July '11 - New Smyrna, Ponce Inlet Area, Mosquito Lagoon
Capt. Nathaniel Lemmon
July 24, 2011
New Smyrna Beach - Saltwater Fishing Report
Happy Fourth of July to everyone! Half way through 2011 and the fishing is red hot. Any and everything is a potential fishing opportunity. Speckled trout, redfish and flounder have been the most abundant and consistent fishing. We're also finding numerous tarpon, bluefish, and jack crevalle. Water temperatures have been in the upper 80's and recently we've been getting a good dose of late afternoon thunderstorms that is helping stabalize water conditions. By far and away, live bait charters have been kicking butt; we've been averaging 5-10 redfish, 10-15 speckled trout, and a flounder or two on each live bait trip. On days we've throw lures, you can cut those numbers in half. We've been spending a lot of time in the Port Orange to Edgewater area fishing the creeks and channels that funnel towards Ponce Inlet. We've also been venturing into the Mosquito Lagoon and the North Indian River Lagoon when we want to sight cast the flats. During June I also fit in two more tournaments. We took 2nd place (for the 3rd month in a row) in the Xtreme Redfish Titusville event with a 12.71 bag. Then at the IFA Redfish Tour pro lure event out of Titusville, we narrowly missed taking home the title. We weighed a 6.5lb redfish but had our 7.25lb redfish get DQ'd for being 1/8" over the 27" mark...what a heartbreak!
The Speckled Trout bite continues to be the best bite and provide the most catching. This should continue right on through the summer months. We continue to primarily be live baiting with mullet, pigfish and croakers, with some sporadic action with plugs and jigs. Just like last month we caught dozens of big trout. We caught over a dozen trout in the 6-8lb range and at least 40-50 in the 4-5lb range. Most of our trout are ranging from 15-25", except for a dozen or so that were in the 25-30" range. We've been averaging 12-20 trout per day lately. As the sun continues to be high over head we're finding best bites very early in the morning in the shallows and then in deeper water later in the day around concentrations of bait fish.
The Redfish bite has also been good. One of the highlights in the late summer is chasing the schools of bull redfish in the 20-40lb range schooling in the deeper water and spawning around the full moon cycles. Ethical anglers will catch 1 or 2 before moving on. They'll eat just about anything you throw at them, literally. In the shallows we'll find small pods of smaller redfish in the 4-10lb range along deeper sand sloughs and creek edges and we'll find singles and doubles cruising shorelines, oyster bars, and tailing in the grass. These fish are a little more tricky but we'll catch them on live bait, plugs, spoons, jigs, and a variety of flies. On an average day we've caught 5-10 redfish and a trophy bull or two when I get someone interested in that.
We aren't limited to just redfish and trout, however. We're also catching a lot of Flounder this year. There are more of them that I have ever seen and it seems someone is getting 1 or 2 on almost every charter. Nearly all of them have been caught on some form of live bait, but we've also gotten some on spoons and jigs. With the recent upwelling in the ocean along the coast, Tarpon numbers have exploded inshore in the Lagoons, around Ponce Inlet and in the ICW and channels. We only targeted them two days recently and the bite was a bit slow compared to normal. We're finding good numbers of juveniles in the 20-40lb range as well as fairly good numbers of adult fish in the 50-100lb range. They'll be around the next 3 months before they start to migrate out of the area. Also around the tidal creeks and channels around Ponce Inlet, New Smyrna Beach, and Port Orange we're finding a lot of Bluefish and Jack Crevalle. Most of these fish are in the 2-5lb range. They are more by catch when we are fishing for other species than anything else, but they still provide some hard fought battles and bites.
June was a full booked month and I spent 28 out of 30 days on the water. July was about the same. Call or email with any questions. I look forward to fishing with you soon…386-212-4931.
Pictures from the past month can be found on my website...http://www.floridasightfishing.com/report.htm
Target Species:
Speckled Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Tarpon
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