There is a lot of mullet on the flats in the Banana River from the Pineda Causeway up to 528. There are plenty of big trout as well as redfish and snook mixed in. Your best opportunity to hook up with the big fish will be to fish the flats early with a Skitterwalk topwater plug in Bone Chartreuse or live mullet early in the morning around the bait pods. The water is still clear and the fish are very spooky as the sun comes up. Once the sun comes up, move to the spoil islands or mangrove shorelines and fish the mullet schools and the drop offs with Trigger X Shrimp or jerk baits on a 1/4oz jighead.
The snook and tarpon are active in all of the creeks in the region and should readily eat Topwater and subsurface baits. Turkey Creek, Crane Creek and the Eau Gallie River should be very productive through the end of June. Best bite is at night or before daybreak is on live finger mullet on a 3/0VMC circle hook rigged with 3’ of 30lb leader for snook and small tarpon. If you are dock fishing step up your leader size to 40 or even 50lb to have any success pulling the big snook out of the dock structure. If we get the typical summer afternoon rain patterns, the afternoon bite should be pretty good. The mullet can be either free lined or fished under a natural cork. Multiple hookups on tarpon and snook are common every trip. If artificial baits are your preference, throw Skitterwalks in the mullet pattern and give the Rapala BX Minnow a shot for subsurface baits.
With the big schools of bait in the lagoon, we should start seeing the big schools of Jack Crevalle marauding the mullet schools. If you want to have a lot of fun, keep a Storm Chug Bug rigged and ready to battle with jacks from 15-20lbs.
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