Indian River Trout Fishing

The Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River fishing is still going gangbusters in East Central Florida's Space Coast.

With all the construction work that's going on, some fishermen who normally opt for an early morning boat launch, are turning to bank and wade fishing.

The new bridge construction on the Max Brewer Causeway, along with refurbishing of the boat ramps at Parrish Park and the Titusville Marina, are causing some minor irritations to public boaters and fishermen.

Additionally, the closures of Shiloh road to vehicle traffic, and some other prime fishing pathways to the public, in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, have caused irritation with the management bureaucracy.

When I called about the closures, the reasons given for the closures varied from, the "shuttle launch", to insufficient funding to repair the "potholes" in Shiloh road, to flooding, to whatever else they can think of as an excuse. It seems like they are intentionally trying to keep the public away from the area, at least by land traffic.

In any event, late Saturday afternoon, after trying to get into the north part of the Indian River at Shiloh road, my wife and I resigned ourselves to the fact that we were relegated to fishing Peacock Pocket road.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great area to fish if you know how! My wife and I do.

Sticking to the golden rule of Central Florida fishing, "fish early and fish late", we struck out at aobut 6:30 for an evening of "jump fishig" in the marsh areas.

The weather was hot but not blistering, there was a nice breeze and a slight ripple on the water, that helped the fishing.

My wife was using a weighted jerkbait hook baited with a large dead shrimp with the tail removed. When you hook the shrimp through the tail and pull it slowly along the bottom, it usually produces nice redfish and trout.

I used my usual variety of baits that included; D.O.A. paddle tail jerk baits in green/white body, Creme swimbait, Johnson gold spoon, and my trusty Chug Bug.

We stopped by several areas and decided to finish at our "secret spot" where my wife had previously caught nice redfish and black drum. Today however, she only caught a catfish that acted like a sea trout!

I caught about a dozen smaller trout. which were all released. And just at dusk, my favorite time to fish, I switched to my Chug Bug.

After about two dozen casts to the far bank in the narrow canal, I got an explosive hit right on the bank in about 4 inches of water.

After about a 10 minute battle up and down the canal, I pulled in a "sub gator" trout that measured 26 inches. The pics of the scenery and the fish are here for your viewing.

We plan on doing the whole thing again tomorrow, after my household chores are finished with, so until then.... tight lines!

OOPs She Did It Again!

Well, She did it again!

My wife and I tried for some Indian River Tarpon, and got some trout instead. Just like last time, hers was the biggest!

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to try again for the tarpon that just won't bite, in the far north portion of the lagoon. Lockjaw must be the trend up here.

We went in from the southern entrance way to Shiloh road, and met only one other fisherman all the time we were out on the river.

The weather was beautiful, the mosquitoes were out in mass, and the fish were biting. Except for the damn tarpon!

The culverts were open from the marsh side, and with the flowing water moving the baitfish around, the fish were following.

We spotted several large redfish, trout, and tarpon on both sides of the trail, but only had success with the trout.

As the title indicates, my wife caught another large, "sub gator" trout on her favorite setup; a "Billy Bay"popping gurgle bobber with a large, fresh dead shrimp below.

I on the other hand continued on my quest to subdue a tarpon with artificials.

Although I caught several trout, smaller than my wife's, I could not for the life of me get the damn tarpon to eat my bait. I wore my arm out casting top waters, swim baits, jerkbaits, and Ieven tried a large shrimp with no success.

The scenery was phenominal, as you can see by the short videos and photos, and the fishing was
great except for the tarpon.

July 4th. is another story to tell, if we go out again. Until then, tight lines!

Oh, by the way, her trout was over 20 inches.

North Indian River And Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

After the past weeks rains, what was previously boggy marsh full of feeding birds, has been transformed into shallow water flats full of bait fish.

Summer is here on the Space Coast and the fishing is great on the Mosquito Lagoon and North Indian River flats. First light, early morning fishing on the flats, has been nothing short of sensational.

Redfish, trout, snook and small tarpon are moving up onto the newly formed shallows to much on the thousands of baitfish that have come into the area.

Fish along the grass flats at the drop offs and ledges at early day light with pigfish or top water plugs for large "sow" trout and an occasional redfish or snook. Later on in the morning; pitch a pigfish, live shrimp, D.O.A. jerk bait or D.O.A. shrimp to edges of the white sandy potholes to pick up trout. This past week, the fish have been getting a bit more aggressive towards the afternoon.

The redfish in both the North Indian River, and Mosquito Lagoon, are feeding in the shallow water areas that though out the drought have previously been dry land. They are hitting all kinds of soft plastic baits as well as live and fresh dead shrimp. There is nothing quite like the feeling you get from pitching a well placed artificial to a large tailing red, watching it suck up the lure, and peel off line from your reel on the first run.

The Picture Below Is Prime Snook And Gator Trout Territory

This time of year, the old standby of fishing a live finger mullet or mud minnow, can net you a huge gator trout or big bull redfish.

There are reports of small tarpon being caught in moving water, in both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River north of Mims, Fl. Moving water and pods of baitfish seem to be the winning combination to find these fish. Tarpon

Pinfish, large live shrimp and soft plastic lures work well for both tarpon and snook. Although some snook are being caught, the fishing gets much better as the summer progresses and the water temperatures warm up.

There is no place on earth, that has great year round fishing like the Mosquito Lagoon, and Indian River, and I'm glad to be fortunate enough to be able to live here and enjoy it.

Great fishing and tight lines to all!

May High Water Trout Fishing

Be careful what you wish for.

The rains were something I was hoping to see for the past few months, and this week my wish was granted.

Water levels in the Indian River have risen substantially, enough as a matter of fact, so as to have the Wildlife Refuge people close off Peacock Pocket road right through to the causeway road.

Friday evening my wife, and Elmo my wonder dog, went to jump fish the open culverts only to find the drives closed to vehicle traffic.

We went instead, to an area I seldom fish, around Pump House road.

We didn't expect much in the way of fishing because of the rain, so with no great expectations, we parked the truck , took a short walk and started casting lures.

It was close to dusk before we started getting some hits. My wife got a couple of hits on a green Creme paddletail swim bait she was using and I was using a 3" Heddon Swim N Image plug.

Karen kept missing the trout with her swim bait, and also missed a very large redfish pushing a good sized wake in the narrow canal near the pump house.

I finally got my retrieve right and picked up several medium sized trout on the plug.

Sorry, I didn't get any pics of the fish because of the weather, but we plan on hitting the water again tomorrow after I take care of some chores.

With any kind of luck, I'll have a better report tomorrow evening.

Tight lines!

Indian River Flats Fishing

April is the month for gator sea trout in the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon estuaries.

This week in particular has been excellent fishing in the shallow grass flats north of Scottsmoor.

The Scottsmoor ramp is primarily for shallow draft boats, however if you take it easy and follow the markers out from the ramp, it can accommodate boats with a pretty deep draft. Use common sense and you shouldn't have any problems launching.

On Friday afternoon I spoke with some fishermen at the ramp who were gearing up for some wade fishing in the grass flats just north of the ramp.

The gentlemen I spoke with said they were catching bragging size trout by wading out to knee depth and staking one rod out with a live finger mullet. They were then casting top water skitter walk plugs with a second rod to pass the time between bites.

They also reported that they had been catching some huge redfish using the same technique during the middle of the week.





This particular area has been a local hot spot for years and is pretty much under fished.

Returning to Titusville on late Friday, the Max Brewer causeway bridge was loaded with over 50 people shrimping and fishing. The blood red full moon attracted quite a crowd of sport shrimpers. They reported dipping "jumbo" shrimp in large numbers for the past week.

I spent part of Easter Sunday out on the river driving around the Wildlife Refuge watching the finger mullet getting busted up by schools of large trout and a few redfish. I picked up a couple on artificial DOA Shrimp and Terror Eye lures but nothing to really brag about.

Enjoy the collage of pics I took at the Scottsmoor boat ramp.

Tight lines guys!