New Smyrna Beach Area - Indian River Lagoon - St. Johns River - Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

June 8, 2016

Cue the music…school’s out for summer! June has arrived and kids have wrapped up school for the year. No summer vacations have started. Which means it’s gonna be slammed busy over the next few months with family fishing charters. While school is out…redfish are schooling hard! For the first couple of hours each morning we’ve been greeted with big groups of happy tailing redfish in Mosquito Lagoon. Once the sun gets up high during mid-morning, we’ve been catching lots of speckled trout on deep edges and flats as well and some more redfish here and there. Tarpon are starting to show up and get active in decent numbers. While most of these are resident 20-30 pound fish, some bigger adult tarpon in the 60-80 pound range have moved into the Intracoastal Waterway. There’s a couple big schools of black drum that have showed up in Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon for the summer months. Also finding some scattered snook around docks and mangrove shorelines around New Smyrna Beach, Ponce Inlet and the Tomoka River. No shortage of fish to target during the summer months. And the fish don’t mind the heat, we can find action all day long.

Happy to report another 1st place finish in the Florida Pro Redfish Series. My son and I travelled to Jacksonville for the 3rd event of the east coast division. We had an awesome day, catching a bunch of redfish. We brought back 13.62 pounds to the scale to beat out some awesome anglers from that area.

Have about 10 days left open for June. July has been filling quite fast as of late, but I have about 14 days left available. Summer is always super busy so don’t wait till last minute!

Best action continues to be fishing for Redfish in the Mosquito Lagoon. We’re finding schools of 40-50 fish tailing hard on grass flats during the first couple hours of the morning. Once the sun gets up they are scattering over bigger grass flats in singles and pairs. Things are picking up in creeks and oyster bays around New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet. Lower tides have redfish cruising shorelines while higher tides has them tucked up under mangroves and on top of oysters. Catching has been solid with 6-10 redfish per morning in the 5-10 pound range but we’re sticking some in the 10-20 pound range as well lately. Just like in 2011 when the brown algae showed up, no worries about water clarity impacting my fishing. Fish are biting well and we’re having no problems sight casting redfish all day long. We’re catching them on soft plastics, spoons, plugs, flies, live shrimp, mullet, pinfish, and cut bait which means something for everyone of any skill level.

Speckled Trout bite is starting to really pick up steam during the past couple weeks. Pinfish, pigfish, mullet and croakers are pouring out of the grass flats and trout are crushing them. As the sun gets up high we are targeting deeper flats and edges with live bait and jigs. They can provide some daily consistent action with most days averaging 15-20 trout over the span of a couple hours. Most are in the 10-20 inch range, but there’s the occasional 4-8 pound trout thrown in. A lot of the big trout over 8 pounds are still slipping around on the shallow grass flats which provide some excellent sight casting opportunities for my clients throwing lures or fly rods.

Juvenile Tarpon in the 20-30 pound range are getting really active in the channels and creeks near New Smyrna Beach and the Intracoastal Waterway. Over the past 10 days some bigger adult fish in the 60-80 pound range have found their way in through Ponce Inlet and scattered around the deeper channels. Over the summer more and more of these bigger adult fish will move into the area. The hotter the better for tarpon as they love those water temps. We’re targeting them with jigs, swim baits, diving plugs and some flies.

Snook can be caught just about anywhere at anytime during the summer around New Smyrna, Edgewater, Ponce Inlet, Port Orange and in the Tomoka River. Winter schools have broken up and scattered widely around docks, shorelines, and just about anywhere they can find a good ambush spot with current. We find success using Plugs, DOA shrimp, soft plastics, live shrimp and croakers and pinfish.

Also spending several days throughout the month just to my west on the St. Johns River system and joining lakes targeting Largemouth Bass. Schooling fish are chasing shad balls early in the morning with singles on grass bed lines and drop offs. We’re primarily casting lures like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, swim jigs and swim baits. There’s a good bite up until lunchtime before. Catching 10-20 fish each day with some up to 7 pounds.

Have about 10 days left open for June. July has been filling quite fast as of late, but I have about 14 days left available. Summer is always super busy so don’t wait till last minute! 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…