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

March 15, 2018

Sorry, I have no openings remaining for March as the calendar is booked full. April is also filling fast. Spring months are always super busy. So don’t wait if you are waiting to book something for April or May.

Fishing has been fantastic for the first couple months of 2018 February was a relatively warm month, but the first week of March has brought back some chilly temperatures and gusty winds. We have caught loads of redfish, black drum and are finding some snook again that survived the freeze we experienced in January. Things really won’t change for us throughout March, but as we get into April and May we will start catching dozens of speckled trout each day in addition to a bunch more redfish, bluefish, some black drum and snook.

Redfish have been the main attraction the last two months. Lower water levels have schooled up smaller redfish by the hundreds in a few locations. When we find those, sight casting with live shrimp has produced multiple days with 15-20 redfish boated in just a few hours. Higher water has scattered the schools and made for a little more work on our part. Blind casting lures like spoons and soft plastics in addition to free-lining live mullet has put 5-10 redfish in the boat. Bigger bull redfish have started to group up again for the spring. We’ve been targeting half a dozen groups with schools holding 25-50 fish in the 20-40 pound range. Live bait has been a must for best chances. Fishing for bull reds will get better and better with each passing week and it will last all the way into the fall.

It’s been an incredible few months for Black Drum. I’m not sure I have ever seen so many numbers. There were two schools in January that held over 1,000 drum that quickly split into smaller groups of 200-300 fish. Spring is their spawning season. We have targeted schools on flats and routinely found multiple groups of drum in the 10-20 pound range tailing and mudding making for great sight fishing. Throw them a shrimp and hang on for quick catching.

January was exceptionally cold for a couple weeks and water temperatures plummeted into the 40’s. As expected, this produced another large cold water fish kill for tropical species like snook and tarpon that reside in our area. I estimate we lost about 50-60% of our population. But during the past couple weeks we’ve found a lot that made it through the winter. Baby tarpon are still unwilling to bite, but snook have been more cooperative. We can usually find 5-10 bites a day from snook, most are smaller 10-20 inch fish, with some good ones close to 30 inches long as well. Live shrimp, plastic shrimp and small swim baits have all produced for us.

We’ve seen some pretty decent spotted sea trout this winter, but the cold weather really had them quite lethargic. When it warmed up in February we were catching some good trout in the 25-30” range. Now it’s back to being cold and they aren’t on the prowl nor eager to bite. April and May will likely be the top months again this year, especially once we start to get our annual baitfish run of mullet, pinfish, pigfish and croakers. There should be days in May and June with multiple fish being caught each day over 5 pounds.

I’ve got 11 days open for April. I’ve got about 17 days remaining open for May. Don’t wait till the last minute to book a trip. And if you’re considering something this summer, be aware the June and July are the two busiest months of the year.  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…