north country. I think the key to the formula is to find spots that offer wind protections but have enough water to hold a large number of fish, and enough structure and cover to get them to concentrate and have depth contours and areas with deeper water and areas of shallower water. Not to sound like a broken record, I feel like I end up saying this a lot here, but fishing the fish is way more important than what you throw at the fish. Colors matter, size and profile and ability to rig matters but none of those things matter if you don’t present them to a fish.

Is there a spot you like to fish in the winter months? What am I missing, I would love to hear from you if you have any spots or suggestions for great winter time kayak Bass fishing!

I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and a (early) very Merry Christmas, make sure to check out Kayaks By Bo when you are out doing your Christmas shopping! Thanks for reading, until next time!

kayaks by Bo

by Knox Robinson
Spacefish Prostaff

Lane, Mangroves, Triggers, and More
December 2, 2024

Lane, Mangroves, Triggers, and More

The Ocean Obsession out of Sunrise Marina at Port Canaveral have had their customers on the fish. It’s been a nice mix of lane snapper, mangrove snapper, triggerfish and some other species mixed in too. If you want to get out and catch some of these tasty critters, give them a call to book your spot on the next trip.

by Ocean Obsession II
| (321) 453-3474

kayaks by Bo

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Flounder Season!
December 2, 2024

Flounder Season!

sebastian inlet state park flounder season

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet friends and family! I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with friends and family! So here’s this weeks update on the fishing at the inlet. Last week the fishing was pretty dang good with the cooler water temperatures, 72, and the fact that it had cleaned up quite a bit and the fish were on a roll so to speak.

The hotspot was the NE tip of the north jetty, but only the lucky boaters could fish that area, luck dogs. But it’s all good because the south side was producing fish as well. The boats, some of them who were fishing with live shrimp and not just live pins, pigs, and croakers were catching quite a few really nice black drum, sheepshead, pompano, redfish and a lot of small snook, mostly undersized because when the water cools down the juveniles love to come out to play! That all ended on Friday afternoon when the seas and the NNE winds decided to pick up and make it too rough to fish there anymore. The south jetty was pretty good all week as well, up until Friday afternoon when it all went away with the winds and seas picking up. Both tides they were catching some black drum, sheepshead, pompano, and even some small bluefish. Sand fleas and either live or dead shrimp worked for everything. A couple of the guys were using the small goofy jigs to catch the pompano, beachside. The incoming tide along the rock shoreline was producing black drum, sheepshead and black margates on cut shrimp. Some snook were around, but they were mostly the smaller fun ones. Any live bait will entice them, and smaller swimbaits. The water temperature of the water along our coast has now dropped down to 69 degrees with the north winds we have been seeing. This in turn will make our cool water species want to bite, if the water cleans back up.

Flounder season just opened up December the first, so they should be showing, there have been a small number of them caught last month, but they were small, and closed. The limit for them is 14 inch minimum with a bag limit of 5 per person per day. Live shrimp, small finger mullet and mud minnows are the preferred baits, but they can be caught on small artificials too. Anywhere along the shoreline you can find them, incoming tide is the best, and at the tide change periods either tide. Another species that usually show up this time of year when the water gets this cold and cleans up is the spotted seatrout, but they are still closed until January the first. The stats for these fish in our area are, 2 per person per day, 15 inch minimum, 19 inch maximum, and one of those two fish can be over the 19 inch maximum, but you can only keep two fish. The south side is usually where a lot of them hang out. Live shrimp is the best bait for them, but they do gat caught by the anglers fishing with mud minnows and small finger mullet. Also, the smaller artificials work well with them. I did hear that there are a lot of them in the intercoastal, back side of the inlet, along with some pompano.

The T-Dock area has been a hit or miss deal with the fish, some days there are some spanish mackerel back there on small white jigs, and also there have been reports of some of the black drum and sheepshead being caught on live and dead shrimp. Not much action on the snook back here, except for the nigh timers tossing flair jigs, they are catching a few, but most are too big to keep. The surf is a blown out mess again!!

So that’s all I have for now my friends. This week is going to be a little brutal with the stiff winds all week, and the kicked up waves , and the cold weather. It should start laying back down and warming up some by Thursday, so we shall see how that goes. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

by Wayne "Snookman" Landry
Sebastian Inlet State Park | (321) 724-5175

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Good Fishing Offshore
December 2, 2024

Good Fishing Offshore

The fishing has been good overall offershore when we can get out.

It looks like Thursday and Friday are going to cooperate this week for getting offshore. On the reefs the kingfish are here which is a great sign. Other species we are catching are cobia and don’t be surprised if Mr. Sailfish makes an appearance, as well. Nearshore, the shark fishing has remained strong. We are seeing some really nice bull redfish, too. The snook bite has been fantastic around the jetties at Port Canaveral. If you can cast net some mullet, you’ll be in great shape. I have to mention that some really nice size tripletail are showing up, too.

by Capt. Chris Cameron
Fired Up Charters | (407) 222-3573

Florida Sport Fishing Association

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Black Drum Starting to School Up
December 2, 2024

Black Drum Starting to School Up

black drum

We had great fishing for Thanksgiving week and hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. The massive cold front really turned the fish on with multiple species being caught every day. Black drum are starting to school up on deep edges and will eat a shrimp tipped jig head. Snook, redfish and trout are moving into the flats near deeper water as the sun comes up and starts to warm the shallows. Even got to fish with an actor from an HBO series. I have days open throughout the month you can come catching by calling 386-295-5991 or get a gift certificate at fatfishguide.com.

by Capt. Mike Mann
Fat Fish Guide Service | (386) 295-5991

Falcon Boats USA

Trout, Pompano in the Lagoon
December 2, 2024

Trout, Pompano in the Lagoon

pompano

The Lagoon is giving up lots of trout. Water temperatures were in the mid 60’s which have made the fish lay lower in deeper water close to the bottom. Jigging a small plastic off the bottom will get strikes. Also fishing along deeper mangroves using the same techniques as before. Fishing like this also has a bonus to it as well. Pompano will run in the same waters, too.

headwaters bass

Headwaters fishing is still challenging for the artificial bite. Moving around covering water until you get a bite then slowing down to pick the spot apart before moving on. The fish were staging close to heavier hydrilla areas with sparse open water with scattered grass surrounding these areas. My best bite came on a Gambler Slim EZ in the Copperfield color with a 3/16 oz. weight. Swimming this lure slowly through the grass got my fish. As I’m writing this report it’s cold outside and tomorrow even colder. This change will have a slower catch ratio but when we come into a warm up from the cold fronts will be a better bite.

by Terry Lamielle
| (321) 537-5346

Florida Sport Fishing Association

FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
First Cold Week of Fishing
December 2, 2024

First Cold Week of Fishing

seatrout

This is the first cold week of fishing in a while. The bite changed but we still caught a lot of fish, mostly school trout along with a bunch of jacks, bluefish, mackerel and pompano. Soft plastics have been the key in the lagoon and fish areas with moving water.

big jacks

The inlet bite was pretty good with some redfish and snook on live bait around the tide changes. Beach bite is pretty good as well with some pompano, jacks and a few mackerel. If you’re willing to make runs when it’s calm, you should be able to find plenty of mackerel and some kingfish south towards Vero. We are having another cold week which will cool the water temps some more and keep that bit slower in the lagoon. However, if you get out and work the deeper water you will find plenty of action with smaller fish and even be able to bring some good dinner size fish.

by Capt. Glyn Austin
Going Coastal Charters | (321) 863-8085

Thanksgiving Day
December 2, 2024

Thanksgiving Day

bass

My boat is in the shop, so I’ve been going to a pond across the street and doing OK. Got 13 on Thanksgiving ranging from half pound up to 2lbs and a BIG girl weighing between 6 and 7lbs, guess no scales. All were caught on a 1/4 ounce Z Man Willowvibe with a white minnow.

Florida Sport Fishing Association

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

CATCH A BIG SMILE WITH JASIN YOUMANS DMD!

jasin youmans DMD

American Air & Heat of Brevard

LOCAL EVENTS

FSFA South Chapter Meeting

March 12

FSFA The FSFA South Chapter is Tuesday March 12 @ Front Street Civic Center, Melbourne (2205 Front Street, in Melbourne, next to the Front Street boat ramps, across from Harry Goode’s). Social time starts at 6:30. Meeting starts at 7:00. Capt. Bruce Alcock with Incentive Fishing Charters will be talking about near shore and offshore fishing tactics. Food and drink available for a donation.

Sandspike Shooter

March 23-24

sandspike shooter surf tourney

Surf Fishing Challenge

March 29-30

surf fishing challenge

Central Florida Shootout

April 26-27

central florida shootout

SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY!

Don’t forget, if you’ve been fishing, we’d love to hear from you!

Strike-Zone Fishing, Melbourne FL