Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Forecast, August 2015
Capt. Tom Van Horn
August 3, 2015
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
August Fishing Forecast
The heat is on, and fishing opportunities have been challenging along the Indian River Lagoon Coast of Florida. So far, the summer squalls (hurricanes) have stayed away, and as long as they do, fishing along the beaches and in the inlets will remain good. On the other hand, inshore water quality issues exist on the Indian River Lagoon system. Currently, a moderate alga bloom has moved into the Banana, Mosquito and Indian River Lagoons, but there are still some areas of clean water in some locations.
Angling on the in-shore lagoons will hopefully show some improvement, and finding clean water will be the key to success Look for small groups of redfish in the skinny water holding in the vicinity of bait concentration, and target them utilizing smaller top-water plugs like the Storm Chug Bug. Once the sun starts to grow hot and the top-water bite will slows down, bait becomes your better option. For larger trout, fish live pigfish in close to docks and other structure adjacent to deeper water. In deeper water, look for large schools of ladyfish, small trout, and tarpon pushing schools of glass minnows near the surface.
Along the beach out of Port Canaveral, look for the silver kings (tarpon), smoker kings, blacktip sharks, jumbo jack crevalle, and redfish to be shadowing pods of Atlantic menhaden (pogies), threadfin herring (greenies), Spanish sardines, and bay anchovy (glass minnows) in close to the beach. Also look for snook fishing in the surf to improve as we get closer to the commencement of the fall bait run. Remember snook are out of season, so if you target them, please handle and release them with extreme care. In and around the inlets, look for Spanish mackerel, tarpon, jack cervalle, and bonita to be working schools of glass minnows on the outside, and snook, redfish, mangrove snapper, and flounder in the area of jetties and other structure. If snook are of interest, Sebastian Inlet is the place to be.
The Labrador Current as it's known has pushed in cooling bottom water temperatures into the 70's. Studies have shown the phenomena is created by coriolis effect and prevailing west wind pulling the warm surface water offshore and the cold bottom water moving up to replace it, but either way it can equate to some tough fishing.
Look for the blue water bite to improve along the inshore reefs and wrecks of Chris Benson, 8A Reef, and Pelican Flats, with kingfish, dolphin, black fin tuna, and cobia serving as the primary species, along with an occasional wahoo or sailfish. This is also the time of year when cooler waters sometimes pushes the giant manta rays in close to the shoals off the Cape, bringing cobia with them, which has been the cast for the past three weeks. Further off shore, the Gulf Stream typically moves in closer making tuna a possibility for smaller boats working in the areas of anchored shrimp boats and thermals, and as long as the summer squalls (tropical storms) stay away, running to the other side of the stream isn't out of the question.
As always, if you have questions on need more information, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
407-416-1187
More Fishing Reports:
