Fresh Cape Canaveral Fishing Reports

Had a great day of fishing this past Thursday out on the Atlantic. The seas were calm and the fish were biting! John and Mike couldn't get their baits in the water fast enough, and we also could not get the fish out of the water fast enough. The kingfish were chewing hard out on the reef, but that usually means the sharks are chewing equally as hard. We landed a little less than half of the fish we hooked and fought, due to many of them succumbing to sandbar sharks. We did manage to land some nice ones. After we got fed up with the sharks, we decided to have a little fun with them and bring one on board. Nothing like seeing 6 sharks fight over a fish right at boatside then having your rod double over! What a rush! As the day continued we decided to head in a little closer to the beach and try our hand at finding some big black drum. The black drum have been cruising up and down the beach in large schools this time of the year, and it is usually pretty easy to spot them if you know what your looking for. After that, all it takes is a large shrimp on a jig to get their attention, as well as a bent rod and screaming drag. It was a good day not to soon to be forgot with good people! ~ Capt. Eric Myers

Had a great day out on the water today despite the looming forecast of rain thought the morning. While we did get a little wet, the fish didn't seam to mind! The bite was on today and my clients caught just about everything there is on an inshore trip this time of the year. Most of the fish were caught fishing mangrove bank lines using shrimp. We also caught a handful of fish using artificial lures such as gulp shrimp in any color rigged on a jighead under a popping cork. A combination that is very effective for trout around the dock lines this time of year. To tally it up, we ended up catching 8 black drum, 4 redfish, 7 sea trout, 1 sheepshead, 3 whiting in between dodging the rain. A good day on the water! ~ Capt. Eric Myers

It's been an unusual winter for the most part. Temperatures that normally struggle to get into the 70s this time of year have been in the 80's most of January. And while it feels somewhat nice outside for us, I'm not sure it's so great for the fish and their normal patterns. Regardless, it has still been a productive month for fishing and if the warm trend continues, we should see some early spring fishing conditions during February. Offshore fishing has been very very good when seas have allowed us to get out there. Kingfish, Sailfish, and blackfin tuna have all been possible on our reef lines. Most of the kingfish have been averaging in the 8-12lb range with a few larger fish mixed in. Usually, we will have random sailfish or tuna mixed in with these kingfish while we are fishing for them, so it's always a surprise when it happens! All these fish can be caught slow trolling live or dead bait over the reef edges. Nearshore has also, Started to pick up in the last couple weeks with larger black drum schools showing up along the beaches. Most of these fish have been ranging anywhere from 30-80lbs and will not hesitate to eat. Pompano and Tripletail have also been possible along the beaches and can be found just around the outside of port canaveral on most days. Large Shrimp are always my go to for tripletail fishing rigged on a simple 1/4oz -1/2oz jig head. The pompano have been responding well to various jigs and sizes it just may take a little moving around in order to find a good amount of them. And oddly enough, tarpon have also started showing up in good numbers along the beaches. This usually doesn't start happening until early/late spring, so i'm a little baffled on what it means. Either way, they are here and can be targeted for now. Inshore fishing In January was very hit or miss. We caught a lot of sea trout in the 12-15" range with some larger ones mixed in up to 24". They've been eating all kinds of lures from jigs to popping corks rigged with berkely gulp of almost any kind. Black drum have been abundant on most days and have been anywhere from the shallow flats to backwater canals. However, just because they have been abundant does not mean they have been cooperating. On the good days, you may get one or two fish to the boat, after that the rest of the fish will stop eating, or they will be just flat out picky and uncooperative all together. It just depends on the day. Most these fish have been ranging from 5-10lbs or better, and if they are cooperating they will **hidden content**/dead shrimp. Redfish have been probably the toughest fish to find in the Banana and Indian rivers during this month. We have caught a few here and there, but nothing close to stellar. Finally, we have also been catching good numbers of sheepshead around docks. Most have been undersized, but if you keep at it you will usually be rewarded with a few keeper fish. These fish will eat anything from live/dead shrimp to fiddler crabs. Overall, January has been a good month a we should expect to see more of the same in February. On most days it will depend on the weather and if mother nature has any cold fronts left for us. As I said earlier, It has been and unusual winter for us, so we will just have to wait and see how it all plays out! Tight lines, ~ Capt. Eric Myers

Well, it's February, and we all know that usually means it's going to be cold and windy. This has been true for the majority of the last few weeks, as the cold fronts keep moving through this time of year. What this also USUALLY means for inshore anglers is crystal clear water and amazing sight fishing - usually. Unfortunately, to the dismay of most of us fishing guides, as well as local anglers, the water clarity has gotten worse in many areas over the last few months instead of getting better. This has mainly been due the brown algae which has bloomed in all three of the surrounding lagoons. So, instead of sight fishing crystal clear water like normal, we are fishing very dirty brown water. That means no sight fishing on most days. With no end in sight to the dirty water we've been dealing with, we have been very limited to the types of fishing we can do. On recent trips, the best method for catching fish( although not the most exciting) has been soaking cut baits in ideally windy conditions. The reason you want the wind is to carry the scent of your baits down the flats, enticing weary and sluggish redfish, sea trout, or black drum to come and take a look. Artificial lures can also work on some days, but the low water temps generally have the fish moving very slow and looking for and easy meal, instead of aggressively chasing down their food. Odds are, if they happen upon a nice chunk of cut mullet or lady fish, they're probably not going to turn it down. This is exactly what we did on my most recent trip with Ron and Stevan. Winds were blowing 15-25 mph out of the north. We used this to our advantage, and we were definitely able to capitalize. Though, it was far from stellar, we were able to catch a variety of fish, including four redfish and a nice black drum. The best part of the day was the last fish, a 20+ lb redfish, caught in the final 15 minutes of the trip. With any luck, the lagoon water will clear in the next month or so, and we will be able to sight fish again. Till' then, tight lines! ~ Capt. Eric Myers

A couple days before my trip with Jay and Dan, the weather forecast was looking grim. The forecast was calling for a 90% chance of rain and 15-25 mph winds. Luckily, Jay and Dan were no strangers to fishing inclement weather, so they told me they still wanted to give it a try. Turns out, it's a good thing they did. We departed the dock at 7am hoping to get as much fishing in before the weather took a turn for the worst. When we left the dock, the weather was decent - a light breeze and fairly clear skies. As we got to our location on the indian river, it wasn't long before we had the first fish of the day on the line. I think we landed two nice redfish within the first ten minutes of the trip; one was 14lbs and the other 13lbs. Dan and Jay were ecstatic, and the fish kept coming. We had a couple small stray showers give us some rain, but we just put our rain gear on. The showers were very short lived, maybe ten minutes at the most. In between the showers, the fish would start chewing again, and we didn't go very long in between bites. The wind was blowing perfectly down the flat that day, so we opted to use dead baits(mullet, ladyfish, and shrimp), as I knew this would be a perfect scenario for the scent of the bait to be brought downwind. This technique proved to be very productive, and we ended up with 16 redfish ranging from 3-14lbs, a nice slot sized sea trout, and a very nice black drum. We also caught countless catfish in the process. Needless to say, it was a very good fishing trip, and we got very lucky with the weather. Yes, we had a few showers, but the major storms and majority of the rain managed to stay away from our area all day, keeping us dry most of the trip and also making the fishing great. Just goes to show, you never know until you go! ~ Capt. Eric

Had a great time with Carl from Massachusetts on Thursday's full day trip. It was very windy and cloudy, as it is most days this time of year. Luckily, that didn't stop the fish from chewing good! The day started out on the fly; blind casting through the pods of bait that were still(surprisingly) inhabiting the flats. On this day, we were using a white minnow pattern, nothing special. The fish had been loving the color white for the artificial jerk baits that we have also been using on other trips, so it was a good place to start. Well, wouldn't you know, about 5 minutes into blind casting Carl was hooked up to his very first redfish on fly, and it was officially landed a few minutes later. Carl managed to catch two redfish and a nice sea trout in the first part of the trip using only fly gear. However, blind casting with a fly rod all day can be exhausing on your arms. So, he opted to pick up the spinning rod for the remainder of the trip. It didn't take long before Carl was hooked up to another Redfish. All -in-all, we had a great day with seven redfish total, along with three sea trout! The last fish of the day was a special treat. I had been talking to Carl all day about the big sea trout that we have on the flats this time of year and how it can be very hard to get them to eat anything the majority of times. Then right about thirty minutes or so before the end of the trip, Carl hooked another fish. It was fighting exactly like the redfish before it, so I didn't really get too excited. All of the sudden, it lunged out of the water, shaking its head from side to side. It was a MONSTER trout, weighing in at just over five pounds! The kind we were searching for. Perfect ending to another windy day. Tight lines!