New Smyrna Beach Area - Indian River Lagoon - Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

August 24, 2020

What an amazing summer we are about to wrap up. Despite some uneasy feelings in the spring about how business would look like the rest of the year, I was blessed to have record months of bookings this summer and the fall looks to be incredibly busy as well. This summer has also produced the best bite for giant bull redfish in 10 years. A tremendous amount of tarpon have been inshore this year; again easily the most numbers in several years. In addition to lots of big redfish, we’ve continued to do well catching big snook. The good news is (if you’re reading this and didn’t take advantage) everything we’ve been targeting and catching will stay red hot and won’t slow down until the November time frame.

This summer has been all about the giant bull redfish we are famous for. It’s easily been the best bite for trophy redfish over 20lbs in 10 years around New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet. Once upon a time big redfish used to be a staple of the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River, but it has undergone a major decline over the past decade with those fish relocating. It’s taken a lot of work to relocate where all these fish now live and what they are doing. But this year, nearly every trip over the past couple months has caught at least a few, with a majority catching 5-10 big bull redfish every day. We’ve even had multiple days with 10-15 landed. They’ve all ranged in size from 20-40 pounds, with a couple once in a lifetime fish approaching 50 pounds. One of my lucky angler’s even landed one at 60 pounds. Even more exciting is we accomplished all this before it gets even better. Historically speaking we’ve always had lots of days like this in September and October around Ponce Inlet, so we are poised to do even better over the next couple months. If a redfish over 40 inches is on your bucket list, you’d be well advised to get on the calendar now! You’ve still got a couple months left before they scatter and disappear for a bit late this fall.

There’s been a tremendous amount of tarpon around over the past month or so at Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna Beach and down into Mosquito Lagoon. Tarpon in this area have ranged from 20-100 pounds. A little passing tropical storm forced a bunch of them into the river this summer and we’ve seen hundreds of them lately. We were doing pretty well in July, jumping one almost every day in the 50-80 pound range. They got really hard to get bites from in early August, but are starting to turn on again over the past 10 days or so. Just like redfish, you’ve got about another 4-6 weeks left before they make a quick hiatus out of here when the cold fronts start moving in.

Snook fishing around Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach is another bonus this time of year. Typically late summer and early fall are when we catch the biggest snook of the year. They are winding down there spawn season and eating and moving back to where they will spend the colder months. We’ve caught several snook in the 28-34 inch range during the past couple weeks as well as multiple other smaller ones. The snook population around New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet stretching all down throughout the Mosquito Lagoon is the best I’ve ever seen. We haven’t had any hard freezes in the last 10 years so they numbers are booming! Snook season reopens on September 1st so it’ll be a hot ticket over the next few weeks.

Half of September is booked up, but still have good openings scattered throughout the month. Same goes for October and November. Take advantage of the best redfish fishing of the year. I take short notice trips if I have time available. Text me or call me at 386-212-4931 or even send me an email to secure a date. Read my fishing charter page to view the top reasons why you should book your trip with me today. I look forward to fishing with you soon…