NIRL February, 2012
Finally, the weather is improving and the wind relaxing. We’ve even had a few days of “flat-calm” water recently. The good news is we should continue with relatively good weather between the imminent cold fronts which will move through the area.

Extremely low water levels have concentrated our local population of both redfish and black drum. Both species are readily eating live shrimp as well as soft-plastic shrimp. The Exude Shrimp in Golden Bream has been a killer recently as has the Mangrove Red Dart, also by Exude.

The Dart can be manipulated to imitate an injured minnow or a shrimp by the angler’s style of retrieve. Inching the lure slowly through the grass on the Lagoon’s floor will get the shrimp eating drum’s (both red and black) interest piqued. Adopting a snappy twitch – twitch – pause cadence will attract the mud minnow/small mullet eating gamesters, including the feisty seatrout!

Many of our usual shallow “flats” areas are all but dry. Do not despair as many fish are holding on the slightly deeper edges of their normal areas. Focusing on edges with a foot or two of depth adjacent to the too-shallow flat will up the savvy angler’s odds for success!

Anglers with the ability to make truly long casts will enjoy opportunity after opportunity on gator trout! This is the best time of year to catch that trophy. Double digit seatrout are prowling the spotted bottom flats with barely enough depth to float a flats skiff. A stealthy approach with your push-pole is a must or if the wind is right a slow drift will accomplish a quiet movement across a fishy expanse.

Soft plastic lures like my favorite, the Dart by Mr. Twister/Exude is a fine choice here. Mangrove Red, Natural Shrimp and Golden Bream colors will excel as choices which produce awesome results. The Dart casts like a… well, a dart! While casting at the trout you’ve already seen and probably spooked will catch a few fish you’ll notice an increase in the catch rate by simply blind casting and covering lots of water. Also, casting past any of the visible sand spots at the extreme end of your vision will pay off with fantastic results.

SML February, 2012
Lagoon water levels are fluctuating between a few inches above sea level to a few inches below sea level, meaning it is extremely dry out there. Yes, I’m saying to you lagoon boaters to be careful in areas you are not familiar with. The good news is that nearly every prominent sand bar in the south region is sticking out of the water and easily seen!

Due to this extreme low water our redfish and black drum are schooling and sometimes in large numbers. I’m happy to report fishing has been quite good in the South Mosquito Lagoon lately. I’ll go out on a limb here and state that fishing will remain good for the foreseeable future as long as our weather remains stable.

Keep in mind the imminent cold fronts which will pass through our state will affect the bite. Depending on each fronts severity the bite may be affected in a small way or shut down altogether. Try timing your trips to the water two days after a major front or later in the day giving the water time to warm several degrees.

While we still have a fair amount of mullet in the area at the time of my writing this report they are thinning and will soon be all but gone. Crustaceans are becoming the key to good catches in the form of live shrimp and shrimp imitations. We have been having success on Golden Bream Exude Shrimp and Mangrove red Darts lately. Rigging them weedless and very slowly working them on the bottom has resulted in decent redfish and seatrout catches. I will be reintroducing the Exude Cajun Crab to the mix of soft plastic lures very soon as we’re beginning to see more “tailing” activity!

Happy New Year, my fellow anglers: May your fishing dreams become reality in 2012!

Even though we are still saddled with dirty water in the North Indian River at the time of my writing this forecast fishing has been quite good, at least on some days!

Redfish and large seatrout are using their typical areas and feeding well when the wind stays light. Black drum are also starting to show in small groups and medium sized schools. Often the pods of fish you are following in the shallows you believe to be redfish are in fact black drum. This will soon become evident as cleaner water becomes the norm once again.

For the next several months I’ll be thinking “live Shrimp” and will be picking up a dozen or three from my friends at Hooch’s. While I don’t exactly feel the need to toss a jumbo shrimp at anything other than gator trout or monster redfish right now, I do like my shrimp to be large enough to easily cast without added weight. Tail hooking a live shrimp with a 2/0 circle hook and placing it in front of all of our flats loving game fish will results in great catches until the pinfish return to create havoc with us next spring.

Of course soft plastic shrimp imitations will do the job too. Exude DARTs can be crawled along the bottom at a snail’s pace and achieve awesome results. Then again the Exude Fan Tailed Shrimp looks like a small shrimp already. By adding a magnum rattle to the hollow chamber of the Fan Tail an enticing clicking sound will get the attention of redfish, black drum and more. Both of these soft plastic lures are wonderful for blind-casting on the flats, but truly excel as sight-casting “baits” to tailing fish or slow cruisers.

Happy New Year, my fellow anglers: May your fishing dreams become reality in 2012!

As of the time of writing this forecast our early winter weather conditions have been rather windy, but also fairly warm. Warm especially when compared to our last two winters. These warmer temperatures are still a double edged sword as our local water continues to be all too dirty from what looks and smells like summer algae blooms.

I’m hopeful and expectant of cleaner water in the very near future, though I’m not going to make any promises: wink. Until our waters do clear we anglers will be well advised to keep some type of natural bait on hand for the tough-bite days we will be encountering. I’m seeing evidence of good numbers of live shrimp in the ‘goon right now. Keep your eyes open for them leaping out of the water, especially where the big roe mullet are feeding. Remember, the slot redfish and trout that shadow these groups of huge mullet are not feeding on them, but the shrimp, crabs and minnows the mullet disturb as they root through the grass!

For those of us who simply prefer to use artificial lures the highly scented soft plastic baits by Exude, Gulp and others will help tremendously. When non-scented plastics are put into play a healthy dab of attractant will up the odds for successful results. Hard baits like spoons and spinners are fine choices as their flash and vibration allow our game-fish to see and feel their presence. These hard bait offerings are fantastic search tools that receive savage strikes from the most receptive fish in a given area. I often have one angler throwing a spoon or spinner while a second angler is using a soft plastic lure to see which “bait” the redfish, trout or black drum prefer. The Exude Dart in Pearl White has been killing both redfish and trout in the cloudy water. Remember, the DART can resemble a baitfish or a shrimp depending on how it is retrieved!

Once our waters do clear a live shrimp will likely be the best choice for redfish, black drum and trout on the flats. Of course soft plastic shrimp like the Exude Shrimp in Natural Shrimp or Golden Bream colors will catch any of the aforementioned species above. Think shrimp for the next several months!

In all likelihood December will kick our winter fishing patterns into full-swing. We can expect cold fronts to slide through the state at regular intervals. With luck, these fronts will be spaced far enough apart to allow our flats fishing to excel in the warm-ups between them. Winter is the sight-fishing enthusiast’s favorite time of year simply because the waters tend to be quite clear and water levels tend to be very low.

December means my boat will be carrying live shrimp to toss at the “spooky” redfish, trout and black drum that will be abundant on our shallows. Yes, these fish will certainly be spookier than our fish have been over the past six months or so. Gin clear water means “they” can see us as well as we see them; probably better than we can see them if truth be told!

The savvy flats angler knows it’s time to downsize things for the season. Down-sizing our artificial lures into the two and a half to four inch range. Down-size our leader from twenty pound test to twelve or fifteen pound test and increase the leaders length to as much as five or more feet using fluorocarbon. Clear water means changes, often subtle changes to be sure, but business as usual is gone for the winter season.

You’ll be seeing at least one rod rigged with a lengthy fluorocarbon leader and sporting a 3/0 circle hook on my Banshee this season. This rig will be used to toss a live shrimp, live mullet/mud minnow or small chunk of cut mullet or ladyfish to laid-up or tailing reds and black drum. This versatile rig (the “stoopid rig”) can also be employed to nose hook and quickly throw an Exude Fan Tailed Shrimp or Cajun Crab to schooling or tailing fish if we’re out of livies or simply enjoy fooling our quarry rather than feeding them. You might be surprised at how weedless and effective the “stooped rig” can be. Give it a try!

If we don’t experience harsh winter conditions this year as we have in the past two Decembers we South Mosquito Lagoon anglers can expect great fishing. The early winter season usually means near perfect water temperatures and clear or nearly clear water conditions. Our toughest factor to overcome right now is dealing with massive amounts of dead grass which has accumulated across our shallows. Only strong winds to blow this mess onto shorelines where it can rot or time itself to allow it to decay on the bottom will rid us of this condition.

Rigging our soft plastic lures weedless and weightless will help us keep our offerings above the matted grass and help them not to sink into the mess when we allow the lures to drop to the bottom. Keeping things rigged extra light and small will be necessary and since our redfish and black drum will be feeding on live shrimp and smaller crabs now a smaller lure or bait is in order anyway.

As mentioned above our local waters will now be holding more crustaceans than fin fish as forage. Yes, there will still be a few fingerling mullet and a fair number of mud minnows for our fish to eat. However, shrimp will become their most abundant food source along with many species of swimming and crawling crabs.

Obviously, anglers should consider using live shrimp or cut blue crab or maybe fiddler crabs as their primary offerings. For those anglers who prefer artificial lures any of the popular shrimp imitations are great choices. I’ll be using Exude shrimp in Natural Shrimp and Golden Bream colors. When a smaller choice is needed I’ll switch to the Exude Fan Tailed Shrimp, often adding a magnum rattle to the chamber designed to hold one. The Fan Tail Shrimp is a deadly winter bait and worth searching for!

Seasonal changes are always interesting for us Indian River anglers. Gone (we hope) is the daily onslaught of blistering heat that has often put us and the sport fish we target in a bad mood. Still, these seasonal changes are bitter-sweet at best when fall starts its slide into winter. The past two winters came early to Central Florida and I’m hoping we have a “normal” fall season this year!

November is notorious for its windy weather, however all but the windiest of days are good fishing days in the fall season. Adapt to the wind’s direction and catch everything from the last of this year’s spawning redfish in the deeper waters to plenty of “slot” reds and spotted sea trout on the shallow flats.

With a bit of luck the awful algae blooms we’ve had to endure all summer will come to an end in November. Our cooling water temperatures and shortening days should stop or at least slow down any new blooms and sooner or later kill off the residual algae that are still evident as I write this forecast in Mid-October.

This is the time of year where virtually ALL types of artificial lures, plugs, spoons etc. are viable options to tie to your lines. Too, live and cut mullet, pinfish or ladyfish will be fine offerings to our flats loving redfish and trout. Be aware that shrimp will become more and more important as a food source as the finfish baits become scarcer. While I realize shrimp is always an acceptable bait, it becomes the premier bait of choice as winter comes knocking.

I’ll most always be keeping a rod rigged with an Exude Dart from now on; a second rigged with an Exude Shrimp. Each offering in colors proper to the water’s color and clarity we are currently fishing. When we’re forced to fish in dirty water areas you can bet a Capt. Mike’s spoon (I like the gold/pink) will be affixed to another rod and a finally a soft plastic minnow, shad or mullet imitation with a BIG tail which offers a lot of vibration!

October’s fishing activity in the South Mosquito Lagoon yielded some fine catches of redfish and sea trout. Yes, the dirty, high water conditions did a play a big factor in the where, what and how to catch them.

Fishing in the isolated back-water areas gave us ample opportunities for tailing redfish on many mid to late mornings. Well placed Exude Darts and Exude shrimp worked well for tailing redfish. The same offerings worked equally well as search-baits by blind casting areas where large black mullet were abundant. We caught many large trout under the mullet with the same soft plastic lures giving anglers exciting BONUS catches! High-viz colors helped tremendously in the dirty water with Pearl White or Glow being my favorites. Other manufacturer’s similar offerings in Nuclear/Electric/Funky Chicken were also eagerly devoured.

For November, expect more of the same type of action. Back-water fishing grounds will be my preferred areas until water levels drop enough to push the fish to the open flats. Make sure you keep a top-water plug rigged and ready. They are producing great strikes in areas devoid of floating grass. In fact if not for the troublesome grass I’d keep one rod tossing a top-water most of the morning!

As mentioned above, if you are having trouble finding redfish or trout in the back-waters look for thick concentrations of big mullet. Trust in the fact that our 3 most common species of gamesters on the flats redfish, sea trout and black drum (yes, black drum) are happy to follow behind or mix in with these mullet which are far too big for them to eat. They will however quickly eat the shrimp, crabs, snails and minnows the mullet disturb while rooting in the grass.

Speaking of black drum; they should begin showing up again in fishable numbers by November. Live shrimp will be the best overall bait to use for the black fish. You might consider keeping a few live shrimp on hand for the tailing reds too.

September has been a fairly good month for big redfish, but the dirty water and windy mornings have made the hunt for them a bit tougher than we’d like to admit. Still, perseverance will pay off in spades if anglers will hold out for improving weather. Not necessarily from day to day, but often the morning chop will lay down along with the breeze around 10 or 11 O’clock. When this occurs we anglers will also have the benefit of the sun being high enough to allow great visibility!

I’m hopeful October’s usual cool-down will reduce the algae blooms enough for the water to clear up a bit. Longer, cooler nights will affect our water temperatures in a positive way, by dropping a few degrees. A few degrees in downward water temps will spur-on activity levels for all species of fish from the tiniest of life forms to the baitfish which feed upon them and the game fish feeding on the mullet, pinfish, pogies, etc.

The breeder redfish should still be active through this month. No matter whether you catch yours on live or cut mullet, live pinfish, live shrimp, cut ladyfish, Exude shrimp, Captain Mike’s spoons or a Sebile Ghost Walker, be sure to revive the fish fully before sending it on its way!

October’s cooling trend should kick the fall mullet run into overdrive. The annual migration of both silver and black mullet from our inland lagoons to the ocean is the driving force of game fish as they gorge on the abundant food source. Imitating these species, especially the silver mullet from a juvenile fingerling stage to adulthood of 8 to 12+ inches will result in catches of redfish, seatrout, snook, tarpon and more in the Indian River Lagoon and surrounding waters.

Don’t forget the shrimp in October! Our local waters will start holding larger and larger numbers of these tasty (to us and the fishes) crustaceans. So, in short, fin-fish in the form of mullet, pinfish and pigfish will still be the most important forage items on our game species menu, but not the ONLY items they’ll focus on. Buy a dozen or two livies from the bait store or carry a few extra Exude soft-plastic shrimp in your favorite colors as back up, but remember the shrimp!

I love October in the ‘goon. This is usually the time of year we anglers can not only catch a multi-species bag, but actually EXPECT to catch several species of fish. Water levels are still high enough to move about freely with slot sized redfish scattered throughout their range. Cooling water temperatures will spur on activity levels in all of our game fish and coupled with shorter days the fall mullet run will ramp up to a fever pitch.

Whether you prefer to beat the bushes on the shorelines, pole quietly across the back country shallows tossing an Exude Shrimp to tailing reds and black drum (yes, expect the blackies to get active) or hop a jig down the drop-off areas, expect to catch fish!

Add ladyfish, flounder, jacks and tarpon to your list of possible rod benders and you’ll soon get the idea of what you might catch in October. BTW, we’ve seen more than a few snook this summer around creek mouths and in back basin locations so don’t be surprised if one knocks your top-water plug for a loop.

Paying attention to two key factors will help the savvy angler enjoy bountiful days on the Mosquito Lagoon this October as our fishing season changes to a true fall pattern. Factor one: pay attention to the bait pattern of the day. Yes, it’s mullet season and live finger mullet is a great bait choice for all of our sport fish right now. It’s easy to match the size of mullet to our intended quarry. For example a three inch finger mullet for pinned to a light jig-head and bounced through sand holes for flounder. Or an eight inch silver mullet lip-hooked and free lined along the drop-off area for a Gator Trout. However, it’s also the beginning of shrimp season. Keep your eyes open for shrimp jumping out of the water in the shallows. This happens more often than most anglers realize. Jumping shrimp mean redfish, trout, black drum etc. feeding on shrimp! Factor two: look for relatively clean water. Gin clear is not necessary, but being able to easily identify a sand spot in three feet of water is clean enough to hold fish. As of the time of this writing (mid-September) out waters are absolutely awful and dirty with algae blooms. October should find fewer blooms and hopefully cleaner and cooler water.

Do yourselves a favor and fish often in October because November is typically windy bringing yet another factor into play.