The bait in both the Indian River Lagoon and the Banana River lagoons are abundant. The gamefish are mixed in with the bait when you find it.
Fishing from Longpoint to Malabar, anglers are focusing on Mangrove shorelines as well as areas with tire rings, Spoil Islands and the docks in deeper water. There are still good numbers of 20+ inch trout, Flounder as well as the occasional Snook and Red around the docks with school trout in the deeper flats along the drop offs.
If you are fishing between Melbourne and Cocoa Beach, fish the deeper docks around Dragon Point in the Indian River and the troughs around the Thousand Islands in the Banana River. Wade fishermen have been able to get very close to the Trout and Reds to sight fish early in the morning with the bite shutting down in the middle of the day when the sun gets high. Tarpon should be moving up in the Banana and Indian Rivers around the Pineda Causeway in July and can be caught on live finger mullet as well as Skitterwalks and Rapala XRap XR 10 and XR12 Lures.
The rains have slowed down the fishing in the Snook and Tarpon and in Turkey Creek, Crane Creek and the Eau Gallie River the last few weeks. Mangrove Snapper and Sheephead are around the oyster bars in the Sebastian River and the docks and rocks in Crane Creek. Live shrimp or fiddler crabs are the best bait rigged on a 1/0 circle hook. There are still some Tarpon that are hungry and that will feed on live finger mullet on a 3/0VMC Circle hook rigged with 3’ of 20-40lb leader. The mullet can be either free lined or fished under a natural cork. We have also been able to jump the tarpon on Skitterwalks and TriggerX 5” minnow in Electric Chicken.
Get out on the water early in the morning or late in the evening no matter where you are fishing. As the sun gets high, the water temps heat up and the bite shuts down. The bite will pick up in the evenings as the sun sets but you will have a much shorter window than in the morning. With the clear water, you can improve your success by getting out of the water and wade.
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