As a new fisherman, or wannabe fisherman, I am constantly struggling with the pull to return to spots that have been good to me in the past or to try new spots. I fished Turkey Creek this past weekend and tried different parts of the river with no luck. I made my way back to a spot that I have found fish at in the past and BINGO, still fish there. I was able to land 5 good size black drum using live shrimp. I ended up catching my PB at 27″ and the rest of them were between 22″-25″. Such a fun fish to catch, especially from a kayak!

The fishing is red-hot right now, and it’s time to get in on the action! The early morning bite has been on fire lately, with the early evening hours also producing some incredible catches. While many fish have migrated to the shallow flats, the mangroves are still teeming with monsters waiting to be caught. The mullet are plentiful, ranging from 6-9 inches, but the 3-inch paddle tail is still the top performer. Just ask the beast of a snook in the photo!

I caught this beauty during the predawn hours using a 3-inch Z-Man MinnowZ paddle tail in Easy Money. I heard a commotion coming from a small mangrove cove and decided to investigate. On the third cast, she slammed my lure and put up an epic battle. Fighting a massive snook in the dark, around heavy structure, is an adrenaline rush like no other. The intensity is palpable, and the thrill of victory is sweet. Get out there and experience it for yourself!

This week was a mix of seaweed salad, dirty water, and by the end of the week, clean water with perfect conditions that allowed us to fill our coolers with nice catches of whiting, black drum, and pompano.

This coming week, we are looking at somewhat gloomy days mixed with some sunshine and winds coming from every direction you can think of each day. Although not as strong as in previous weeks, we will still contend with pesky south and southeast winds mixed with the west winds. Hopefully, the water stays nice and clean so we can scrape up what is left of the pompano.

The sand fleas have still been on the beaches, allowing for easy scooping. The fish have liked the fleas along with frozen shrimp pieces rigged on the standard pompano rig with a 4 oz pyramid weight.

Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach have produced some nice catches when the water has been clean and free of weeds. It has been necessary to either find close-in troughs or cast the bait as far out as possible since the south winds have covered most of the troughs that the northeast winds dig out.

Shark fishing is undoubtedly continuing to pick up, with some nice sharks ranging from 3 to 8 feet. Bonito, whole mullet, and ladyfish chunks continue to attract sharks. We make in-house shark rigs built specifically for the size of sharks you would like to target, and pompano rigs with the best working colored floats weekly.

Have a good week of fishing and check back next week.

John Entrekin writes, “My son, John Jr., and I had an enjoyable trip together on May 6 in big swells of five to six feet. We caught a few nice Mahi…the largest weight 16 pounds.

Good morning all my Sebastian Inlet fishing friends, I hope everyone enjoyed the wonderful, HOT weekend we had! The weather was great for the beaches and the fishing. So here we go with this week’s report.

The fishing has picked up a bit over the weekend, the water has also cleaned up quite a bit from what it was, and warmed up to near what it should be along the coastal area around the inlet. Sunday it was reading 78, but as of this morning Monday is showing 77, it should be in the lower 80’s for this time of year. The other good thing I saw over the weekend was the presence of a lot of bait fish, mullet and threadfins were everywhere around the north and south jetties. The majorras that were around have taken somewhat of a vacation, and have been tough to find. For the most part though, fishing was pretty good on both sides of the inlet. So here’s your breakdown of the hotspots…

North Jetty

Over here most of the action has been on the high tide cycle of the day. Quite a variety of species were caught over the weekend. On the beachside of the north jetty I saw some really nice pompano and a couple whiting caught on fresh dead shrimp, along with plenty of blue runners and jack crevalle. On the inside of the jetty over the rock pile at the tip using large live shrimp, a few snook were hooked up with only a couple being landed. Either they were broke off, or big daddy G ate them!! The goliath groupers were hungry for snook this weekend! I only heard of one slot snook caught all weekend. Around the pilings on the inside they were catching some small black margates, a couple of small mangrove snappers, and a couple sheepshead as well. Another species that were caught over the weekend were some nice catch and release redfish all along the shoreline from the gate at the jetty back to the bridge. Live croakers and shrimp were the baits of choice for them. At the tip on the outgoing it was mostly small blues, jacks and catfish, with maybe a snook or two hooked up and lost. Most of the guys were fishing either live shrimp, mullet or small croakers. That’s pretty much it for this area, it was fishy, but just not up to what it should be yet.

South Jetty

Over here the same deal, incoming tide has been the better time to fish. Plenty of small undersized snook being caught all along the inside of the rock shoreline on small live croakers. Saw quite a few caught, but most of them were too small to keep. Redfish were also present in the area and tide. At the tip and beach side on Sunday the water was pretty clean for a change and they had caught a few nice pompano and whiting on cut shrimp. Incoming tide and the outgoing tide produced. The outgoing tide also produced plenty of blue runners, black margates and jacks just to keep things interesting on the outgoing tide.

T-Dock Area

Back here it has still been kind of slow, but on the incoming when the water is cleaned up there have been a few snook caught on either live majorra, or croakers. On the dock around the pilings, like I mentioned last week, the small mangrove snappers are starting to show up. Most are too small to be kept, but they are around. Small live or dead greenies and shrimp will intice a bite from them. Incoming or outgoing tide will work. And as always, those pesky puffers are ever present and hungry. For those tossing jigs and silver spoons to the channel area, there are some of those big jack crevalle playing around chasing the schools of mullet in the inlet.

Surf Area both sides

On the south side just past the jetty, the beach area all the way down to our “day use” area with the paved parking and rest rooms has been producing some pompano and whiting and of course the pesky catfish. The water has been pretty clean for a change, but that is going to change the next couple days with some pretty brisk SSE winds going to be picking up. Live sand fleas, and shrimp, either live or dead was getting the bites. North Side, the north parking lot in the park, and the area just north also has been producing some pompano and whiting, same baits, shrimp or live sandfleas. Also a couple guys I chatted with said they found some nice snook on the beach when they found some schools of mullet there. Most of them were too big to keep, but that’s a step in the right direction, as this time of the year the snook will cruise the beaches looking for food. Also when the water warms up some more, we will see some big tarpon start running the beaches as well. Any live bait or large swim bait will entice a bite from them! Hang on, that will be fun!!

Well my friends and fanatics, that’s all I have for this weeks report, but it is getting better as time rolls on. Grab your gear, plenty of H20 and get out there and catch a memory, and some dinner for the table!

Three Forks, Garcia and the Stick Marsh are on fire right now for catching fish. The bass are schooling up on shad pods at the Stick Marsh and the big bluegill are spawning in and around the vast wood throughout the lake. When getting within any of these Shad frenzy throw a topwater plug in and around the feed. Once that it seems it is over, throw a lipless crankbait in the area for continued action.

Everything is eating on topwater in the early mornings so throw what you have confidence in for a whole lot of fun. String up your fly rod with a small popper and join in on the fun. For myself, I love throwing a fly pattern called a Stealth Bomber. This is a foam type fly which when stripped in with a short fast retrieve will dive under the water and then float back to the surface. It also has a very distinct BLURP sound when doing this.

The lake’s water temperatures this week warmed up to 85 degrees and will get hotter as our temperatures rise for the summer. Early on and early off the waters from here on out till fall arrives once again. Stay hydrated my friends.

What a week for the Maui Wowis again. We pretty much got on them every day we could get out. The weather still played some havoc on us but made the best of it. Mahi and kings were chewing decently and it seemed like the smaller the ballyhoo the better.

Jacob pictured here with his first Mahi this year that was in about 170 feet. This crew had 5 nice ones. Congrats guys and I look forward to Kingfishing with y’all soon. Some reel fishing. LOL.

Bottom fishing was still very productive! We only have 1 month left till its shut down for the year so get on them while you still can.

Bunker have still been thick. Get live bait for best results.

Have fun and stay safe!

Ben with a nice red

Decent week of fishing inshore for Snook, trout, a few redfish and some jacks with plenty of opportunity to sight fish as the water is very clean due to lack of rain. Slot and over slot snook around the islands and mangrove shorelines using live bait and artificial. Jacks mixed in as well up to 20lbs. Fish live greenies, pogies and pilchards for best success but we have also got a few on DOA paddle tails and jerk baits.

Brent with a nice Snook

Had a problem with bullsharks last week fishing in Grant eating snook which is something we don’t see very often.

Big Jacks in the lagoon!

The beach laid down a bit for a day or two and we were able to find some jacks and a few tarpon that wouldn’t eat. Hope to get back on them later this week and see what we can do with them.

From June 10 through June 20, the launch ramp for power boats at Headwaters Lake in Fellsmere will be closed for concrete repairs, a St. Johns River Water Management District release announced Tuesday.

Read the full story from TCPalm here.

My customers big fish (10lb 8oz) this week came on a Zoom 8” Magnum Lizard in Watermelon Seed. Jack Gumbert caught her on 17lb Berkley Vanish 17lb Fluro (which I think was key), 3/16 weight and a 5/0 VMC Redline EWG hook.

Top baits this week for me were the Zman Jackhammers, Chug Bugs, Storm Largo Shad 3.5” and the Mike Bucca 5” Bull Gill Bone color.

I’m fishing the half ounce green pumpkin Jackhammer in areas with scattered hydrilla and in ditches. I use a 4.5” Hogfarmer Spunk Shad in green pumpkin magic. Fishing these on flats with scattered hydrilla. This week with the rising water temps a slower retrieve worked better.

I’m fishing my Chug Bugs (bone, chrome or Shad) and popping baits around Shad schools along canal edges and cut throughs that have loads of bait in them right now. I’ve also slowed my presentation down on these baits.

The Largo Shad is a new bait I’m trying out that is a fish catching machine. I’ve been rigging it with a Berkley 4/0 underspin. The 3.5” matches the hatch perfectly right now. The Pro Blue Red Pearl is my go to color but they have several to choose from. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite fish catching summertime baits.

The Mike Bucca Bullshad 5” Bull Gill in bone color is my go to swimbait. I’m fishing these along thick grass edges near deep sharp drops. Get on the Bullshad email mailing list so you can get the bait drop info. The only way to get the Trick Shad and Glides are go to a bait show that Bullshad attends or through the bait drops. Sign up at Bullshad.com

The live bait bite was great this week. The fish are moving into deeper water so the deeper canals and pits are my focus areas. As water temps continue to climb the bite will slow down as the fish go deeper. I caught them shallow this morning and then they moved deep by 10am as we landed 70 plus fish today with several over 6lbs all in deep water.

Tight lines!

Get the latest word on the bite with Damon from Spacefish on the Mark Moses Show. We talk local fishing every Friday on the air at 4pm.