Resilience is one trademark of big black drum. These fish can handle colder temperatures better than many of the other gamefish species that we target in the wintertime here on the Space Coast.

Ok gang, every year there are certain events that happen that I try to predict in advance, but often even us so-called “professionals” don’t get it exactly right. Obviously, my crystal ball isn’t 100 percent correct all of the time. Maybe it needs a tune up. Lol!

Near-shore action remains strong out of Sebastian and Port Canaveral this week. We’ve been catching really good numbers of tripletail that are averaging 8 to 15 pounds.

I hope everyone had a fantastic New Years celebration, and that you’re all getting a chance to take your new fishing rods, reels and lures that you got for Christmas out to see just how much the fish like them.

This past week I saw the change, we’ve reached the end of fall and we’re transitioning into early winter and with this change, we can start to see schooling activity in our lagoons again.

Hey gang, as you all know, we’re coming into the winter months, and this means a change of species that we have available to us in our lagoons and along the near-coastal waters. Black drum will become more readily available in the lagoons. Larger black drum like to hang out around hard structures like piers, pilings, and bridge abutments in the Indian and Banana Rivers.

We all know how great the weather has been this past week, but did you know the fishing was even better? Yes, the bite has been strong.

These past few days have been really beautiful here on the Space Coast. It has allowed me to get out along the beach and chase the variety of fish that have shown up after this last cold front.

Hey everybody, as you know it’s fall time, so we’re dealing with windier conditions this month due to the start of our cool front passages through the Space Coast region. All of the high water has left us with only a couple of options in our lagoons.

Spacefish anglers know that the wind has been blowing, but that didn’t keep us from going over the past week. That old adage “the wind is your friend,” couldn’t have been more true since my last report.

“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