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

December 16, 2015

Only a couple weeks left now in 2015, can’t believe the year has already passed us by. Fishing conditions through the first part of December continue in fall type patterns instead of winter. Fish have yet to school up and remain scattered over grass flats in Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon. The redfish bite has been really good though, with most days seeing double digit numbers of redfish coming into the boat. Clean, cool water has pushed the big speckled trout into the shallows all day. The trout bite has picked up considerably with several trout in the 20-28” range caught each day. Lack of cold weather has yet to school up black drum on the shallow flats yet. But cool weather has started to pile up snook in their winter holes, with a couple mornings yielding 10+ snook landed. Increasing number of cold fronts during the next 4-6 weeks should drop water levels and increase schooling behavior. That will lead to some exceptional catch numbers.

Mosquito Lagoon has been the hot spot for great Redfish catching lately. Although the Indian River Lagoon has been producing some good days too. Water levels are still trending towards the high side which is keeping fish clustered near sand spots and sand sloughs in the grass. Catching has been good with most days seeing 10+ redfish landed. These fish range from 4-10 pounds. Live mullet has been the preferred bait of choice. Soft plastic jerk baits and spoons have been great producers for lure action. As cold fronts continue to become more frequent redfish will form into bigger schools. If you time it right, these fronts can produce days of 20-30 or more redfish landed.

Things are really picking up lately for big Speckled Trout in Mosquito Lagoon and the North Indian River Lagoon. Cooler water has the big girls laying up in the sand spots most of the day now. Recent trips lately have yielded a couple dozen trout in the 4-7 pound range. They are a sucker for a free-lined mullet, but we’ve also done well on soft plastic jerk baits and some topwater plugs here and there. Should be relatively steady action for big trout all the way into the spring with the potential for some 10 pounders along the way.

Cooler water is also starting to group the Snook a little more. On a recent trip we started with catching snook and caught 10 or so in a couple hours. A hard cold front moving through this weekend should finally push the rest to the winter holes and should raise our daily totals to 20-30 caught per day. By the looks of it there are going to be some great fish in the 15 pound range this year to go along with thousands of smaller ones.

December will provide some great fishing during the fall transition and continued cold fronts should make for an exceptional January. Almost fully booked for the upcoming holidays, but do have 5 days open the rest of December. I take last second scheduling if I have open days. Call me at 386-212-4931 or 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…