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

February 23, 2023

Hot start to 2023! This year’s winter and early spring fishing has been a flashback to the days of old. The backwater flats in Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River Lagoon this year have been loaded with schools of redfish and black drum. Not just little groups of 20-30, I’m talking big schools of 250+ fish that you can follow and sight cast. Around the hard cold fronts we were fishing multiple groups of 100-200 snook. Even the big trout numbers appear better this winter which will set up nicely for later this spring.

It’s peak busy season and I’m slammed…almost full booked calendar through April. Tough for last minute availability. I have 2 remaining days open in February, 5 days left open for March, 13 days open in April. Call or text, don’t wait!

Redfish has been the start of the last few months! We’ve been sight casting good size schools this year all over Mosquito Lagoon, parts of the North Indian River Lagoon, and the creek backwaters of New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet. It’s easily been the best redfish numbers we’ve had around since 2017. I’ve had many trips over the past 6 weeks with 10+ redfish caught every day. With the onset of spring and warming water temps redfish will be on the move and scattering. Will still be excellent sight fishing through the spring, maybe just not as many numbers caught each day. Been catching them on everything…live bait, flies and some lures.

Been a lot of black drum schools in the Mosquito Lagoon and some creeks in New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater. We usually find them with or same areas as the redfish, so we’re sight casting them as well. Catching has been really easy, they are all over a live shrimp or chunk of crab and we’ve caught several on flies.

Snook have been our next best option for something to catch. Unfortunately the hard freeze we had the week of Christmas killed a lot of the big snook over 25 inches that were living in Mosquito Lagoon. The smaller ones fair’d ok. We’ve caught hundreds of smaller ones over the past 6 weeks. The bigger snook living in the ICW and the backwaters closer to the Inlet made it through the freeze fine. They’ll really start biting good over the next few months as it continues the spring warm up. Pretty much catching all the snook on live shrimp and soft plastics.

Had a really good bite going for speckled trout in the upper half of Mosquito Lagoon mid January when it was warming up after the freeze. We caught several in the 5-7lb range. Seeing decent numbers of big ones and a few giants lately, just haven’t really spent much time trying for them with the redfish action we’ve had going on. With seagrass now being found on the flats in 65% of the lagoon, we are poised for a meaningful recovery in trout numbers and habitat. I think it’s gonna be an excellent late spring. Late April through June are historically when majority of the big gator trout are caught now days. During that time period, we usually catch a bunch of 4-5lb’rs, several 6-7lb’rs, occasional 8-9lb, and once or twice a year a 10lb’r comes along. I pretty much strictly fish live bait for speckled trout…if you want a big one here, that’s how it’s usually happening.

As i mentioned above…limited availability remaining on my calendar from now through the end of April. It’s peak spring break tourist season the town is filling up! Looks like we are gonna be slammed again this year. I’ve got 2 days open in February, 5 days open for March, 13 days open for April. 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.