Spring is the thing for Space Coast anglers and all the popular targets are responding to warm, breezy conditions. There may be another cold front by Tuesday, however, prior to that, expect to be able to catch favorites like black drum, tripletail, redfish, speckled trout and kingfish.
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The black drum bite in the Mosquito Lagoon and nearby in Titusville has been very good. Guides are finding large schools of drum in the 20-25-pound range giving anglers excellent chances at sight fishing opportunities. Split blue crabs, smaller crabs, live shrimp, dead shrimp and cut bait will all work to get bites out of these fish. Redfish, speckled trout and snook can also be caught working the shorelines of the islands with spoons and shrimp.
Has the spring run of mahi mahi begun early? Only one way to find out. Run and gun out to the edges of the Gulf Stream to see if there is anything floating — sargassum, pallets, tree trunks — anything that floats. Take along ballyhoo for trolling in order to cover lots of territory and live bait if the opportunity presents itself to pitch to a school of dolphin. On the reefs, the snapper bite should be excellent. Mutton snapper, mangrove snapper and lane snapper will bite in 80-100 feet of water.
As it warms up, will the pompano be running back north? Maybe not yet, but anglers fishing in this zone will find occasional bites from pompano, whiting, croaker and jacks on pieces of shrimp or Fishbites. Longer casts with spoons or jigs with flashy colors especially from Jetty Park at Port Canaveral or Sebastian Inlet will catch Spanish mackerel and bluefish.
Boaters can hook up with tarpon, big redfish, big snook and big jacks by drifting the outgoing tides with live croakers or live crabs. Fishing from shore, anglers can catch flounder and snook at night using live mud minnows and sliding sinker rigs. Snook and redfish are staged on the reef off the north jetty. Jigging the flats inside the inlet will yield pompano and jacks.
This is the best time of year to target speckled trout with topwater plugs early in the morning. Fish 2-4 feet of water with Rapala Skitterwalks, MirrOlure 7M series plugs or Y-Zuri Top Knocks to get aggressive strikes at the surface from trout, snook, jacks and tarpon. Black drum, redfish and flounder can be caught near the channels on live shrimp.
There has been good fishing for speckled perch on live minnows in area lakes, ponds and canals. Bass fishing has been very good on lipless crank baits and spinnerbaits.
Ed Killer is florida today's outdoors writer. Friend Ed on Facebook at Ed Killer, follow him on Twitter @tcpalmekiller or email him at ed.killer@tcpalm.com.