Recent fishing reports from the East Central region.
Sebastian Chaos
Florida Sportsman member: surfer23mg
From the bridge to the tip of the jetty I have never seen tarpon exploding like they were. 130 plus pound fish completely skyrocketing out of the water as far as you could see.
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Mosquito Lagoon Action
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
Trevor wanted to treat his girlfriend to a fishing trip for her birthday, so we went redfish hunting on the flats, started off with a bang, with bites first thing, turned slow in the second half, but we still had a great time.
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Sebastian Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Kim Chi
My nine year old son caught the fishing bug over the summer and wants to fish every chance he can, so we have been hitting the inlet a lot lately. We have mostly been catching jacks, reds and snook on pins, pigs, croakers and mullet on all different stages of the tide.
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Windy Week
Florida Sportsman member: Final Point
That being said we still caught plenty of fish, especially back in wind protected areas. Baits of choice this week were live finger mullet pinned to a 3/8oz jig head and various hard twitch baits.
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Figuring It Out
Florida Sportsman member: EddyRodriguezU
Normally I’m looking for oyster bars, changes in the tide, grass flats, and deep sand pockets. Since majority of those are not evident in this area I just started looking for bait and fish the surrounding areas. Needless to say today was a completely different story. Within an hour or so I had four nice trout in the boat and a 24 inch red.
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Tarpon from the Paddleboard
Florida Sportsman member: SaltyRoots
With an enormous thunderstorm looming in the distance we knew we wouldn’t have much time to fish. Within three minutes I was hooked up to nice little tarpon. Landed the fish about 10-15 minutes later and safely released it.
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Cocoa Beach Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: 186 KEYWEST
Forum member 186 KEYWEST and friends got into the tarpon off of Cocoa Beach. Within 15 minutes of getting bait, they were hooked up!
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Mosquito Lagoon Reds and More
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
Fall is a great time for locals to fish the Lagoon, tourist season is over so many less guide trips on the water most days, locals who hunt are focusing on the fall hunting season, not out fishing, so much less boat traffic on the flats which is very welcome change from summer.
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Red Hot in the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: marcogrey
Got an early start this morning for the Lagoon, weather was great and reds were out. Between two boats we managed 10 reds in the range of 22 to 50 inches. The rookie in the group ended up with 4 including the beastly 50 inch monster on a shallow flat.
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Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
Went out a couple nights this full moon on the hunt for bulls on the flats, overall, it was pretty slow both nights. I did however manage to land my personal best red at 50.25 inches with a relaxed tail on the first night.
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Catching in the Backwater
Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
Hit it a couple days ago looking for the snook, they were nowhere to be found but these reds were happy to oblige on the same shorelines. I’ve only caught under slot reds back here so it was quite a surprise to put a 29″ and 26″ on deck in two back to back casts.
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Indian River Bulls
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
Forum member RealSeabee recently got into some bull redfish in the northeast Indian River. These fish can be found in small schools along the shorelines.
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Surf Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: CFLnative
Decided to put lines back in 30 min before we were going to leave and this gal shows up. About pulled my rig into the surf. Not sure what it ate, either a clam strip (not likely), bare hook or a small croaker that was already hooked.
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Mosquito Lagoon Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
Summer has arrived to Mosquito Lagoon and the Edgewater backcountry, loads of mullet schools, summer water temps mean early morning surface activity. Live mullet and pigfish, topwater lures early morning, weedless rigged jerk baits and soft plastics, cut mullet and ladyfish are all good summer pattern baits and lures.
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Sebastian Slam
Florida Sportsman member: duckmanJR
I decide to keep at it and miss a strike and as i’m trying to decide if I want to quit I see a nice fish up ahead. I move down on it and make a toss, but the wind takes it long and I cup the spool to stop it short by about a foot…but the fish turns and inhales it!
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Spring Time Variety
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
Fishing from New Smyrna to Edgewater to Oak Hill and south into the lagoon, clients catching everything from Redfish and Seatrout, Black Drum and Sheepshead, Mangrove Snapper, Sharks, Bluefish, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, and more. Backcountry mixed bag trips have been great, 10 or more species on most trips, keeping it interesting waiting to see what type of fish will surface next.
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East Central Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: jmsnookman
It was a little tight with four anglers on the boat, but the fish were chewing hard at all three spots we hit this morning. Between breakoffs and missed hook sets we lost as many as we landed; and we landed twelve trout (mostly overslot), two slot reds, snook, and missed a tarpon that would have completed a grand slam.
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East Central Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: Reel Teal
I re-rigged another mullet and put it in the same spot and a couple minutes later got hammered again and this time stuck the hook in em. After about a 5 minute fight landed a 29 inch red. It had a fat belly full of those mullet I assume.
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Catching in the Indian River
Florida Sportsman member: tron1.8
Me and my wife headed out early and had a great time getting into some fish. She got her first tarpon and some large jacks. One jack had two large jigs down his throat. We were able to bring home some sheephead and one nice mangrove snapper as well.
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Night Time Sebastian Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Salty Roots
The night time tide changes have been our bread and butter. The snook have been hitting bucktails, the reds were hitting cut pogies when we could get them, live croakers when we could get them, and for two nights they were smacking crabs on the top.
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North Brevard Wading
Florida Sportsman member: IRJ
Forum member IRJ caught some nice fish wade fishing in North Brevard. Fishing soft-plastic paddle tails were the key to success.
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Catching in the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
The shallow water coming up a few degrees can have some fish leave the school to look for food on their own, fishing some areas with soft muddy bottom, can have loose groups of reds and trout in dished out type spots of a couple feet deep.
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Windy Day on the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: flightcontroller
A good day on the goon even with the winds. We managed to drift up on several single/double over slot reds but the planets aligned only for this one 29 inch fatty. If we had been a bit more on our game, we could have boated a half dozen of these.
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Cocoa Beach Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: fishin4amission
Been busy enjoying our local waters trying to find some willing fish. Some days have been great letting us get some inshore slams. Others we are lucky to just catch a couple fish. Most fish have come on slowly presented paddle tails and doa shrimp.
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NIRL Drum Bite
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
It’s a pretty good size piece of real estate to try and cover but I did manage to get three BIG red’s to eat, but none willing to get all the way inside the boat, two alongside and one about 10 feet away. They were all OVER Slot and would’a been released anyway but I’d rather have done the “releasing”.
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A Friend’s First
Florida Sportsman member: duckmanJR
With us having a grueling duck hunt schedule we finally had an off day on Monday while one buddy drove another to the airport and we slept in. We woke at 9 and the weather looked OK, so we splashed the skiff. Wind was brutal at 14 out of the northeast but it didn’t take too long.
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Wintertime Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: redfish27
So my 14 year old son invites me out yesterday on his “new” skiff and says he knows where some tarpon are. I take him up on the invite, no doubt he knows his stuff. Seems like just yesterday I was showing him the tricks of fishing and boat handling, now he is taking Dad out and putting me on fish.
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Warm Winter in the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
New clients Laszlo and Brittany from Connecticut had a great, first flats fishing experience out with me, good sight fishing conditions helped them catch 5 Redfish with most overslot fish up to 29 inches and upper slot fish, being good catch and release anglers all fish were sent off swimming.
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East Central Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: Cavanaugh68
The spotted seatrout are thick along the drop offs and ledges. However the big boys, the gators, are back in deep thick backcountry waters. Searching the white holes or sand spots and always keeping in mind your posture, bait movement and signs of their presence.
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Early Winter on the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
The colder water has redfish starting to school on the flats with winter sight fishing patterns as water gets much clearer and the temperature drops. Sea trout are also a winter target species on the lagoon waters, the larger Trout frequent the flats along with Redfish, while most school size Trout are caught along the drop offs edges of holes and sloughs in the backcountry.
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Nearshore Mayhem
Florida Sportsman member: SaltyRoots
We went out of the Port in search of triple tail, flounder, redfish, and kings. Both times got blanked on the triple tail and flounder but that was because all of our time was spent reeling in kingfish and redfish!
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Braving the Conditions
Florida Sportsman member: Keystroke
We were the only boat in Sebastian Inlet for 2 hours. The fish were fattening up for winter on the incoming tide. As the tide started to swing to outgoing we got out of there. Sebastian Inlet can be a deadly place if not respected.
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East Central Slams
Florida Sportsman member: duckmanJR
I really didn’t keep count on how many I was catching, but it was close to “palooza” status. We ran south to a new spot and it didn’t take long till I had another trout, then a snook and then Frank hooks up his first snook ever.
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Fun in the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: Capt Michael Savedow
The water is still fairly high on the north lagoon so fished mostly shorelines and points that the north wind would allow. Mainly finger mullet baits as I fish with clients to give them the best chance for maximum bites, our second red did not take long at that first spot as daughter Calle hooked up with this 25″ extra spot fish.
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Banana River Red
Florida Sportsman member: Panfishangler1
My friend and I pulled the lines in, anchors up and began to let the fish lead the way. I was using 10 pound mono with a 25 pound test leader. If my drag wasn’t set right, there was no guess that I would have lost the fish.
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Messin’ with the Macks
Florida Sportsman member: Farout
We ended up with 30 Spanish, threw back countless bluefish and jacks and another 10 or so small mackerel. A huge shark came up and grabbed a small spanish we had just hooked, it came out of the water and performed an awesome acrobatic display for us and promptly snapped the line.
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Bulls off the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: triplehelix
Joined the fleet atop a redfish frenzy. They were feasting on pogy pods, so we matched the hatch with some live ones on the bottom. In half an hour we released four reds in the 15 to 20 pound range.
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Sebastian Inlet on Fire
Florida Sportsman member: Final Point
What an incredible fishery we have here in Sebastian. The last week has been full of some serious fish. The smallest snook to come in the boat was 30 inches, the smallest red was also 30 inches.
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East Central Action
Florida Sportsman member: SaltyRoots
Been hitting up the inlet for the late night outgoing tides with the old man. We’ve been pretty successful drifting through with live bait bouncing the bottom. Mullet, pins, pigs, croakers it didn’t matter, if you were bouncing bottom you were hooking up.
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Putting the In-Laws on the Fish
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
Top Water (Skitter and Sebile Slim Sticks) and Cut Mullet are the baits. We’ve been doing much better this go around. Don has caught 18 reds to this point and we will be out again today.
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New Family Record
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
The old family record red fish WAS 44 1/2 inches which my wife held. Well, today she done went and broke our family record, new record is 50 3/8 inches!
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Redfish Riot
Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
I also pitched them the monster 7 inch Fender Walker topwater plug. These reds lost their minds when they saw that plug, I had one red of at least 45 inches come completely out of the water about a foot above the surface trying to dismantle my plug. It was epic action to say the least.
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East Central Snookin’
Florida Sportsman member: Keystroke
There are some big fish out in the ocean along the beaches, feeding on all that little bait moving along the coast. The trick is to fool them into eating in that clear ocean water. Can’t wait till all the big girls find their way up through the inlet and visit us this fall.
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Early Morning Trout and Reds
Florida Sportsman member: B. Graves
I had some fun with the trout for a while then made my way to the spot I had been fishing the last few times out and the reds weren’t there. So I started trolling around looking for some and came across a school of 30 to 40 over slot reds.
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Indian River Reds
Florida Sportsman member: B. Graves
Took about an hour to find some redfish. Caught a couple decent trout on topwater while looking for reds. Finally started seeing tails so I anchored up and threw some top water, soft plastics and a spoon, nothing. So I turned to cut up pinfish.
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East Central Tailers
Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
We made the paddle out to the spot and we were greeted by 100 plus over slot reds happily tailing away in the grass, finning out, backs breaking the surface, the whole 9. We managed to scoop up 5 until the wind switched out of the east briskly and they all made their exit off to the deep end.
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Bulls Before the Storm
Florida Sportsman member: RiverRat321
Within ten minutes of that mullet surfacing the water there was the blow upp! I grabbed the bell and set a perfect hook set and enjoyed the ride! She put up a nice and long fight for her size at 36 inches, I got her in and unhooked her. Of course we released her just in time to head in before the storm.
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Backwater Tarpon in the Rain
Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
40 hookups between us give or take, the vast majority of them shook off after a fine display of acrobatics. We got a few decent ones to the boat though, including a nice one Steven caught on fly.
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Sebastian Slob Snook
Florida Sportsman member: MelbourneMark
A little defeated we headed to one of our shorelines to soak some shrimp, hoping to catch some trout or reds. We were using light tackle with 25 pound leader. This was my wife’s first snook over 40 inches, and she did a wonderful job of handling her around the boat. The fish ran what seemed like 100 yards before slowing down. I finally got her in the net, but she would not fit completely.
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Setting Personal Records
Florida Sportsman member: SlamPiece
School of 30 or so breeder reds tailing in the flats, carefully casted with the jerkbait and twitched it twice. Thought I spooked the school (as a huge wake was formed near my lure) but turns out two or three reds were racing to get to the lure first. Hooked up and after a nice fight on my lightest outfit I landed a 44 inch red!
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East Central Reds
Florida Sportsman member: FLChance92
I spent a ton of time up in north Brevard and some schools in the Banana this past week. I haven’t fished up there much in a while and figured I would go chase some schools of Redfish I used to fish for as a kid.
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Tarpon off the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: Secretweapon321
Forum member Secretweapon321 got into the tarpon recently. Jumping one fish and landing one after an hour and a half battle! Nice work.
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Solo Mission in the Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: FowlMouth824
After a couple hundred yards on the pole I spotted a small school of slot reds. They were milling about, completely unaware of my approach. I tossed out the ole trusty CAL on an 1/4oz head, one fish spotted the “prey”, broke ranks and pounced.
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East Central Gators
Florida Sportsman member: FowlMouth824
There was no shortage of bait or game fish, we saw hundreds of black drum all morning long. We could hear them drumming through the water. Though we never could convince one to eat. We threw D.O.A. shrimp, cals and an assortment of flies. They were just completely disinterested.
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Snookin’ Success
Florida Sportsman member: Postal
This girl blasted my bait and screamed off line the fight is on. She headed for the dock pilings and the mangroves. After a fun battle and yelling ” no! ” a 100 times with every dart she took for the dock, I landed the old girl.
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East Central Reds and Trout
Florida Sportsman member: Montana1
I think we only caught two fish that were under slot, and one that was just over. None of the fish were tailing, and 90 percent of them were caught while blind casting, and just like always they were all caught on artificials, and released to fight again.
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Big Mosquito Lagoon Snaggle Tooth
Florida Sportsman member: tron1.8
My friend invited me out Sunday for a short trip. Caught a couple of small trout and reds, nothing major but it was nice to get out. Then this one took my DOA glow shrimp with my 6 pound line. Ended up being 30 inches long, one of the biggest I have caught in a long time!
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Saturday Sheepsheading
Florida Sportsman member: DeHeaven
We ran to our first spot and within a few hours had boated five keepers. Kris had the winner with a seven pounder! We ran out of fiddlers and the weather started to improve so we decided to go to port to get some food and more bait and try fishing at the mouth to see about a mix bag.
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Gator at Daybreak
Florida Sportsman member: dtm
As soon as it got daybreak I was ready to fish. About 5 casts and then wham! Fish on and a good one, it came up shaking its head trying to spit the hook then surged for the trolling motor under the boat ,buried in the mud and then game over. right into the one arm landing net. This thing is a hog first fish of the day and wow. By this time another boat showed an was working the same area but keeping his distance. I kept on a fishing and wammo another hog at 25 inches and released it.
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East Central Action
Florida Sportsman member: KLUELESS II
Not having a push pole we drifted the flat until we started seeing tailing reds (BONUS!).The wind dropped and the rain started but it seemed to really get the fish fired up. Although I struck first blood with a small rat red that I will not post pictures of, captain Adam was the top hook with a just short slot red and two slob trout!
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Big Trout in The Lagoon
Florida Sportsman member: dtm
Hit a few deep spots hoping the trout would be hunkered down waiting for the flats to warm up, we threw gulps and worked them slowly in their face and they couldn’t let the easy meal go by.
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Redzilla In The Inlet
Florida Sportsman member: SaltyRoots
Got a solid hook set and 25 to 30 minutes later, redzilla was boat side. It bottomed out our 40 pound boga grip scale with ease. We guess it to be 45 plus pounds and it was a hell of a way to start off the new year.
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Sebastian Inlet Holding Big Fish
Florida Sportsman member: SaltyRoots
Occasional weeds fouled plugs and Friday and Saturday the waves made it a little dicey in a 16 foot boat to say the least, but the fishing was on fire. Managed to catch around 11 snook (2 slot before the 15th), 7 reds, and 2 tarpon and lost countless others. We were using 50 pound Yozuri Flouro with a decent size split shot about 8-12 inches above a Owner Mutu Light 4/0-5/0 circle hook.
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Trying Something New
Florida Sportsman member: Muskee50
I went fishing today for the first time out of Port Canaveral. I usually fish out of Mosquito Lagoon but decided to try something different. I fish out of a 17 foot flats boat so we were waiting for a nice day like today to fish along the shoreline. We picked up a few small bluefish and this nice bull Red. It is by far my largest red to date. I battled it for approximately 15 minutes before finally bringing it to the boat. I didn’t want to keep the fish out of the water any longer than necessary so no measurements or weights were taken , just this photo.
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Night Time Bruisers In The Inlet
Florida Sportsman member: Final Point
Did a trip with a good friend on Saturday evening. It rained on us most of the night but the fish didn’t mind. I’ll just show you the two big fish of the night. All fish caught on 6000 series PENNS with 50 pound braid, 50 pound fluorocarbon leader and 4/0 circle hooks. Baits were pigs, pins, croakers.
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Slobs In Sebastian
Florida Sportsman member: Final Point
Then, as the sun was starting to drop Sammy hooks into something big. Never got it close enough to see it even though at some points the top of the leader was out of the water, fought it over about three quarters of a mile of inlet and almost 20 minutes before it pulled the hook. I thought he was going to lose it and chuck my pole in the water but he kept it together. And on the very next drift he had redemption.
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Bringing Home Dinner In Sebastian
Florida Sportsman member: duckmanJR
At this point both the wind and water clarity were past what I like and my arm was now past the point that the two morning Aleve were doing anything. I was willing to quit with dinner in the well but thought,
“one pass on those oysters by the island over there” and that’s where this nice red was to finish the slam.
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Banana River “Red” Hot
Florida Sportsman member: SLW UroCane
So here are a few more pictures. Started in the morning on west side out of the wind by Kars campsite. 2 reds there including the biggest of the week. Few trout and jumped another tarpon under that dock. Then went over to 528 and waded out to the bombing target. No reds but a lot of small trout. Finished about of the wind south of 520. Another red and a few trout on the Mirrodine. All fish this week released alive. Best part, not a single jack, catfish, or lizardfish!
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Redfish Mayhem in Cocoa Beach
Florida Sportsman member: Fin & Fly Charters
The redfish bite is super hot right now, were catching 10 to 40 redfish a trip and all of them are on artificial. Topwater is definitely the best strike for them but you can use any of your favorite lures [...]
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Indian River Lagoon Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: cbmdk86
my fish was a stud, and would have been the biggest fish of the day, which got wrapped around someone’s boat and I actually managed to work it out, had it pretty whooped and to the boat. It made one more big run and crossed someone else’s hooked fish, and my line parted also had a double hookup of smaller ones that made it to the boat. we hooked 9, landed 5.
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Titusville Reds
Florida Sportsman member: AdamHughes
I drove down to Jacksonville and met my family at the ramp at 9, we took off and before we got to the first channel marker had engine trouble. Great start to the day, we ran the river looking for the big schools of spawning reds and after about an hour we found them. The school was so large it looked like a moving sandbar. We started tossing live pinfish and crabs at them with only the pinfish getting hit. We hooked up on the first fish and my mom gave it a good fight before pulling it in for some pictures. The school kept moving and the crowd began to grow. We worked the school for a couple more hours not getting to much action until I tossed out at top water. Second twitch I get blown up and the fish takes off, only to be broken off by a flurry of panicked fish swimming into my line. I quickly tied on another and as we got back into position I got my line right on the nose of the school. It seemed like the whole school targeted my bait. I got blown out of the water 3 to 4 times before finally getting a hook set.
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Cocoa Beach Snook
Florida Sportsman member: Off Shore Dude
Went out of PC this morning hunting for tarpon with friend Capt. Alex Jr. On the water by 6:15 and saw no pogies till sunrise. Then they were everywhere. We didn’t see a single tarpon all day!
However, we did run into some nice snook right off the beach. Once we realized there were snook around we started to target them. Hooked five and netted four. Caught them on pogies and all fish were released in good condition.
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Cocoa Beach Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: Off Shore Dude
Went out this morning with my friends Alex and Bob. Ran down the beach – pogies everywhere. Found some Tarpon rolling and busting bait between 520 down to steeples. We did run down to patrick but the pogie pods disappeared south of steeples. Was kind of weird but the water off Patrick was beautiful and clear.
We lost a few Tarpon but managed to get this one to the boat. Took me about an hour to get him in. Circle hook caught him right in the corner of the mouth. This fish was pulling an 18 foot action craft flats boat around. Almost spooled me so we had to chase him for a little while. Estimated somewhere around 100 pounds.
Revived Tarpon and he pushed off nicely from the boat.
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