Round Trip
By Keith Lozott Contributing Writer
By the time you’re reading this article I will have fished and come back from the annual Redfish Rally (Trademark Keith Lozott) in Delacroix. At the time of writing this piece I recently fished at Round Island in Vero Beach. Even though I say Ft. Pierce the boat ramp is in Indian River County, so I must give them credit for a great park. Whether you fish out of tricked out flats skiffs with all the bells and whistles, aluminum Jon Boats, canoes or kayaks this place offers many opportunities at catching a wide variety of fish. I personally fish out of a 19’1” Spyder flats skiff that gets the job done with ease. The ramp at Round Island Park is well maintained and easy launching for most boats. There is plenty of parking, bathrooms, and some areas that the land angler can wet a line.
If you enjoy inshore fishing as much as I do this area offers a wide array of species to target with many ways to catch them. I’m an artificial bait angler personally but don’t cast stones at live baiters. Occasionally I enjoy throwing out a livey or two and wait for it to get crushed by a hungry redfish, snook, or trout. I really enjoy throwing a cast net off the record!!! This area offers shoreline mangroves that are perfect for sight fishing cruising redfish and snook hugging the edges. Just off the shoreline good size spotted seatrout seem to be laid up in slightly deeper water. Great go-to baits for this action is of course your favorite topwater plug and for me that’s a Spook Jr. in chrome, bone or white, and red head patterns. Other baits that work well are the Top Dog Jr. or She Pup by MirrOlure. My soft plastic bait of choice is the white D.O.A. C.A.L. Paddletail followed by the root beer chartreuse Paddletail. Again, your favorite lure of choice should work just fine. If you’re tossing plastics under the mangroves work them weedless for less mangrove hook ups and to get the lure under the mangroves deeper. When throwing topwaters towards the mangroves proceed with caution and accuracy.
If you’re not into fishing mangroves, fishing the flats in open water located all over this area can produce a variety of fish. Trout of course followed by jacks, pompano, snook, tripletail on crab traps, and yes I’ve even caught a 20” gag by a spoil island on a red and white MirrOlure Catch 2000. I would strongly suggest exploring the areas on both the east side of the river and the west side as well. The shoreline that starts on the northwest side of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and stretches almost to the bridge in Vero is a good place to catch the IRL slam on artificial baits. When the winds are light exploring is a blast so get up to Round Island try it out for yourself.
Keith Lozott The Fishing Realtor