 |
Central Indian River Lagoon
Capt. Ron Bielefeld
June 16, 2001
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Inshore and Near-shore Sebastian Report
The weather has been typical of the summer pattern for several weeks now. Relatively calm in the morning with a sea breeze kicking up during the afternoon. Some nasty storms also have been popping up each afternoon, which has made fishing touch, and go late in the day. In sync with the weather, the fishing has good in the morning and late evenings when the water temps are down, and pretty tough in the afternoons.
I have been fishing both the Indian River Lagoon and along the beaches. The calm conditions during the early mornings are a great opportunity for those of us with smaller boats to do some serious near-shore fishing.
Lagoon fishing has been producing some nice trout, jacks, ladyfish, bluefish, and a few reds during the early mornings and late evenings. I love fishing top-water, and both poppers and spooks have been producing around glass minnow schools over 2ft of water on the flats. Later in the mornings, jigs and spoons have been working well in deeper areas around flats and near mangroves. I prefer the SOF-spoon because it is soft, can be bent to produce the action you want, and can be fished in a range of water depths from a few inches to feet. Key to flats success right now is fish early or late and look for bait.
The fishing along the beaches (15 to 45 ft. of water) has been pretty consistent over the last few weeks. There is a lot of bait around, both greenies and glass minnows. Spanish mackerel, bonito, kingfish, and tarpon have been foraging in these bait pods. I have been using light tackle for the Spanish. The lure of choice has been the Got-cha plug. You can cast this lure a long way which makes it easier to stay on the schools without getting too close and causing them to go deep. Use #3 wire leader for the Spanish unless you want to loose a bunch of baits to cut-offs. The Bonito have been taking small swimming minnow lures. Use larger tackle (20 lb. Class) for these fish. They have been running from 10 to 15 lbs. The tarpon have been feeding early and taking swimming plugs, top-water plugs, and flies that imitate small minnows (i.e., glass minnows). These fish are running from 50 to near 150 lbs. So choose your tackle accordingly. If you fight these fish too long (over an hour) they probably will not survive. Take a lot of time to revive the fish you do bring to the boat to maximize the probability they will live to fight another day.
Until next time, Tight-Lines to all, and be safe out there.
Sincerely,
Capt. Ron
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
