February 20th, 2023 Fishing Report

Looks like spring has sprung with air temperatures in the 80s and water temperatures ranging from 68 to 74 degrees. I’m not a fan of the cold and I love the springtime with all the new types of fish that migrate back to our waters again. We specialize in catching big redfish and snook and it’s difficult to do that on a consistent basis during the winter. Tarpon fishing is right around the corner and we should be seeing them first in the back waters then off the beaches. The weather in Florida can be wacky though with temperatures in February warmer than in March.

Officially winter goes until March 20^th but, here in Central Florida things get going a little earlier when it comes to fishing. With the higher water temps the fish will become active and we should start to see redfish and snook fishing in the inshore waters improve greatly the next month or two. Springtime is one of our favorite times of year to fish and along with summer, its our busiest. We prefer not to fish during the weekends as they tend to be very busy but, we know it’s the only time our clients can make it out.

Speaking of redfish, our charters have been catching some real nice fish at night. Most of the fish are over 30 inches with some over 40. Currently our night time bite has been consistent but, for some reason the day time fishing has been slow. Daytime fishing has produced some nice redfish but you really have to put your time in.

We catch most of redfish and snook on live bait but, a little later in the spring we can target the fish with lures and when the conditions are really good, we catch them on fly rods! If you have never caught a huge Indian River redfish on fly then you definitely need to put that on your “fishing bucket list”. We are very fortunate to live in a place where we can not only catch redfish all year long but, big redfish. Clients that fish in other parts of Florida are truly amazed at how big are redfish are.

It’s getting to be that time of the year when you see boats running down the beach looking for cobia. With water temps already in the high 60s the cobia could be anywhere from outside the inlet to 10 miles off the beach. This style of fishing is more like hunting then fishing. It’s 100% sight fishing where you are looking for manta rays, turtles or any floating object that the cobia are attracted to. Spanish mackerel will also start to show up right of the beach and in some cases shore bound anglers can get into the action.

Shark Fishing will start to heat up both in the backwaters and in and around the beaches. Blacktip and spinner sharks by the thousands migrate up from the Palm Beaches. After spawning down south these sharks are hungry and come to our area drawn by huge amounts of baitfish. Catching these sharks on spinning tackle is a lot of fun. Often you will see the shark before the hook up and this is super exciting for many people as the anticipation is threw the roof! Another type of shark that becomes more available to target is bull sharks. These large powerful sharks that can wight over 500 lbs will start to spawn. This is heavy tackle fishing that requires strength and stamina from the anger to land one of these sharks.