Summer has finally arrived along the Space Coast and the fishing has gotten downright ridiculously hot as a result. Giant snook, tarpon, redfish, black drum, jacks and other inshore species have settled into their summer patterns and we’re seeing some super catches over the past few weeks … read on for the details.

Capt. Peter recently guided Justin Stumpfhauser to a huge 45 inch snook. Justin treated himself to a day of fishing for his birthday, and was rewarded with a fish of a lifetime. Fishing back into mangrove creeks, Justin jumped several tarpon up to 30 pounds in the first hour of the trip but the silver kings shook the hooks before any pics could be taken. Switching to a different strategy, trying to get a better hook-set on the ‘poons, the 45 inch monster snook pounded the tarpon bait (an 8” mullet live mullet). With some serious effort and skill, Justin brought the fish boatside for a couple quick photos before releasing her back into the cool, clear water under the mangrove roots. After fishing the creeks, Capt. Peter moved out onto the grass flats, where Justin sight-fished the rest of the day catching redfish, crevalle, and ladyfish.

During another birthday celebration, Capt. Peter guided Paul, Kelly, and Trent Hunter to a day of backcreek fishing for Trent’s birthday in Melbourne. The goal of the trip was tarpon, but due to a lack of water flow the tarpon were pretty lethargic. Fishing a school of 30 or so rolling tarpon first thing in the morning, Paul was able to capitalize on one of the few tarpon bites and pulled a beautiful fish boatside for a quick photo before releasing. The tarpon bit 6” live mullet early, and later in the day they preferred pogies. The rest of the trip was spent sightfishing tarpon and black drum. Some of the schools of black drum they fished are in excess of 50 fish, and are just a blast to sight-fish.

Florida in late spring can bring some surprises, weather-wise and angling-wise. The weather for Greg Stever from Missouri, his two sons Tanner and Trenton, and Captain Rocky could not have been more surprising. Firstly, an unseasonal tropical system developed over the Atlantic during the night before their charter and threw early morning squalls and unseasonably low pressure upon central Florida delaying the start of their charter, Then the fish decided to play with baits rather than aggressively attack them as had been their pattern in the preceding weeks. Despite continuous hits, we were only able to set hooks in a couple of reds and trout before a late morning rain drenched us and chased us off the river. After the rain stopped we tried fishing again but were only able to stick one more redfish, although it was a dandy. Pictured below is Trent with his 32 inch Banana River Red.

Brian Baney and oldest son Nick fished a half day with Capt Roland in the Melbourne area. They started off trout fishing and landed some really nice ones. The fish ranged from 20 – 23 inches. When the river grew too rough they slipped back into Crane Creek for a shot at some tarpon. Although They didn’t land any one was jumped and a really nice jack was landed.

Visiting from Atlanta for some fun in the sun, Kim and John (the husband and wife fishing machine) joined Capt. Peter for a morning of flats fishing in the Banana River. Being friends of Capt. Peter and his family, Kim invited Christa to come along and boy is Christa happy she did. Fishing both islands and up on top of grass flats, the anglers had a blast hunting and catching redfish. With double headers and even a triple header, you could probably hear the laughs in the other river. Croakers and pinfish were the bait of choice. The two biggest fish went 48 and 44 inches….

Will, Jacob, and Wendell from Youngstown, Ohio fished with Roland for two days. The first day tarpon and trout were the targets. Even though the tarpon were not in the mood to eat Wendell landed a giant gar while Will added a big jack from a school of 30. Moving out into the river, the trio sight-fished for snook and trout and Will scored with a gator. On day two, Team Buckeye moved off the beach for a mixed bag of fish. The fish were picky but a few were landed – shark, kingfish, and bonita all made it to the boat while the tarpon and cobia teased the crew.

Mason and his dad, Chuck, joined Capt. Peter for another adventure on the Indian River Lagoon….In search of Mason’s first tarpon. Mason had jumped many tarpon in the past, but had yet to land one, so the purpose of the day was to get rid of that skunk. Fishing one of Peter’s schools of tarpon first thing in the morning, the anglers hooked at least 5 ‘poons with Mason bringing one of them boatside for a quick release, and his first silver king! Capt. Peter reports having a blast on the water sight-fishing many different tarpon schools, two big schools of black drum, sharks, crevalle, snook, and even sight-fishing five foot gar on fly. Mason caught so many black drum, that at times, the anglers found themselves just watching the school of drum just swim around the boat. “We lost a lot of fish and caught a lot of fish (lost count of how many drum we caught), but the best part was that we got to watch almost every fish eat the bait”. Mason is a fantastic angler, and his quest for trophy fish has definitely rewarded him with some awesome catches.

Finally, the Turner family joined Capt. Roland in the Melbourne area for some sight-seeing and fishing. The three young Turner boys were quite the hand full and made enough noise to send most of the fish running for the hills, however, they did manage to land a few redfish who, evidently, were hard of hearing. Seven year old Hayden struck first with a nice slot red which was his first and biggest ever. Four year old Carson was not to be out done and soon followed with a bigger one. Pictured below are Carson and his red.

There are some terrific fish being caught along the Space and Treasure Coasts although the continued effects of high winds on our inshore fisheries have been presenting us some challenges. Typically mid-May gives us more moderate winds and temperatures along with the annual spring mullet migration combining to set our snook, redfish, tarpon and other species on torrid feeding binges. Even though this has not happened yet the fishing has still been really good. Finding clean, calm waters with good baitfish has been the key to successful charters for us the past several weeks. Here are our most recent reports

Now an old angling adage holds that a few great fish will trump a bunch of mediocre ones any day of the week. Last Saturday this proverb proved so true for the Bullingtons from Chicago. Guided by Capt. Rocky and Capt. Roland, Jerry, his sister Judy, witnessed nephew Austin catch two fish that will not soon be forgotten, a monster 43 inch, 30 pound snook and Austin’s very first redfish which gave him and impressive inshore slam during his first Florida fishing weekend. The Melbourne Beach stretch of the Indian River was our location and a combination of live threadfin herrings and small poggys were our bait.

On Friday Jason and Kaden Tacker from Arkansas had the rare treat of catching their first redfish and watching their first shuttle launch from just off the NASA property along the Indian River near Titusville. It will interesting to see which experience the two will remember longer. By the way, they caught several nice reds and trout using live finger mullet under ideal weather conditions. Capt. Rocky was the guide for the charter.

The previous Wednesday Jerry Bullington and his nephew Austin joined Capt. Rocky for a day of fishing on the Banana River. After having to wait for a low pressure system with accompanying storms to clear the area, our trip begin late morning under still heavy cloud coverage and lingering stiff winds. Finding sheltered and clear water along a narrow stretch of the Banana River the Bullingtons tied into redfish, trout, and sheepshead. Austin caught the best fish of the day, a monstrous 31 inch trout.

Capt. Peter reports that he had two fantastic and tough anglers aboard my boat on Saturday. These two lady anglers, Mary and Jeanine, have traveled the globe in search of unique and large fish. Saturday’s weather was a little on the extreme side, with wind gusts up to 30mph blowing down the Indian River Lagoon. These anglers said no big deal to the forecast, so we set out extra early in order to fish a grass flats holding some schools of gator trout before the wind reached its max. We hammered the trout in the morning, as they were absolutely smashing our live mullet out of the water – those big trout gave some really cool strikes when they launched out of the water from underneath our fluttering baits that were on the surface. We went through at least two dozen live mullet in the first hour as the trout just inhaled them. The trout varied in size from twenty to twenty-five inches. Once the wind really started gusting, we moved up into canals and sheltered creeks protected from the wind and live-baited around docks and mangroves. We tried to do some fly-fishing, but the wind really inhibited where we could fish, and greatly affected the ability to cast – Mary, however, was able to entice a couple of gar into biting her fly back in one creek. Back in the canals and creeks we had a blast throwing eight inch live mullet to schooling Jack Crevalle. These jacks were ten to twenty pounds, and were just demolishing the baits with a huge splash of white-water. Throwing live bait to a 20 pound crevalle is one of the most aggressive strikes you will get anywhere – it will make your heart skip a beat!

The charter with Bob Hill and his good friend Sam, both from Jacksonville, could not have experienced a wider range of weather. A severe front pushed through the region in the early morning hours causing us to delay our departure several hours. Under still heavy clouds, we ventured forth on the Banana River is search of reds. Sam scored quickly with two 30 inch fish at our first stop. Noticing tailing fish further down the grass flat, we change ventures and tactics to sight fishing. As the cloud coverage started to break numerous reds were spotted tailing and pushing wakes in water too skinny to cover their wide frames. As morning gave way to noontime the fish settled down to rest in potholes and our challenge was to present baits to them without startling them from their mid-day slumber under full sun skies. Finally, the afternoon brought increasing winds to near 30 mph churning the river into a muddy mess. All in all, it was a day that provided us with plenty of action and striking contrasts. (Capt. Rocky was the guide.)

On Thursday and Friday, Capt. Peter had the privilege of fishing with long time client and friend, Howell Riggs of Alabama. Howell is one of those guys you could have a great day on the water with, even if the fish are not cooperating. But that was not the case…. They fished different times of day, targeted a bunch of different species, and fished in many different areas (clear grass flats, brackish mangrove creeks, and canals and trenches) – in order to fully enjoy all that the space coast offers this time of year. Howell caught giant trout (a bunch of 23 inchers up to 28 inches), big redfish, a handful of really nice black drum, snook, crevalles, huge gar, and jumped some tarpon……sometimes a couple of jumps are all you want from a tarpon after a long day of pulling on fish.

Finally, Mike Foytek from Orlando was Capt. Rocky’s guest on the Banana River on Friday week. Scarce bait, dirty water, and an outbreak of blue/green algae have combined to make our north and mid-county fishing difficult. After visiting several spots that produced well on Wednesday and being blanked, we opted for a radical change in venue and tactics by mid-morning. The changes worked temporarily as we quickly boated a 29 inch redfish and missed a monster fish within a thirty minute span. The rest of day however, although beautiful from a weather condition standout, an oddity over the past month, proved to be frustrating for a pair of hardcore anglers. And after running out of our few precious finger mullet, we finally agreed to postpone the remainder of our charter until early June.

The past couple of weeks have offered up some great fishing, strong winds and all. Moreover, there has been a great variety of fish in our waters right now. Applying different techniques by sight-fishing on the flats and in the creeks and canals has been a ton of fun and very productive. The following accounts are from the past several weeks.

On an afternoon trip, accompanied by CJ Hobgood, Capt. Peter fished back into some mangrove lined creeks in search of tarpon and snook. This was a really fun trip because CJ is a blast to fish with and is pretty darn skilled when it comes to battling big tarpon. They caught some really nice tarpon and some snook from 32 to 40 inches in the four hour trip. They also jumped a bunch of 30-50 pound tarpon, but were only able to get one boat-side. A cool picture of one of the fish making his grand leap out of the water turned out pretty good. Live baitfish was the bait of choice, and they were sucking ‘em down.

Dennis Gast, wife Samantha and 6 yr. old daughter Harmony from Wis. Fished ½ day charter with Capt. Rocky on the Banana River. Partly cloudy skies turned to rain by early afternoon. Caught 2 reds to 18 lbs and 2 trout to 26 inches. Saw manatees, dolphins, and all kinds of waterfowl including rosette spoonbills, snowy egrets, blue herons, ibis, pelicans and ospreys. One osprey kept threatening our baits and finally took a finger mullet only ten feet from the boat. Family had enjoyed Sea World in Orlando the previous day but I doubt it could have compared to all the water creatures seen on the day.

Capt. Peter had another great day of fishing recently this time with Bill Pesci. Accompanying Bill was a friend of his visiting from Georgia. They fished in the Banana River, and were blessed with a beautiful breezy day. They started off sight-fishing snook that were sunning on the surface holding over some six foot deep structure; both man and tackle were tested. Pulling upper thirty to forty inch snook from barnacle encrusted wood with light tackle can be challenging but these two guys put it to them. After tugging on the snooks, they played on the flats for a little, and then fished a school of big black drum and redfish that were holding on the shallow side of a five foot deep trench. This dynamic duo put the hurt on the fish, landing over eight solid black drum, some good fifteen pound plus reds, and a handful of beautiful snook up to thirty-eight inches (with one 40 inch plus snook “released” next to the boat – would have been nice to get a picture of her).

Dave and Maritza from Pennsylvania spending a week in west Melbourne fished with Capt. Rocky on a perfect morning. The glassy conditions and clear water made a stealthy approach mandatory for the spooky fish. Using both live finger mullet and four inch shiners, Dave slammed catching redfish, trout, flounder and jack among the dozen or so fish caught on the half day charter. They had numerous shots at monster snookers cruising the shallow shorelines but could not entice them to bite. These huge fish were sight-fished. They also had a shot at a fifty pound tarpon, one of the first tarpons spotted in the river this spring. (We’ll post photos at a later date.)

One other trip that sticks out in Capt. Peter’s mind was one with a group of very skilled anglers who were visiting Cocoa Beach on business – and the wind was blowing pretty good! They were forced to seek shelter behind islands and in protected mangrove coves the entire day in order to fish calm quiet waters. They chased schools of reds around all morning, and had a blast.

Finally, Capt. Peter wishes to say congratulation to his little sister Christa Deeks for her 1st place finish in the Hunt for Reds tournament this several weeks ago. The pro-team on his boat that day consisted of Brian and Matt Holmes, along with Christa. The team worked hard all day culling through reds trying to find the magic multi-spotter. They caught other multi-spot fish on tournament day, but were just too big. Peter warns we need to look out for Matt Holmes – he’s fired up on these tournaments, and is a real competitor!

The weather has improved steadily over the past several weeks and so has the fishing. With the warmer temperatures and more moderate winds, hungry gamefish have returned to the shallows in big numbers. Indeed, happy days are here again as evidenced by the following summaries from our most recent charters.

Art and his neighbor Al from Melbourne Beach fished last week with Capt. Roland in the Sebastian area of the Indian River. The morning started slow for the duo with strong northwest winds, but we stuck with the game plan. We finally got the winds to shift to the east and boy did the fish respond. In a 2 hour span we landed 12 trout from 22 to 28 inches. Pictured below is Art with his personal best trout of 28 inches followed by Al with another gator trout.
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Capt. Peter was blessed with perfect weather on his charter with an old friend Bob and kayaking phenom and Olympian, Andrew. Taking advantage of the beautiful conditions, the day was spent poling around in the clear, shallow water and sight-fishing redfish. Among the many caught was the following being held by Andrew.

The next day was equally gorgeous weather-wise. There was a nice breeze coming off of the ocean, clear and calm water, and an almost cloudless sky. Capt. Peter reports the charter was split between fishing docks early, and then pushing a school of redfish later in the morning. We landed 19 redfish during this half day trip, with quite a few “tournament winners”, and some really nice “over-slot” fish – including the beauty pictured below.

Good Friday found Capt. Roland on the river again with Michael Cutbirth, his wife Michelle and their sons Josh age 7 and Jacob age 11 who was celebrating his birthday with the boys first ever fishing trip. The fishing was fantastic as we started catching redfish from the very first cast and it never stopped until we headed in. This group caught 20 reds and lost another handful as the fish were found under some docks and knew right where to go after being hooked. Jacob was heard to say “What a great Birthday”. Pictured below are the boys with Roland during a double hook-up followed by Joshua with one of the many reds landed during the outing.

Ginna and Doug Edwards from Raleigh, North Carolina caught one of our less desirable days from a weather standpoint on their short visit to the Space Coast. The clouds were heavy and threatening while the winds blew a stiff 25 mph from the southeast. Another front was rapidly approaching from the north. However, Capt. Rocky and crew took advantage of the sheltered western shoreline of islands in the Grant area of the Indian River and found calm water and hungry gator trout. Doug and Ginna caught a half dozen big trout in an hour and half including the monster pictured below.

Mike and Michael Rimkus were joined by their good friend Alex from Denver on Sat. to fish with Capt. Roland in the grant area of the Indian River. The weather was gorgeous as Spring has finally arrived in full force with temps around 79 and light winds and sunny skies. The fishing was good with many hits but we just weren’t hooking them good. That is until Alex got this monster 20 lb. redfish. Alex had quite a fight on his hands with the 10 lb line. The fish had almost emptied the reel of line before we finally gave chase with the trolling motor. After getting most of the line back, the fish wrapped the line around a clam lease pvc pipe full of sharp barnacles threatening to cut the line. We managed to unwrap the line and resume the fight for another 15 minutes. It was a great ending to a great charter.

The next day we took Mike’s kids, Jenna 6 yrs old and Jacob 8 yrs old along with Alex’s son, Trey 10 yrs old, with us for a kids day of fishing. With an approaching cold front on the way we decided to fish the canals of Honest Johns, just north of Sebastian Inlet. The bite was on as all the kids caught fish from sheephead, redfish, trout, snapper, and jacks. We boated 20 plus fish during the 4 hours and had smiles all around. Pictured below is our trio of kiddos with 1 of the many reds.

Another recent kids trip was guided by Capt. Peter and starred good friends Ed Wegerif, his son Luke, and his daughters Mulan, Jeili, and Anlu. They spent the morning near Cocoa Beach chasing schooling redfish. Even though they targeted just redfish, they varied their methods of fishing for them. They sight-fished the day away under mangroves, in potholes, and under docks. These great anglers landed around 20 reds, a couple of sheepshead, and a very nice trout…and dip-netted more jellyfish than anyone could count.