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Fishing Reports

May fishing 4-cast for Orlando and Cocoa Beach inshore waters.

By April 27, 2017No Comments
ORLANDO and COCOA BEACH INSHORE-Speckled trout and redfish are becoming more 
common catches throughout the Indian and Banana River Lagoons this month.
The lack of rainfall has left much of the central portion of the lagoon waters
in decent shape with no huge algae blooms to speak of.  This is allowing anglers
to sight cast to many of these fish as they lay or cruise slowly in the shallow 
flats.  Fortunately many of our Brevard county residents have adopted a 
"No Fertilizer" policy for their lawns in an effort to help save our precious
lagoon system.  Just one pound of your average lawn fertilizer can contaminate
up to 50,000 gallons of water, so you can imagine the amount of damage a
typical 50-pound sack of this stuff can cause. Because more people than ever
are joining forces and not polluting the lagoons, we are seeing a slow but
steady return of the fish into these waters. Most of the trout and redfish
are holding near mullet schools in the flats, especially during early morning 
periods. Anglers can use the smaller 08 size Rapala Skitterwalk near the bait
schools or one of the new Salty Snack lures by Assassin bait co.  These imitate
a mullet and are a more subtle presentation than some of the larger lures 
typically used for these two species.  The Salty Snack can be rigged weedless
so it makes a great lure if you are fishing where there is some rolling tumble
weed algae which will also create structure for the fish.  A 5/0 wide gap 
VMC worm hook pairs nicely with the this soft plastic baitfish imitation.
We still don't have a lot of grass regrowth in the Banana lagoon, but there 
are some forms of algae that have started to give ground cover for the shrimp,
crabs, and small baitfish that the predatory fish feed upon. These are 
"target" areas to consistently find reds and trout if baitfish are present.
You may find juvenile tarpon in the Merritt Island and Satellite Beach 
canals in good numbers right now.  They can be seen rolling near glass minnow 
pods in many cases.  Anglers can use small jigs or streamer style flies that 
imitate the small minnows that tarpon like to feed on.  Put these out and work 
them slowly and you should get a few tarpon to go airborne.

Until next time...Catch a Memory!!

Captain Jim Ross  

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