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Central Indian River Lagoon
Capt. Ron Bielefeld
May 18, 2003
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Capt Ron Bielefeld's Indian River Lagoon Report - Sebastian Area
I had a fantastic week of fishing. The trout and snook bite was nothing short of stellar. The one caveat was, you had to be fishing during the dark hours. My best action was between 3am and 6am when the moon was full and bright. We put seven trout in the boat in the 5-7 lb. range in addition to numerous smaller fish. Of course, all but one of these fish was returned to the water. These large fish are most often spawning females, and if you remove them you do double harm to the resource. So, I urge you to take a quick picture and release all your fish, except the few you want to eat. Think about it this way, the fish you release today may be the 10 pounder you catch a few years from now. Snook were present in the same areas as the trout, very shallow grass with abundant bait. All the very early fish attacked top-water plugs. What awesome fun!
We did catch trout and some snook after 6am, but the going got a lot tougher. We had to work small soft-plastic jerk baits in a bit deeper water to entice late morning fish. Most of these fish were smaller, but I did manage to connect with 2 larger trout on Saturday. It just so happened that I was able to catch these fish while fishing the GFWC 3rd annual flatsfishing tournament. I weighed a 5 lb 11.6 oz fish to take first place in the trout division. Hey, everybody gets lucky once and a while.
While the bright moon period lasts, I suggest fishing at night in very shallow water if you want to really fight some large fish on the flats. This pattern should hold up throughout the summer and fall as long as the water temps remain on the warm to hot side. If there is bait around use the noisiest presentation you can to attract attention. Getting fish to hit when it is dark and they have thousands of natural baits to choose from can be very difficult. Just keep casting, the more your bait is in the water the higher the probability of getting hit. Good luck and Tight-Lines to all.
Sincerely,
Capt. Ron
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