Cocoa Beach, Orlando, and Daytona Beach area fishing report by captain Jim Ross of Fineline Fishing Charters.
Captain Jim Ross-owner of Fineline Fishing charters- left the fishing in the Orlando area behind this past week and headed down to work for Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Outboard motors at the Miami International boat show. Prior to departing the Orlando area I had my Charter clients fishing for tripletail offshore of Cocoa Beach. They were landing multiple fish on our trips that usually ranged from 4 to 12 pounds a piece usually within three miles of the Port. Some of the tripletail were farther offshore of Cocoa Beach where they were holding on weeds and floating debris. Cobia are another fish we have been landing lately offshore of the Cocoa Beach area. Most of these fish are scaling 25 to 40-pounds. The best bite for cobia has been in the 45 to 60-foot depths off the south end of Cocoa Beach near the Patrick Air Force base area recently. Other great tasting fish in the waters east of Orlando include redfish, weakfish and whiting. The Whiting in particular are a great target species on most days. We can usually find them schooling in and around Cape Canaveral which is just 50 minutes due east of the city of Orlando, and about 40 minutes due east of the Orlando International Air Port. The Indian and Banana River lagoons that are located west of Cocoa Beach have been a little slow for the past few weeks. My Clients are catching some scattered redfish, speckled trout, and other species, but these usually productive waters sandwiched between the Cocoa Beach and Orlando areas have been quite disappointing on my recent trips there. The better bite has been occurring in the north Indian River lagoon east of Orlando and the mosquito Lagoon located just south of Daytona Beach. Here I have been finding small to medium sized black drum ranging from 12 to 40 pounds on most days. The Schools usually have 50 to 100 fish each in them and as long as the waters stay relatively calm and we have abundant amounts of sunshine I have been able to find them. Live shrimp that are usually caught in the Daytona Beach area make great live baits to cast at these big black drum when they are schooled up. The waters I fish located east of the Orlando area are cooling just a bit right now, and this should make for some fantastic fishing in the Indian River over the next few weeks. Once the sunshine starts to warm these coastal waters again, my days on the ocean east of Cocoa Beach should be filled with free swimming cobia and plenty of other fantastic tasting species.
If you’re coming to the Orlando, Daytona Beach, or Cocoa Beach area in the next month you need to get a trip booked with me so that you can come out and Catch a memory!!!
