fishing for tarpon around new smyrna beach

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

June 4, 2011

It’s June on the Space Coast and that means everything’s a potential target. Speckled trout, redfish and tarpon are abundant and can be found in all areas. We’ve also found flounder, bluefish, jack crevalle, grouper, and snook. Water temperatures are in the 80-85 degree range which makes early starts a priority. That doesn’t mean the bite necessarily dies off early, as we are often catching fish well into the afternoon. Water levels are still staying very low for this time of year...the lack of any significant rainfall is the main cause. The sight fishing on the flats in the Lagoons is excellent and the deep water fishing in the creeks and channels from Edgewater to Ponce Inlet is also consistent. I fished two tournaments in May. On the Xtreme Redfish Series’ Titusville division, my partner Mike Marple and I took 2nd place. (We also took 2nd place in the April tournament as well.) At the annual Fishstock event in New Smyrna Beach over Memorial Day weekend, I had a strong showing in the redfish and trout divisions, finishing just out of the top 3 in each division as well as the grand overall. But we brought home more trophy hardware when my son won 1st place in the Youth Angler division.

The Speckled Trout bite has been the best thing going over the past month and that will continue throughout the summer. We are primarily live baiting with mullet, pigfish and croakers, but we’ve also had some decent success throwing suspending plugs and jigs. May is always the top month for catching big trout and this past May was oustanding. We caught nearly two dozen trout in the 6-9lb range. In the process we caught countless numbers of 18-22” trout. When we’ve spent the day strictly fish for them, we’ve caught 30-40+ trout with general ease with pretty much everything over 15”. On day’s we’ve mixed it up with redfish, we’ve still caught 10-20 trout. With the increased temperatures and daytime sunlight, the best action is moved to deeper water around big concentrations of bait fish.

The Redfish bite has again picked up steam over the past couple weeks. You have a choice during the summer months of chasing trophy bull redfish schooling to spawn or targeting pods of smaller 5-10lb fish in the shallows. The best action for giant trophy bull redfish will be in the Indian River Lagoon. On calm days we’ll find big schools of them congregating in deeper water. These fish are spawning so we don’t make it a habit of targeting them, just catching 1 or 2 before moving on. In the Mosquito Lagoon and tidal areas around Ponce Inlet we’ll find great numbers of smaller 5-10lb redfish. On an average day we’ll catch anywhere from 5-15 or more on a variety of live bait, lures and fly selections. Baitfish choices typically outfish shrimp and crab offerings.

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t fished Tarpon very much so far this year. Strictly because the bite for trout and redfish has been so good that everyone has wanted to do that instead. We did fish for them on a few days in May, jumping fish on each day but one. All of the fish we hooked were in the 20-30lb range. Those smaller juveniles have been moving around in good numbers and the bite seems pretty good. I’ve seen a lot of tarpon in both Lagoons, the ICW and around Ponce Inlet. I’ve also seen a couple bigger bigger adult fish over 50lbs trickle in around Ponce Inlet and move down the ICW. The action for tarpon will only improve over the next 4 months. Swimbaits and hard plugs imitating pinfish and mullet will score.

It’s been a very busy year-to-date, the busiest I’ve ever had. I only have about 7 morning dates left open in June, but I can do some afternoon live bait charters as well.Give me a call now to check my availability and reserve/book 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…386-212-4931.

Some client catches from the past month...







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