The weather conditions continue to be hot throughout Central Florida with heat advisory scattered. Fortunately the bite has been just as hot with several different species coming boat side. We are still catching good numbers of snook, jacks and trout throughout the Intracoastal from Daytona Beach south into New Smyrna Beach. The bait continues to be spread out along the shorelines and the fish are near by. As you head further south into Mosquito Lagoon the flats are filled with life from all kinds of bait fish and just like to the north the game fish are near by. The redfish and trout have been shallow early then following the bait later as they start to move to the edges. Both artificials and live baits have doing well. It looks as though we will have the same weather pattern across Central Florida through the weekend so I do not see a change in the bite pattern for the week.

Fishing this week has seemed to slow down a little, but there are still plenty of opportunities to find a good bite if you know what to look for. I fished a mixture of morning and evening trips throughout the week, and one pattern continued to stand out: bait and predators are both favoring areas protected from the wind.

I’ve been finding good numbers of bait in areas with protection from the wind, and the predators haven’t been far behind. Fish have been holding along the wind blown edges of these areas, while others have been tucked farther back along shorelines that offer more protection.

There are still plenty of larger mullet around in the 8–10 inch range, but there are also plenty of smaller pogies around, which is why the 3–4 inch paddle tails have been working well. Smaller topwaters have also been effective when conditions are right. So while the larger mullet are definitely around, don’t overlook the smaller bait when choosing your presentation.

Snook have remained the most consistent target, with a decent number of speckled trout mixed in. I’m also finding some redfish, along with a few jacks here and there.

Tarpon are still around as well, with fish being seen along the ICW, around the ends of docks, and under dock lights. They continue to provide another exciting opportunity for anglers willing to spend some time looking for them.

Overall, the bite may be starting to slow down a little as we move through the summer, but there are still plenty of fish around. Find the bait, pay attention to how the wind is positioning it, and look for the predators nearby. Sometimes finding the right conditions is all it takes to turn a slower day into a productive one.

Man, it has been hot, hot, hot outside, and the bite has been very hit or miss because of the heat. There are some whiting, black drum, and lots of palometas running around. The snook have also been chewing on live mullet and croakers around the jetties and beaches. It’s not the season for them, but it sure is a fun fight!

The weather this week is going to stay hot, but the rain looks like it will hold off according to the weather forecasts. The waves on the beach should stay around knee height all week, and the wind looks to be a light breeze around 10 knots.

The whiting and black drum have been chewing on peeled pieces of shrimp and clam strips rigged on orange or white float pompano rigs. There’s no need for a sputnik weight right now just grab a 3 or 4 ounce pyramid lead and head to the beach. Early mornings and evenings have been the best, with bonus points if you can catch a switching tide. Honestly, I haven’t heard much about the midday bite because it’s just been so hot, haha.

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As always, have a great week and tight lines!

Once again, the trout bite still continues in the lagoon using either popping corks or pigfish. Redfish have been tailing fairly well on the grass edges, but may be a little tough to target in the thicker grass. We’ve had a slight upwelling along the beach, dropping the surf temperatures down a little bit, which is causing the tarpon to move into the river a little bit more but should be starting to stack up on the beach again as the warmer water pushes back in. The mullet run should be kicking off in the next few weeks, which will bring large schools of mullet down the beach, causing predators like tarpon, sharks and jacks to start blitz feeding along the edges of the baitfish schools. I have dates available at the end of the month and end of September, which will kick off the fall mullet run and is a great time to target that bucket list tarpon.

Me and Dorian had a pretty biggggg Sunday, starting with the Oddities Expo at Melbourne Auditorium. I can’t believe how crowded it was, but I should have known better. We’ve got A LOT of odd balls around these parts! We went because it sounded fun and it was conveniently located right next door to our day’s next stop — the Melbourne Library — for Knox Robinson’s class on Florida Fishing. Both events were pretty great. First, we got some special mystically imbued gems and geodes; and then, we were so inspired by the teachings of Knox, we just had to go fishing afterwards. We hit the surf, and now, we’ve gotta be in the double digits on our streak of consecutive surf fishing trips taking home a legal pompano — because we just did it again! Then woke up in the morning and hit repeat. We’re on quite the roll!

The surf got a bit roughed up this week, but despite the water being cold and dirty, our lines were still connecting with plenty of pompano (plenty of catfish, too!). Yesterday (Sunday) we got one just over 11” to fork. High tide did push significant weeds into the surf, but it wasn’t enough to be a problem — they were pretty tight to shore and in not a particularly strong current; I don’t expect the weeds to be a lingering issue. On Wednesday, we caught two — one about 13.5” and another hitting 14.” Big, beautiful specimens! The day before, on Tuesday, we got two more from 12-13.” And then last Saturday, we got another nice one. The biggest during this streak was July 26, measuring about 15 inches!

We’re exclusively baiting up sand fleas tipped with FishGum on 3-drop pompano rigs that are accentuated with only 2 small glass beads — one white, and one pink. No floats. No plastic tabs. No gimmicks. This formula has been working pretty well for us!

I also saw a few huge schools of mullet on the beach and planned to be the first to officially call it — THE 2026 FALL MULLET RUN HAS BEGUN! But I told Capt. Glyn Austin and he reminded me that I am not a smart man. It’s coming though, I can feel it in my blood!

The Ocean Obsession out of Sunrise Marina in Port Canaveral has put their customers on some fun fishing lately. They have caught a mixed bag of different species such as mangrove snapper, triggerfish, dolphin and even a small tiger shark came to play. Fun times and some good eats to bring home. If you want to get offshore with this awesome captain and crew, book your trip now.

The kingfish bite has been very consistent slow trolling both live and dead baits on the reefs. Both Pelican and 8A have produced kingfish with a few mahi mixed in. There were some bonita caught this week too. Over the last month we have dealt with the summer thermocline but that seems to be coming to an end. We haven’t been bottom fishing much because of it but plan to get back to it sooner than later.

All the recent cold water has made for some interesting catches on my fishing trips since my report last week. My customers have landed sharks, tarpon, snook, redfish, black margate, red snapper, black sea bass, king mackerel, bluefish, lane snapper, and big weakfish like the one pictured above. That’s the crazy thing about fishing in August, when you sprinkle in a little bit of cold water from the Labrador upwellings and mix that with the summertime heat you just never know what you might catch on your next cast. As I write this I want to get everyone up to speed on the incredible fishing that happens in August and that the fall mullet run is just around the corner.

The mullet run usually starts around the first or second week of September and runs through the second or third week of October Mornings are best but the 3 to 4 days following the new and full moon phases are usually best in the midday to afternoon periods so please remember this when scheduling your September near-coastal fishing charters with me. Sometimes the afternoon bite is actually better than the morning bite. It’s super easy to book an excursion to chase fish this fall, just go to my website and put your deposit on whichever day that you want that I have open. If you have any questions about the fishing or which days may be best to book, then please give me a call at 321-636-3728 and I can get you settled in on a day that will work with your schedule

Greg with some action in the cold water upwelling

Water on the beach has been cold which makes the bite tough depending on where the tide is. There have been plenty of tarpon, sharks and jacks around but the clear and cold water put a damper on the bite but it did help the lobster divers. Hoping the water warms up this week and the beach gets back to normal. The inshore bite will start firing up soon as the mullet become more prevalent in the lagoon. There is a lot of grass in the lagoon along the mangrove shorelines, flats and some of the coves and there has been a lot of pinfish, pigfish, glass minnows and mullet in them. Once the water temps cool and the mullet show up in force, the fishing should get pretty good. We did a couple inshore trips last week due to the storms and rough seas and the bite was good early. As we move into the next few weeks, the water temps should slowly cool slightly with the shorter days and the bite should last longer in the morning. The beach should be fishable this week so keep an eye out for the bait pods and you should be able to find plenty of action.

We rounded out our summer vacations this year with a scalloping trip to Florida’s west coast. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. I’m 52 now and it’s a fantastic family vacation.

You do need a boat, but if you don’t have one, plenty of captains offer charters to take your family scalloping. Depending on the county, the season generally runs from July through September. Steinhatchee’s opens earlier, on June 15th, and though I’ve never scalloped there myself, I’ve heard great things about it. There are plenty of places to stay along the coast, from Crystal River down to Homosassa.

The past several years, we’ve stayed in Pasco County. The season there is shorter, but so is the run out to the scallop grounds, a fair trade-off. We typically book a waterfront VRBO for a few days so we can keep the boat right behind the house. It’s game on from there.

You don’t need a lot of expensive gear, either. A mask, snorkel, fins, and a mesh bag to hold your catch will do it. Just make sure to keep a 5-gallon bucket on the boat so you can track how much you’ve harvested and stay within the daily limits for your area. Adults will also need a current saltwater fishing license to harvest scallops.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try or want to learn more about, feel free to reach out, I’m happy to share how we typically go about it. It’s a great family experience, and I highly recommend it if you’ve never done it before.

The Stick Marsh is still producing a good bite for us this past week. Finding an area with bait activity is important for the bass to be close by. Little subtleties will give the spots away, cormorants working the waters nearby or the osprey feeding in the area from up above are both giveaways to bait close by. There is one more way to tell but it isn’t by sight but smell. When moving around the south end of Farm 13 and coming into an area with a distinct sweet smell in the air, stop and fish this spot. That smell is bedding bluegill and the bass will be in and around the panfish for its meal. One lure I love to throw if calm waters are to be had is a popper style presentation. It closely resembles a bluegill feeding on the surface. The pump stations were open for a short time last week but the rain really hasn’t been heavy enough to fully open them for a couple of days moving from the Ft. Drum area and northwards.