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Fishing Reports

September post hurricane Irma report for Cocoa Beach and Orlando area

By September 29, 2017No Comments

Well Hurricane Irma blew through The Cocoa Beach and Orlando areas bringing 100 plus MPH winds with her.  Once we got power, water and cleaned up from all the debris and minor flooding issues we had it was time to get back on the Indian, Banana, and Mosquito Lagoons.  For those of you who are new to this area Orlando is Due east of these three lagoons/rivers and of course the Atlantic Ocean outside of Port Canaveral.  Tarpon are still showing up in all of these bodies of water.  Juvenile fish in the 1 to 10 pound range are keeping us busy near areas of flowing water.  The culvert pipes and creek mouths are great places to find them. Slot sized redfish and small snook are possible in these areas as well.  The sea trout don’t care for all of the fresh water and have moved way out off the shorelines to areas of deeper water that have more salinity.  Larger tarpon running 40 to 100-pounds and bulls sized redfish running 20 to 35-pounds are holding out in the deeper areas of the lagoon as well.  Rapala and Saltwater Assassin lures are what we are casting most, but live fingerling mullet will also get these fish to bite.

Along the beaches, redfish, snook, tarpon, shark, jack, flounder, tripletail and spanish mackerel have been some of the species we have run across on days that it is calm enough to get out on the ocean east of Cocoa Beach.  While fishing out here you never know what you are likely to come across.  Hurricane debris like building materials, wooden boards, pallets and even pieces of fences, trees, and Sargasso weed are just a few of the things you may encounter.  The tripletail really like holding around this stuff, so we investigate it thoroughly.  As we move into the month of October, I believe the bite will get even better.  The waters will cool a few degrees, driving more mullet southward for the winter time, and bringing plenty of predators with them.  Central Florida Fishing is usually great at this time of the year, so book a trip prior to Christmas and you may have one of the best fishing trips of your life.

Until next time…Catch a memory!!!

Capt. Jim Ross

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