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Fishing Reports

Halloween fishing report

By October 31, 2013No Comments

Cocoa Beach, Orlando, and Daytona Beach Halloween fishing 4-cast

OFFSHORE-Amberjack seem to be one of the most common species coming over the gunnels of boats out of Cocoa Beach lately.  The AJ’s are striking live baits on a standard bottom rig on the reefs and wrecks in the 160 to 250-foot zones.  Williamson vertical jigs are also catching plenty of these fish.  Gag grouper are hitting on these reefs as well.  Triggerfish, and sea bass are hitting small live baits and cut squid on the 80 to 140 foot structures.  Anglers are finding cobia in the 50 to 90-foot zones. Some of these fish are following manta rays and others are holding near structure.  Large jigs or just about any live baitfish should get their attention.  Look for tripletail and cobia holding on floating debris in these same depths.  The trolling action has been pretty slow here mainly due to the fact that no one has been out trolling.  A few reports of small dolphin and a sailfish or two are coming from the 120 to 180-foot depths by angler dragging ballyhoo. This action should increase in the next few weeks.  King mackerel catches should also improve on the 70 to 90-foot reefs in the next week or so.

INSHORE-The mullet run is still going on along Cocoa Beach and Melbourne Beach at this time.  Anglers are finding that in the area where baitfish are plentiful the action is pretty good with a variety of predators feeding on them.  Where there are less fingerling mullet, or no bait schools at all running in the surf, anglers are finding slow fishing conditions.  One way to combat this is to use a run-and-gun approach up and down the Coca Beach area.  We run the boat along the breakers until we find a school of baitfish that are being molested and then fish those areas.  If nothing is showing, keep moving to another location until we see some good action.  The jetties have been the most consistant places to find action recently.  The Port Canaveral jetties due east of Orlando were full of redfish and snook last weekend and through the first part of this week while ample bait supplies were in place.  Once we get the next wave of fingerling mullet coming through, it should turn on again.  Redfish catches in all three lagoons have been improving since our last cool front went past. The fish have not been chasing lures very well, but they don’t’ seem to have a problem hitting cut or live fingerling mullet and pinfish in the Banana River near Cocoa Beach at this time.  A 2/0 to 5/0 sized VMC circle hook (depending on the size of the bait) should get you hooked up when fishing in this method.   Topwater walk the dog style plugs like the Rapala Skitterwalk in the chrome black back or chrome blue back colors are working well during morning and evening periods on slot sized redfish and speckled trout on most days as well.

In the Mosquito lagoon south of Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach the water still looks like crap.  The brown algae is there in force and it will probably be another three weeks until we get good redfish and speckled trout action in that area.

 

It’s a good time to fish with the slightly cooler weather. The reds are cruising in the Indian and Banana Rivers and the mosquito Lagoon plus the Flounder, tripletail,  and cobia beginning to show up outside the Cocoa Beach area so  book your trip now and avoid the summer heat!