On the lagoon flats, fish early morning and late evening with your favorite top water plugs for extreme trout and redfish action and use soft plastics and jigs in deeper water, 2 to 3 feet, midday. Remember, April is one of the months when sea trout are egg laden for the spawn, so it’s very important to handle and release the larger females with extreme care. If you are looking for snook and tarpon action, the Port Canaveral and Sebastian River will be the place to go and as the water warms up, look for these gamesters to become more prevalent along the beaches and in the north IRL as well.
Off of the Central Florida beaches, look for the arrival of Atlantic menhaden bait pods and predators like large jack crevalle, tarpon and kingfish. They will be in close to the beach shadowing bait schools, and there still should be some cobias in the mix so always keep a rod rigged with a one-ounce bucktail jig ready to cast at a moment’s notice. Slow trolled live pogies (menhaden) will be bait of choice.
On the St Johns River, largemouth and sunshine bass action will be heating up. Look for schooling bass at first light feeding on shad from the Osteen Bridge to Lake Harney. A good way to locate these schooling fish is to look for white pelicans and other wading birds congregating along the shoreline. When in the feeding mode, these fish will take most swim plugs, and small live shiners. Like everywhere else this year, the water levels are extremely low, so please be careful.
