Hope everyone got out and fished this past week—the weather was beautiful! The fishing was still a bit slow for most, but it was definitely better than it has been.

The Cape Canaveral area is once again dealing with sand renourishment, causing the water to be murky brown on some days, though other days have been crystal clear. Cocoa Beach has produced small pompano, sharks and whiting. The water is still cold but has warmed up slightly compared to last week.

The hot spots for keeper pompano and nice-sized whiting have been Indialantic and Melbourne beaches, where the water is a bit warmer. This week is expected to continue the warming trend, with calmer beach swells and a light southeast wind.

The most popular colors on pompano rigs have been chartreuse, orange and pink. In terms of weight, anglers have been getting by with 3–4 ounce pyramid leads and smaller sputniks. Live sand fleas, shrimp pieces and clam strips have been the go-to baits, often paired with Fishbites.

Something to look forward to in the coming weeks is a surf fishing challenge featuring all the most popular surf fishing rigs. The winner will receive a custom-built rod from our store! Stay tuned, and tight lines!

It’s been a few weeks since we have had anything of substance to report, but this past week we got back out on the water and had some fantastic black drum action. As water temps warmed out of the mid to upper 50 degree range and into the mid 60’s, big black drum started making an appearance on some of the deeper flats in the Titusville area. Black Point, Peacock’s Pocket, Turnbull Basin and flats around the NASA causeway are areas that we search on calm days looking for these fish. Some of the schools only have 30 to 50-fish in them. Others we’ve found are numbering into the 200-plus fish category.

Most of the time when you find drum on the flats they are there to feed, so much of the battle is already won. Captain Justin and I like to cast large shrimp rigged on a 1/4 ounce Saltwater Assassin jig head to these schooling fish. In the case of the larger 30 to 50-pound class drum we tackle up. We’ve found that a 5000 or 6000 size Penn Battle or Clash reel loaded with 30 or 40-pound test Sufix 832 braided line casts well and stands up to the abuse of other fish in the school running into it. To the braided line we attach a 40-pound test Sufix fluorocarbon leader. When a school of drum is moving it can create a wake that looks like it came from a boat but they can slip away from you very easily if you pressure them too much. Using a push pole or trolling motor (set at a low speed) is the best way to get close enough to cast into the school and get hooked up.

These fish will only be around for a few weeks before they start their annual migration northward, so if you would like to feel the pull of a giant drum give us a call at 321-636-3728 or check our available dates on our website at finelinefishingcharters.com. Let’s go catch your next memory!!

Happy anglers down visiting from Maryland had a good day on the water fishing for black drum and sheepshead with Fishing Devotion Charters off the tip of the north jetty.

Good morning, all my Sebastian Inlet fishaholics! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Here we go with this week’s installment on “what’s up at the inlet.”

The last five days I have been down there has been some action, just not anything to write a book about, but steady non the less. One day good, one day bad, one day good, and so forth. You just have to be there when the fish decide to bite. There has been a smattering of different species wanting to play, but like I said, not a lot, just enough to keep you interested. The majority of the good fish biting have been the black drum, and a few sheepshead on sand fleas and shrimp. A couple of pompano have been taken, as well. Beach side of the jetty on the outgoing tide has been the time.

Along with that, the stingrays have been out of control, and everywhere, but not every day. One day I was down I saw one angler catch two at the same time on a double drop rig!! Crazy. Also being a problem were the bonnet head and Atlantic sharp nose sharks eating everything. If you want, you are allowed to keep one of those per person per day, and they have NO size limit on them. They are good to eat, as long as you get the guts out quickly, and get them on ice right away!

Also biting are the small bluefish in the 12-13 inch range, alone with some jack crevalle and blue runners, also on any bait you are using. The big blues did make an appearance again, but didn’t stay very long, only a couple were caught on large silver spoons. Incoming tide was the time for them. As for the flounder bite, it hasn’t been very good, with the ones being caught small, 15 inches to undersized mostly.

The snook season opened on Saturday with a few fish being caught, but most were too big to keep. And several being undersized. Live shrimp and flair hawks were getting the bites. And on that note about fishing for snook, there were a couple of “young guns” I call them, out there on the jetty fishing for the big blues with Gotcha lures, they have very sharp hooks, and one of them snagged a snook, it was too big and it went back in the water, they started fishing again with the gotchas, you reel them pretty quicky and jerk then quickly so they dart from side to side to work properly, and they snagged another snook, too big and went back in the water. So I watched these guys and they figured out that there was probably a school of snook out there where they were casting, and purposely started snagging snook! Apparently there was a school of them out there on the beach side sitting in the warm water, is why they were able to snag them. NOTICE, if you do happen to accidentally foul hook a snook while you are fishing for other fish, or them, if it is in season, and in slot, you can keep it, BUT, if you are purposely trying to snag one out of a school of them you know is there, that is ILLEGAL in the FWC rules and regulations! It states NO snagging / snatch hooking of snook is permitted! If someone calls the FWC, and they see you do it, it is a fisheries violation, subject to citation. Please don’t treat our snook like that. Now back to the fishing.

The incoming tide along the shoreline from the jetty back to the t dock has also been a hit or mis deal. You just have to be in a spot when the fish come by. Sheepshead, black drum, and whiting have been being caught on cut shrimp and sand fleas. I also heard about a couple small redfish caught, and they are still in a closed season. The flounder have been absent for the most part, but some of the smaller ones are being caught back by the ranger work area in the sandy area. Back at the t dock on either tide I saw over the last several days quite a few nice black drum, sheepshead and whiting being caught on cut shrimp. Not much else except for the pesky puffers.

So folks, that’s it for this weeks report, getting better as the water warms back up some. It was 60 pretty much all last week, except for Thursday it went up to 62, and now it is showing 63 as of this report. And the weather for the next week and a half looks to be pretty promising with light winds under 10mph, and small waves at the surf. So maybe we are on the upswing for a change. I wish everyone a great and safe week!

I finally came out of my winter bundle-up and fished last week. It was really nice to see blue skies once again and warmer weather. Mind you the early morning boat ride was full of winter feelings and quite brisk but as the day got later the layers of clothing slowly peeled off. Three lure choices that provided a bite for me on Headwaters and 3 Forks were a Yo Zuri prop topwater lure, my small suspending jerk bait and a Zoom trick worm in black.

This month will be a big push for the bass to start moving shallow to start the spawning ritual. Look for areas with hard bottom for fish to make their beds. The full and new moons will be important to fish around for possibly a big female to catch. Please handle these girls carefully. The next couple of months will be fun!

Simone, Dave and their grandson had a good day and got to take home snook for dinner opening weekend of snook season.

The water temps increased 17 degrees in one week which improved the bite inside the lagoon. Water temps increased to 67 degrees this weekend. School trout, plenty of jacks and bluefish on artificial as well as few snook for opening weekend of snook season. Looking forward to the increase of bait and the bite continuing to improve as the temps this week stay warm, water temps increase and hopefully the winds will stay light so we can get off the beach and find some consistent and steady action.

Hey SpaceFish and East Side family, welcome back. In this week’s report I will be focusing mainly on the tides and temperature. We have a pretty solid tide table this week with low tides beginning around 6am and high tides at noon which leaves a lot of time for good fishing!

With the temperatures warming up quickly and the tides lining up for solid morning and evening bites, look to target pompano during the sunrise and sunset hours mainly. Most importantly, clean water and live sand fleas prevail when seeking these fish. There has been a lot of whiting and croakers in the surf lately with a good amount of bluefish as well so there’s a lot to catch, you just have to go out. Baits of choice will be shrimp, sand fleas and clams. Utilizing simple bead and float rigs will help your catch ratio go up when the water is dirty.

Our clients Fred and Fred had a blast learning the ins and outs of surf fishing during a charter this weekend. We fought through some okay conditions and came out victorious with a nice 13” pompano to join the rest of the fish in the cooler. Nice work gents!

The fishing this past week has been on fire with lots of redfish and black drum and now that the water is warmed up, we are starting to catch some snook too. The water is still extremely low, which is helping to find the schools of redfish and black drum. We should start getting some cobia along the beach in the upcoming weeks with the warmer weather. It’s a great time to get out and fish. I have days available in February. You can call me at 386-295-5991 or go right to my website, FatFishGuide.com.

This week’s fishing report is a promising one! Despite the larger snook being somewhat finicky, the overall bite was productive. The trout bite, in particular, was strong, with fish hitting in both shallow and deeper waters.

In waters over 4 feet deep, working a paddle tail erratically in the lower half of the water column was the key to success. This unpredictable motion triggered strikes from the trout. In shallower waters, a more subtle approach was needed, with trout following the lure and striking only during the pause. Notably, longer pauses proved to be the most effective.

Redfish are also making an appearance, schooling in the shallows. Meanwhile, the sheepshead bite remains strong, with mangrove tree crabs on yellowtail jigs proving to be a winning combination.

With water temperatures finally above 70 degrees, the fish are becoming more active. An interesting observation in the shallow mangrove areas is that larger snook tend to congregate outside the mangroves, while smaller ones are found around the mangrove roots.

As the weather continues to warm up, fishing conditions will only improve. This week, especially with the near-full moon this weekend, should be an excellent time to get out on the water. So, grab your gear and take advantage of the improving fishing conditions!

Went out Sunday afternoon to East Lake Toho from Lakefront Park and started fishing in the same area as I did on Friday morning and got 3 in the boat, all were pound and 3/4 to 2 lbs. Again all were caught on the Rapala Crush City Mayor in Black and Blue flake on a weighted hook Texas rigged. Did find more fish had moved up inside the reeds, but saw no beds water too dark. Missed 3 and had 2 get off in reeds and lily pads. Water temp was up to 67°.

Last few days beach fishing has been hit and miss. A few whiting spot and an occasional small shark make up the mix.
The right whale was around Thursday and that was the best day in quite a while. Water still v cold

Finally I was able to get out for a couple of hours, weather was good, water had climbed up to 62° and I caught 3, biggest pictured at 4.43lbs. Went left out of Lakefront Park and fished along the reed edge with a Rapala Crush City Mayor in Black and Blue flake Texas rigged on a weighted hook. Got the first 2 in the reeds as soon as it hit the water, never got to the bottom and the other came from in the pepper grass. I missed 3 others and lost a couple in the reeds. I caught them on the lake side, seemed like they were moving up to spawn, but hadn’t gotten inside the reeds yet, tried inside the reeds but no luck. All fish were caught within a 100 yard stretch even though I fished longer down the reeds.