October is a great time to fish the lagoon as well as the beaches. Depending on the cold fronts, we can expect consistent action in the Indian River Lagoon and on the nearshore beaches from Melbourne to Sebastian Inlet.
The mullet run is typically the first few weeks of the month and as long as the weather holds up and it isn’t too rough, the beaches are the place to be. Consistent action will be on tarpon, snook, sharks, crevalle jack and kingfish that are following the schools of bait looking for that easy meal. Fish the snook and jacks by fishing the trough running parallel to the shore along the beach. Fishing for tarpon and sharks, the best bet is to use live bait and fish the outer edges of the bait pods. The Rapala XRap Long Cast in size 14 will be an excellent hard bait to use when targeting the bait pods. I also like to use Hogy Eeels and D.O.A. Baitbusters during the mullet run along the beaches.
Anglers looking for flounder inshore should have plenty of opportunity to catch some 2-to-6-pound fish in the lagoon and near the inlets. I like to fish the mangrove shorelines with D.O.A. C.A.L. jigs or 4” jerkbaits rigged on VMC ¼ ounce jigheads. Fish them slow along the shorelines and pitch them under the mangrove roots. Docks and spoil islands will also hold some good flounder. Rapala’s XRap Twitchin’ Minnow is a good hard bait to target the flounder around docks and spoil islands as well. Live bait anglers will have the best success with finger mullet, however live pilchards and shrimp will work as well.
The mullet in the creeks from Melbourne down to Sebastian will keep the gamefish in there through the month as long as we don’t get too much rain. Fish the docks and oyster bars that are loaded with bait using topwater baits early, then switching to subsurface baits later in the day. Snook will be plentiful and tarpon will be in the deeper channels of the creeks. Live finger mullet is a great bait or give the D.O.A. Terror Eyez a shot along the shoreline drop-offs.
Capt. Glyn Austin
Going Coastal Charters
www.goingcoastalcharters.com
321-863-8085