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

September 2, 2023

With Labor Day almost here, I’m wrapping up another extremely summer. It’s been a throwback to some days of old as the Mosquito Lagoon continues it’s healthy bounce back with tailing redfish on the grass flats and speckled trout following baitfish in the sandy potholes. Closer to Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach, there’s a ton of baitfish in the backwaters and more tarpon around than I’ve seen in many years. Still good numbers of redfish, trout and snook hanging around shorelines and oyster beds too. Even though summer is just about over, we really won’t go through any wholesale changes until cold fronts start to show up in November.

Redfish in the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon still continue to be the hot ticket of the past couple months. We’ve been catching Jumbo redfish over 20 pounds consistently in the deeper water closer to Ponce Inlet. These fish are gearing up to spawn which tends to be the easiest time of the year to catch several of them each day. You’ve got till the end of October usually for your chance at one of these big 40”+ redfish. After that I tend to switch gears and spend every day in the shallows until spring. We’ve been finding really great numbers of redfish on the shallow flats in Mosquito Lagoon all summer. I’ve had multiple trips lately with 10-20 redfish per day. The return of all the sea grass flats in the Lagoon is providing some great sight casting for tailing redfish. If the trend continues October and November are gonna be epic for sight casting redfish as the water cools and they spend all day up there tailing.

Been some great speckled trout fishing in Mosquito Lagoon this summer. We’ve caught good numbers of 17-24” trout every day we tried. Some big ones in the 26-28” range scattered in our catching as well. It’s been an early bite lately as they have been slowing down by 9am. As good as it’s been this year, the exciting part is what’s to come the next couple years. Should be loads of speckled trout growing up in the grass flats again and increasing numbers of big ones every year.

I’ve been really impressed with the numbers of tarpon in the backwaters this summer this year around New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Oak Hill. With those numbers we’ve turned in my best catching results in several years. We’ve jumped a lot of fish, mainly casting artificial lures, and several clients were lucky to land their first. The numbers around on any given day ebb and flow with the weather and water conditions. But one thing is for certain, it gets really good for them in September and October as they prepare to exit the area as the colder weather starts to show up.

Been some decent snook fishing over the past month around Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach. We’ve done most of our damage after sunset or before daybreak when the bright sun is gone. Numbers of big snook are a lot lighter than the last few years, but still plenty to be caught. Fair numbers of smaller ones hanging around on the flats in Mosquito Lagoon and deeper shorelines in New Smyrna Beach. It’s been a slower year for snook fishing for me and clients, they just haven’t wanted to bite…but the increase in redfish, speckled trout and tarpon easily outweigh it.

Got 7 days left open for September, but the calendar starts to relax a little for October and November. 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.