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

May 1 2012

With the onset of May, we’re only a short time away from the summer fishing season. The fishing couldn’t get much better, however, than it has been over the past two months. The spring bait run has been one of the strongest in years, with tremendous amounts of mullet, pinfish and menhaden. Even our summer baitfish (pigfish and croakers) have shown up early. This in turn has led to an incredible bite for redfish of all sizes (including giant bulls over 20lbs), speckled trout of all sizes (numerous fish in the 5-10lb range), and small groups of black drum. Tarpon are showing themselves in several places now, small fish in the 20-30lb range. The action has been hot in all areas of the Mosquito Lagoon and the North Indian River Lagoon around Titusville. There’s no better time than the present to take advantage of this red hot spring bite that will soon transition into a red hot summer bite.

The Speckled Trout action hasn’t slowed a bit in the past month, it's been phenomenal. Crazy enough, it should ramp up even more over the next two weeks as more fish school up to spawn on the moon phase. In my opinion, we’re seeing the best trout bite since before the freeze we had three years ago. There are unbelievable numbers of 20-25” trout that range from 3-5lb’s in the shallow waters, and mixed among them are strong numbers of 25-30” trout that range from 5-10lbs. The biggest trout we caught in the past month was a giant 31”/9.75lb, as well as two more 29”/8.5lb’rs. This goes along with a few more trout we caught in the 6-7lb range and 50+ in the 4-5lb range. We’re catching them all in a variety of ways...catching them on lures, flies, and live bait...which means regardless of skill level, everyone gets in on the solid catching action. Mirrolure topwater plugs, Sebile and Mirrorlure shallow twitchbaits, and DOA Cal series soft plastics on jigs have been the best lures. Fly anglers have sight casted numerous trout on seaducers, bendbacks, and clouser minnows. Live and cut finger mullet have been the live bait ticket for catching the biggest of the big trout. I say it every year, if you want to catch a world class specked trout, May is the month to do it. Don’t miss out on a chance to catch a trout approaching 10lb’s or better.

The best action for Redfish continues to be for the GIANT trophies. Pre-spawn schools have formed all over the Mosquito Lagoon and North Indian River Lagoon. Most of the schools have 50-100 fish, but some weeks those schools combine to form groups of 250+ fish. All of these fish range from 15-25lbs, but we’ve routinely landed fish in the 30-40+lb range too. With each passing day they are getting more and more active. This means the school stops moving tight to the bottom and starts floating near the surface which leads to those classic sights of tails and fins poking out of the water. We’ve been sight casting these giant bulls most of the time with live bait like pinfish, mullet and mud minnows to guarantee the best chance for a bite from a trophy. Just the other day we hooked 14 redfish over 18lbs in one day. This is above the norm, but you can generally expect several caught fish each day if the weather cooperates. We can also target these fish on fly and lures like topwater plugs and soft plastics too. Catching isn’t as faced paced as live bait obviously. In the shallow waters, small pods of 5-10lb redfish continue to scatter over shallow grass flats and onto tidal shorelines and oyster bars in and around New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet. We’ve done well with spoons, suspending plugs, and lightweight soft plastic shad style baits. When we throw bait at them, some times they want live mullet or pinfish, other days they want live shrimp, so we adjust accordingly. Fly anglers have done well with one of a couple shrimp patterns or clouser minnows.

The water has warmed enough that I’ve been seeing fair numbers of small Tarpon in New Smyrna Beach, the Mosquito Lagoon and the North Indian River Lagoon. Best chances to catch them are on small tide windows and super calm conditins. Those chances become more regular as we get into May and June. We’re still about 6 weeks away from seeing any bigger ocean moving fish over 50lbs entering our backwaters. Found a couple more schools Black Drum in the Lagoons, Quite honestly why catch them when there is so much else going on, it’s not like they are highly prized, so we’ll fish them if nothing else can be found.

I have openings remaining in May and June dates are starting to fill up. Don’t miss out on some of the best fishing in years, it’s going to be a fantastic summer fishing season over the next few months. Call or email to secure a reservation. Read my fishing charter page to view the top reasons why you should book your trip with me today. Read my fishing report archive to review write-ups from the past several years. I look forward to fishing with you soon…386-212-4931.