March was a solid month for fishing, with warmer temperatures bringing plenty of pompano, trout, bluefish, jacks, and black drum. April should keep that warm trend going. As bait starts moving into the lagoon for the spring run from late March into April, inshore fishing is expected to be excellent for big trout, snook, redfish, and some flounder. Live bait will be key for targeting larger fish, with greenies, finger mullet, and pigfish leading the way. Rapala Skitterwalk and Twitching Mullet remain dependable topwater and subsurface choices, while Rapala Crush City 3.5” jerkbaits and the 3.5” Mooch Minnow are great soft plastics for early mornings. As the sun gets higher, switching over to live bait should help keep the action going.
Snook, tarpon, and sharks should be abundant in the Sebastian River, Turkey Creek in Palm Bay, Crane Creek, and around Ballard Park in Melbourne. Rapala subsurface baits, along with DOA shrimp, TerrorEyez, and Crush City Mooch Minnows, are all effective, and live shrimp or mullet are excellent bait options as well. Target rolling tarpon early in both river forks, then work shorelines and docks for snook. In the lower river between the railroad and US 1 bridges, as well as near the powerlines, sharks will hit both live and cut bait.
The inlet’s strong current attracts big jack crevalle and redfish looking for an easy meal, with live pigfish or pinfish being the go-to most days. Larger Crush City paddle-tail baits rigged on heavy jigheads have also been producing consistently. At night, snook and redfish become more active and can be caught on artificials like bucktails, jigs, soft plastics, and diving plugs, especially for anglers fishing from rocks or jetties.
If seas remain calm and bait is plentiful, tarpon, jacks, bonito, sharks, mackerel, and cobia should also be cruising the beaches from Sebastian to Melbourne and are accessible by boat or from shore. Rapala hard baits and Storm, Hogy, and DOA soft plastics all produce, along with live mullet, greenies, and pogies.