Fishing enthusiasts know that success on the water can be a delicate balance of skill, timing, and the right equipment. This past week has been a testament to that, with anglers finding the most success in the early hours and late afternoons. The snook, a prized catch for many, have been lurking deep within the mangroves and on the flats rich with bait.

The key to enticing these elusive fish has been the use of smaller 3″ lures, which seem to be just the right size for the current conditions. I did have some success on the 4″ (the snook shown was caught on the 4″), but the larger lures have not been as effective, indicating a possible preference for smaller prey among the snook population this week.

Clarity of the water has improved significantly, which, while beautiful, presents its own set of challenges. Stealth becomes paramount; any careless movement can send the larger fish into hiding. Long casts have become a crucial skill, allowing anglers to reach their targets without startling them. The use of thin, 15-pound braid line has been advantageous, providing the strength to pull large snook from their structures while enabling those longer, more discreet casts.

For those looking to improve their catch rate, consider the conditions and adapt your approach accordingly. Sometimes, the difference between an empty hook and a successful catch is as simple as the size of your lure and the stealth of your approach. Happy fishing!

This was the first year in over 5 that opening day of grouper season it was calm! Capt Joe made the best of it and crushed it. He had his 2 gags and a limit of AJs in the first hour. Well done Joey! The following days proved the same action. The weekend was a tad tougher though with the ocean being a little angry and not allowing a fun day, So we switched up gears and went for the mighty kings and that was great.The big boys were here and Capt Ricky had a few over 30. The reef was productive as was mid pelican. Live bait worked better than minnows.

The bunkers were hiding out in the bight and in front of the brown condos. It was not the easiest, but it worked.

This week looks iffy. The forecast does NOT match the ocean. Good luck, God Bless and be safe! OH… the Maui Wowis….. Yes, they are here and 140-180 is a great start. On what? anything! Go get em.

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.

We have had a high pressure sitting over Florida for the last week or so producing clear sunny days and lack of rain. The only down fall is it has also brought some strong winds these past few days. The wind has not affected the bite though, with several species like redfish, trout ,black drum and snook still chewing. The bait has worked its way up on to the shallow grass flats and oyster bars and the fish are not far away. When conditions allow plugs, spoons and soft plastics have been working well along with live and cut bait as well. These winds sure continue to decrease as the week moves on making for some great sight fishing.

Fishing has been pretty productive lately, and it looks like we can expect the same this upcoming week! As a kayak fisherman, the wind kept me off the water quite a bit last week, but I was able to pick up on a couple of trends.

Firstly, it seems many of the larger fish are starting to favor areas with a hard sandy bottom as opposed to soft mud. The second trend has been structure. I’ve been finding snook deep in mangrove pockets as well as on the outer edge of the root system, all day long. Trout can be found in deeper water close to the mangroves. I’ve been using Z-Man 4″ paddle tails rigged on 3/16 oz jigs and Mirrorlure 4″ jerk shad rigged on a 1/8 oz weedless hook.

It’s looking a lot like dinner time around here!! Man, we’ve had some great grocery shopping fishing lately. You anglers out there that like to eat good tasting fish need to give us a call and let’s go. Tripletail, black drum, whiting, pompano, snook, and giant margate are what we’ve been targeting most. I have a special offer for anyone wanting to book on 5/1, 5/2, or 5/3. The client that had these days booked, just had to cancel so you get to take advantage of their $100 per day deposit. That’s right — $100 off any 6 or 8 hour trip with us right now. Let’s go catch your next dinner and memory this week!

Frank, Ebby and Joe had a good catching snook including this 40” fish along with some jacks, a few bluefish and ladyfish mixed in.

Light winds most of the week made for some decent fishing inshore but it was still a bit rough to go nearshore. Weekend weather made fishing tough everywhere with heavy winds and rough seas offshore and in the lagoon. Fishing artificials we had some good action on small snook, bluefish jacks and ladyfish. Same with live pilchards but throw in some slot and over slot snook along the mangrove shorelines and docks. The Pompano are moving north now and there has ben a bit of action in the inlet as well as along the beaches and flats on jigs with some bluefish and jacks in the mix.

This upcoming week’s forecast looks like another windy one which won’t hurt the fishing in the lagoon too much but will still put a damper on the nearshore fishing.

Not a bad week at all! The Captains all did a wonderful job making everyone happy once again. Sailfish, Kingfish and plenty of sharks to tug on. The weather was perfect. We had glass calm conditions pretty much everyday and that just makes it so much more fun. Not only for the customers but it lets the ocean clean up nicely and turns the fish on. We are also coming off the full moon and that’s even better.

Bait was still a hit or miss but for the most part worked out perfectly. Running to the reef or pelican is all we did. I will say that the reef was better this week. Captain Ricky had a few sails there, as well. Captain Joe had no problems limiting out on kings daily.

No secret spots or special tactics. Just get LIVE bait and send them out on a wire rig. No reports of any mahi being caught to make it worthwhile to troll up and down wasting gas all day. But please try and let me know, lol! There’s plenty of action on the reefs to have an awesome day. Bottom fishing opens up this week so have fun and be careful. I think it’s gonna be like red snapper day!

The weather looks good on opening day for the first time in many years. Stay Safe out there and God Bless.

Well, with the wind we’ve had the last few days fishing has been challenging, but still very good with lots of black drum being caught and tarpon starting to show up too. The black drum have been eating live shrimp on a jig head. Tarpon have been eating live finger mullet, top water plugs and soft plastics. I’m expecting to have a great tarpon run this year judging by the amount of bait and water clarity. You can call and book a charter starting now through May and the bigger run going through the summer. You can reach me at 386-295-5991 or go to my website.

I only fished Garcia for two days last week. The first day it was the day after that small front came through. With the front came some strong northerly winds and high pressure barometer so my expectations were low. My first area we fished didn’t give us the love as the prior week. It was difficult keeping the boat maneuvered through the topped out hydrilla while trying to fish but having Power Poles on the boat kept us in an area to make multiple casts before moving on. Only a couple of fish so we made a move to the north to find similar waters and we managed to do just that. There were many beds present in this area so we took our time but the bite was still very slow.

My next trip we started in the area we finished the day prior. Winds were light and the hydrilla gnats were out in full force. The bite was much better for sure. I lost two really big fish throwing a prop bait topwater lure in a bone color. When that bite slowed, I chose to throw a stick-bait soft plastic Texas rigged with a 1/8 oz. weight to keep it close to the bottom. This technique kept the bite going as well. The water temperatures are now in the mid seventies to start our days. This last full moon is now behind us but we have been still catching bass that look full of eggs so we may have a later spawn this year as years before. The water level at Garcia seems to be lower this week also. I know we need some much needed rain but I feel that Fellsmere Farms may be a contributing factor by moving waters to take care of their crops as well.

Fortune favors the angler who is willing to do what others won’t, the one who forgoes ease and convenience to reach places others are unwilling to go. At least that’s what I hoped and what had my anticipation running high as I strapped my old nine-foot Hobie Sport to the kayak cart.

I have much nicer kayaks, an Old Town Predator PDL and a Hobie Pro Angler 12, but dragging these behemoths, well over one hundred pounds each, over one and a half miles through dirt and grass was too much for this old angler. To ease the burden of the long trek, I packed light with my bare bones Hobie Sport and a minimal selection of rods and tackle.

The journey to the launch was a long one, but fortunately there were diversions to break up the monotony of dragging a kayak on a cart. At various locations a creek bordered the trail, and the wider and deeper portions of the creek were loaded with panfish and bass. There were no trophies in the creek, but sight casting a small Nikko Okiami Shrimp to these abundant, cooperative, and aggressive fish was too much of a temptation to resist. Perhaps I dawdled too long. I tallied over two dozen fish, and I hadn’t even reached my destination yet.

My destination was no secret. The bank was cleared in several spots along one end of the lake to provide easy shore fishing. I imagine adventurous anglers hike or ride bikes to reach this bass fishing oasis, although not today. I had the whole lake to myself on this beautiful, sunny Saturday.

I could see why someone was willing to hack out clearings along the shore. Every opening offered bass and panfish that were willing to eat. My kayak sat high and dry as I caught another dozen fish. It would’ve been a good day if I had just fished from shore, but dropping in a kayak to access all that fertile water beyond the reach of the bank had me thinking good could turn into epic.

Fishing indeed got better once I got the kayak in the water. I started with a Nikko Zaza Leech on a 1/16th ounce Ned style jig head. This was a good combination, perhaps too good. It was one of those blessed days where fishing gets too easy and certain techniques become boring. After hits on almost every cast and numerous bass caught, I switched to a Nikko Shakey Worm rigged Texas style with a 1/16th ounce bullet weight. After a while it too was swapped out, not due to lack of success but from a desire to catch fish on something different. Next up was A Band of Anglers Loader Minnow and then a Q8 Super Baits Bullet. I think you get the idea. Many more bass came to hand, and I was now wishing I had brought more tackle so I could try something different.

It was an epic day indeed. I lost count of all the one and two pound bass, and I had a scuffed-up thumb to show for it. Bigger fish were caught. I hooked four bass in the five to six pound range. Three threw the hook and one was landed. I’d also occasionally take a break from the bass and toss the Okiami Shrimp on my ultralight where hand size bluegill would oblige.

I should point out not all my fishing trips are home runs. This latest spot was the fourth remote fishing hole I had found by searching on Google Maps. I struck out on the previous three. When you fish a hard-to-reach area, you hope the fishing success is at least somewhat proportional to the level of effort it takes to get there. The first three spots failed miserably on that accord. Those past failures made this latest success so much sweeter.

By now, some of you are asking where I was fishing. I’m not going to tell you. I’ll just say it is somewhere in central Florida, probably within an hour drive for most Spacefish Report readers. I recommend you follow the same steps I did. Scour the online maps, visit new places and embrace the grind. When you eventually find your own honey hole, bask in the glory of the moment knowing you earned every fish through diligence and hard work.

With adventurous trips like this, there is always the agonizing time when you must pack it in and start the long journey back to the truck. A descending sun and the impending emergence of swarms of mosquitoes help hasten that decision. At least I had fond memories of the day dancing through my mind to ease the drudgery of the long trek home.