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

January 8, 2015

Welcome to the New Year! 2014 was a fantastic year. I hosted nearly 400 people from 37 different states and 5 foreign countries. I took 1st place at three professional tournaments that visit our area (IFA Redfish Tour, HT Redfish Series, and Florida Pro Redfish Series). I captured another 3rd place at the 2-day Fishstock redfish and trout tournament in New Smyrna Beach. We caught well over 1,400 redfish, over 300 snook, and over 160 trout that went over 5lbs (ten in the 9-11lb range). During the course of the year we also caught sharks, grouper, pompano, black drum, jack crevalle, flounder, bluefish and tarpon.

As we begin January, we’re back to seeing some cold weather that didn’t make much of an appearance in December. In the Mosquito Lagoon water levels have dropped considerably lately and we’re starting to see big schools of redfish forming. Large speckled trout are laid up in the shallows and black drum are roaming some of their usual spots. The water is very clear in most of the Lagoon and sight fishing has been really good. In the Indian River Lagoon near Titusville the water is clearing up and we’re finding some small groups of big bull reds forming. And we’ve been catching a lot of snook in deep winter holes. Around New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet, things haven’t gotten cold enough to fill the winter time creeks and channels with reds, trout, and drum. That usually changes this month though.

Fishing for Redfish in Mosquito Lagoon is really starting to pick up. Lower water levels is starting to concentrate groups of fish into big winter time schools of 200+ fish. Much of the water is really clear so this makes for exciting sight fishing in the Lagoon. Most of the schools are 5-10lb fish with the occasional smaller school that will have 10-20lbrs. As we get later into the month and find favorable weather conditions we’ll target small schools of 20+lb redfish in the Indian River Lagoon. Colder weather and dropping water levels will also start to fill up the creeks in the New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet area with smaller redfish. When you time it right around a front, it’s possibly to catch 50 or more a day in the creeks.

Many mornings we’ve started off catching good numbers of Snook in deeper water in the Indian River Lagoon or near the Ponce Inlet area. Most days we get 10-20 that are a mix of sizes in the 12-25” range. When we’ve got water temps over 70 we’ve caught 1-2 each day in the 8-10lb range though. Definitely been the best couple months of snook fishing in the past 5 years. We’re catching all the snook on live shrimp and DOA shrimp as well as Mirrolure plugs.

Winter and the early spring are great times to target world class trophy Speckled Trout 10lbs or better in the Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River Lagoon. These big female trout move up into the shallows during the next few months following baitfish and looking for warmer water. These trout are super spooky and tough to catch when sight casting. We do most of our successful catching using live bait with occasional catches on soft plastics.

There’s been a bunch of Black Drum still in the Mosquito Lagoon. Catching can been really good on cut crabs and live shrimp. Most of them range from 3-10lbs with a few going close to 20lbs. As colder weather really settles in and water temps stay low consistently we’’ll see schools of giant black drum show up in a few places in the Lagoons. Some of these will be 40+lbs.

I’ve only got 9 days left open for January. February is booking quickly too with 10 days already filled. Then we move into March and April which are the two busiest months of the year. Remember that I’ll take short notice trips if I have the date open. Call 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…386-212-4931.