Another windy week has come and gone, but relief is on the horizon. With slightly calmer winds expected this week, we’ll be able to get back on the water and wear the fish out.

This week, I made a couple trips to the Sebastian River and Indian River. In the Sebastian, my best catch was a 27″ snook, and I also hooked into a massive gar and several jacks. Although I spotted some nice snook schooled up around docks, they weren’t biting.

My two trips to the Indian River were much more productive, with big snook being the highlight. Both trips took place during optimal times – predawn and evening – and shared two key similarities: shallow water with bait present and the effectiveness of small 3-4″ paddle tails. These conditions and lures proved to be a winning combination for landing some impressive snook.

Now it’s your turn to get out there and reel in some action!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a good week of fishing. The beachside has been dirty due to the southeast winds, but this week, the winds are expected to shift to north-west most days. Fishing has been pretty slow, with not much consistent action. There have been lots of whiting, a few black drum, palometas and the occasional pompano around. The water has been warming up quickly—now up to 74 degrees.

Pompano rigs with chartreuse, orange and pink floats have been producing the best bites, especially when rigged with a small piece of peeled shrimp or sand flea. If you’ve been fishing this past week, you know how strong that undercurrent has been—using a 4 oz sputnik has been the only thing holding bottom most days. Fishbites have also been working well when paired with shrimp to help keep the bait on the hook.

Have a great week, and I’ll talk to y’all next time. Tight lines!

Hello there all you Sebastian Inlet fans! I hope everyone enjoyed the great weekend we had. Fishing wasn’t very good at the inlet, dismal at best! So this report will be a brief one.

The water has remained 74-75 degrees, which is where it should be, but the water conditions at the inlet have been a train wreck! The brisk SSE winds and the bigger surf from the winds has dirtied up the water and made it look like the Mississippi River, very muddy and lots of seaweed everywhere! Over the weekend it didn’t matter where you fished, the water was nasty. And I didn’t see any fish being caught except for a few small whiting and black Margate’s caught on the south jetty. It was pretty rough and wet out there though, not a lot of folks fishing it.

Back in the back, south side, again I didn’t see any fish being caught. I chatted with one of my fishing gals that was there Sunday when I got there, and she said she did catch 3 snook on live majorra, 2 over slot and 1 under slot. And that was all the snook I heard about! Heck, even the boaters weren’t catching anything.

This week is going to be another “iffy” week with the weather and water conditions, supposed to have another front move over for Tuesday bringing rain and some more brisk winds from the NNE, 15-25, and the seas are supposed to go up to 5-7 by late Wednesday through Friday. So if you are going to fish the inlet, the back should be your best bet. Like I have always said, I don’t sugar coat anything to get you all to go fishing, I tell it like it is at the inlet. I love to see you all catch fish, but if it isn’t going to be good, I’ll tell you! Anyway, you all have a great week!

Last week’s fishing was so much better than weeks before. Our lake water temperatures are creeping into the high 70’s to almost the 80 degree range.

My first day was on a local pond that I would not want to give out due to exposure so for now I’ll call it my local pond. The bass and bluegill were chewing this day. My friend threw his trusty torpedo lure and I was throwing my 5 weight fly rod. The fly patterns I used were either a Boobie fly pattern or a Double Barrel Popper. These patterns are tied with foam materials to float high on the water. When the wind picked up I switched to conventional tackle Wacky style stick baits and caught lots throughout the Lily Pads that we were in.

The next day was at Headwaters. I mostly used the Wacky technique the whole time working along the edges of deep water with a hydrilla edge to it. Once the winds picked up in order for my worm to get deeper I inserted a small nail weight into the plastic for sinking purposes. Our lakes are starting to get lower and lower each day until our summer rains kick in so anglers need to be careful of running around where it might have been safe before but not now.

We never made it offshore last week so all we’ve been doing is shark fishing. The winds haven’t been that favorable and honestly offshore is not that great right now so we just been making the best of it along the beach and the shark fishing has been insane. There are a number of other species roaming our beaches right now like Spanish mackerel, bonita, jacks and we are even starting to see some tarpon. The sharks are not picky, any big piece of cut bait will get them to bite but if you can get a bonita, that seems to be their favorite.

Blair with a Big Black Drum

We’ve had a windy spring so far and this last week was no exception with 15-25 mph winds all week. The only positive was that the winds were out of the south and east and the water temps were good. Spring bait is starting to show up and the snook action is getting to where it should be with some trout and a few redfish in the mix. There’s a few schools of black drum around as well. We’ve been getting plenty of snook on most trips with mostly slot and a few under slot fish. We’ve also been getting a few over slot fish but not as many big fish in the 40+ inch range. I am seeing a few bigger trout around but not too as many as I would expect this time of year.

Frank with a slot snook!

The beach fishing isn’t happening with the winds and rough seas and the inlet has been silty from all of the beach renourishment and the dredging in the inlet. If you’re fishing the inlet, be wary of the dredging operation and the pipes are crossing the inlet and are submerged most of the time but they also can be floating at the surface. There is a sign on the dredge barge on which side to pass if you can’t see the pipe.

The water temp was 77 degrees when we started this morning and 80 when we finished up. Top baits this week for me were Jackhammer chatterbaits, Bass Assassin RSB worms and the Mike Bucca Bull Shad 6” Trick Shad.

I’m fishing the Bass Assassin RSB worms (Gooseberry, Junebug and Redbug) with a 1/8oz weight (3/8oz when it’s windy). The fish are in the hydrilla near spawning flats and up tight to bulrush lined ditches. I’m using a 5/0 VMC Redline EWG hook with an Ande Fluro leader in 20lb test. This week dragging the worm along the bottom worked best for me. I slide my bobber stopper up about 10” above my hook when im dragging my worms and I peg it when im fishing vertical cover. I’ve caught several double digit fish in April dragging a Bass Assassin RSB worm which includes my PB April 2nd, 2022.

I’m fishing the Jackhammers (Green Pumpkin, and Brets Bluegill) on flats with scattered hydrilla in 5’ or less. I only use a 1/2oz Jackhammer with a Green Pumpkin Zako trailer. My line of choice is Ande black braid (50lb) and the rod I prefer is a Dobyns Champion 736CB Glass #dobynsrods

The 6” Mike Bucca Trick Shad in Gizzard Shad color is my go to swimbait this week. I’m fishing these along grass edges near deep sharp drops or cuts near main canals. I caught some good fish on the flats where the hydrilla was more scattered. It is a fish catcher and it will work all over Headwaters. Swim these just under the surface for best results. Get on the Bullshad email mailing list so you can get the bait drop info. The Dobyns Champion XP 736C FH (frog rod) is the best rod I’ve found to throw the 6” trick shad.

Call or text me at 304-610-6066 to book a trip of a lifetime.

Black drum are still around in good numbers and the flats are starting to load up with mullet, which will be turning the top water bite on over the next few weeks. Tarpon are starting to show up sporadically in a few places too. It looks like we have yet another cold front coming through this week which should drop the water temperature back down from the high 70’s and low 80’s into the low 70’s and maybe high 60’s. This will prolong the schooled up redfish and black drum staying in the flats.

I have a few days open in April and May. You can reach me at 386-295-5991 or you can go right to my website.

The Ocean Obsession fishing out of Sunrise Marina at Port Canaveral showed out with a full board of all kinds of different fish. Lane, mangrove, mutton and red snapper were all caught. Even though you can’t keep the reds, they are still a blast to catch. Other species that made for some great table fare for their customers were triggerfish, grunts, kingfish and a dolphin. You just never know who’s coming to dinner. Keep an eye out for their next trip and take advantage of getting offshore with the awesome captain and crew.

It seems as though someone has forgot to turn off the fan here in the New Smyrna Beach area with gusty winds the last five days. The winds have definitely not made it easy especially trying to sight fish in the Mosquito Lagoon but we have ground through it and caught fish. Looking at the forecast it looks as though we are going to continue with some wind over the next few days. We have been focusing on points and bars located on the wind ward side. Soft plastics and live bait have been working well. A little further north into the Daytona Beach area the structure has been the key, live shrimp and pinfish tossed around the docks and bridges have been producing some good bites .

We are going to start providing a quick video fishing report that will touch on fishing for our customers and fishing for the locals with their own boats. At the beginning of each month it will be a broad “what to expect” and as water, weather, temperature, clarity, sea conditions, bait, etc. change, we will keep you updated through each month as needed.