New Smyrna Beach Area - Indian River Lagoon - St. Johns River -
Capt. Nathaniel Lemmon
May 4, 2016
New Smyrna Beach - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hard to believe it's already May and within a few weeks kids will be out of school for the summer! I took off 2 weeks this month to hunt spring turkeys in FL, GA, and WV. So now that's over, it's back to every day fishing. Recent fishing for us has produced days of pretty good fishing for redfish, trout, and some juvenile tarpon. I've also been seeing a fair number of small sharks cruising around the north end of Mosquito Lagoon near New Smyrna Beach. Water levels are back up again which is producing some great shoreline sight fishing and "tailing" action on shallow grass flats in Mosquito Lagoon.
Brown algae looks like it's decreasing quite a bit in the middle part of the Indian River Lagoon and Banana River area with some great clean water filling the Lagoons. This hopefully will continue into the North Indian River Lagoon over the next month or so. Good news is it really doesn't matter since the fish are tailing up in the shallow grass and cruising cleaner shorelines. Even better, the upper half of Mosquito Lagoon all the way north to Ponce Inlet has almost returned to normal summer water clarity conditions.
Only have 7 days left open for May. June through September is starting to book up quick with summer vacationers. The summer is always super busy so don't wait till last minute if you can help it if you want on the calendar.
We've been spending most of our charter fishing time on Redfish action in Mosquito Lagoon. The upper half of the Lagoon all the way to Ponce Inlet has for the most part returned to normal summer water clarity conditions. This is yielding good fishing for redfish cruising shorelines and oyster clumps, tailing on grass flats, floating on deeper grass flats. Catching has been solid with 6-10 redfish per morning in the 5-10 pound range. The southern half of the Lagoon is a bit trickier. Dirtier water limits sight casting when the water is up. But when the water drops down we've been catching 10-15 pound redfish tailing and floating on grass flats. There are bigger bull redfish over 20 pounds hanging around the bridges in New Smyrna, along the jetty at Ponce Inlet, and in some sections of the ICW. There are also some in normal spots in the North Indian River Lagoon as well, but we basically need slicked out conditions to find them with poor water clarity.
This is also historically the best time of year to catch some world class Speckled Trout approaching 8-10 pounds. It's the late spring, early summer spawn season so the big females are fat and full of eggs. (These are strictly catch and release on my boat.) Lately I've seen some giants laid up and cruising in the grass in several places in Mosquito Lagoon and some deeper edges in the Indian River Lagoon. Live mullet and croakers will give you the best chance of scoring on a giant trout of a lifetime, but we'll catch them on soft plastics and plugs as well.
Found a couple places in Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River Lagoon that have juvenile Tarpon in the 5-10 pound range rolling and biting shrimp and small soft plastics. We've also seen a few in the 15-25 pound range starting to get active in deeper creeks and the ICW. They will only get more active from now through the early fall…the hotter the water the better for tarpon.
With the summer warm up Snook are also on the move and scattering throughout the New Smyrna Beach, Ponce Inlet, Edgewater and north part of Mosquito Lagoon. We'll be targeting them them on Docks, bridges, and mangrove shorelines. Early mornings with favorable tides work best. We don't have the numbers like you find in south florida, so they can be harder to specifically target. But they can be a nice change of pace or a way to complete a slam.
If you're looking for something totally different to try out or fish with me...we can hit the freshwater lakes and St Johns River system for a great early summer Largemouth Bass bite. Bass are coming out of their spawning season with some fish still guarding bed areas. The bite has lasted past lunchtime each day. Been spending a couple days on the freshwater each week during the past few weeks. Primarily casting lures, we've had a good bite on fish up to the 4-6 pound range, with 10 or so fish each morning.
Only have 7 days left open for May. June through September is starting to book up quick with summer vacationers. The summer is always super busy so don't wait till last minute if you can help it if you want on the calendar. 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…
Pictures from past month can be found on my website...
http://www.floridasightfishing.com/report.htm
Target Species:
redfish, speckled trout, tarpon, largemouth bass
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