It’s been a fantastic week with warmer weather, calm waters, and plenty of sunshine, making for some great fishing both inshore and nearshore. We’ve had some solid action with trout, especially around the flats and deeper mangrove shorelines, along with a good number of pompano, jacks, bluefish, and ladyfish along the flats and shorelines. We’ve been focusing on artificial lures, as the reaction bite has been key. Soft plastics on 1/4 oz jig heads have been my go-to setup, with the Rapala Mooch Minnow, DOA paddle tails, and the Lil Jon all producing great results.
Nearshore fishing has been strong too, with plenty of Bluefish, Mackerel, and a good number of sharks showing up. We’ve had success with artificial baits here as well, using heavier jig heads and fast retrieves for all species. Blacktip and spinner sharks have been mixed in with the bait pods, and they’ve been chasing poppers well. The sharpnose sharks have been a blast on light tackle, and we’ve been catching them on the same soft plastics we use for Mackerel and Bluefish.
It looks like we might see a few cold fronts later this week and over the weekend, which could slow the bite a bit, but there’s always some action to be found if you track down the bait in the lagoon or along the beaches.