As I stood on the shoreline of the lagoon this morning before sunrise, I was once again captivated by the twilight’s illumination of the high tropical cloud tops rolling ashore. The sky overhead remained clear, but the sense of the heavy-laden tropical air was invigorating, and it energized my soul. After 50 seasons of summer squalls, you would think one would grow accustom to the feeling of warm tropical air on your skin as it pushes across the lagoon, but each year as the storms begin to roll in, I fine myself on the shoreline foreseeing their arrival. Soon, the feeder band squalls feeding Hurricane Dennis will push through, and hopefully bring fair skies, calm seas, and hungry fish for the week to come. We should also take a moment to extend our thoughts and prayers for those facing the wrath of Dennis on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
This past week on the Lagoon Coast the fishing was great but the catching varied. As usual for this time of year, the focus of my adventures was near-shore out of Port Canaveral. Currently, you do not have to travel far to find fish. On the buoy line just outside of the Port, large schools of large jack cravelle are common. If you go a little farther out, small 10 to 15 pound kingfish have been widespread seaward of the buoy line and south off the Cocoa Beach Pier in about 40 feet of water. Other opportunities prevalent last week were giant tarpon, sharks, barracuda, and big jacks along the beach, and a good number of nice flounder inside the Port around structure. Also, anglers working the near-shore reefs of 8A and north Pelican flat reported good catches of kingfish, dolphin, a few cobias, and a ton of sharks and barracudas.
As for myself, both trips from the Port last week yielded a decent kingfish up to 20 pounds, a bunch of barracudas and sharks, and a few hefty school buses (jack cervalle) in the 30 pound range. The bite was slow but steady, and my high-spirited anglers made up for the sluggish bite. All fish were taken slow trolling live pogies, and the heaviest concentration of bait was just inside the Port between the submarine basin and the Sterling dock.
As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing.
