It’s that time of year again where I start taking more anglers into the lagoon system rather than fish on the beach everyday. The reason is twofold.

This week’s report is basically a continuation of last week’s report. Lots of fingerling mullet are working down the beach and the jack, ladyfish, bluefish, snook and flounder have been feeding on them.

The opening of snook season has not been a disappointment. The fish have been fairly cooperative on just about every piece of structure.

Snook season opens in about a week and the late summer bite is red hot! Big snook are crushing our live baits right now. Menhaden and mullet are the two top baits they have preferred for the last few weeks.

The beach fishing is on fire and toothy rockets are blasting off through the bait pods and our slow trolled offerings. Yep, king mackerel have finally hit the beaches in good numbers this week.

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.

It’s time for those hot summer bites! August is one hot month, but the action can be incredibly good even though it feels like you just walked out the front door into a bowl of soup at 5 am on your way to go fishing.

It’s summertime and the weather isn’t the only thing that’s hot this week. Snook at the Sebastian Inlet and at Port Canaveral have been on fire.

This week my wife and I took a quick trip down to Islamorada in the upper Florida Keys. The weather was calm and the water was hot. On most days the water temperature was 91 to 92 degrees and in a few places it hit the lower 93 degree range.

Well gang, it’s finally happening…. The tarpon are showing up along the beaches in good numbers. I am really happy that they have arrived and that there are plenty of baitfish to hold their attention, so that they don’t blow right through the Space Coast for points northward.

“If you want to!”

A big daddy black drum caught with Capt. Jim Ross!

Red Snapper soon is just around the corner with dates soon to be announced…

Capt. Jim Ross says he catches mangrove snapper like this one with light leaders and small hooks, which will get you more bites on the mangroves than standard bottom tackle.

Beating the storm, hitting that black drum bite!

The black drum bite is still booming in the Lagoon!

Big barracuda caught with Capt. Jim Ross