N/D 2009 - Capt. Van Horn
Port Canaveral and North Indian River Lagoon Forecast

Cooler weather and exceptional fishing are what fall delivers to the Indian River Lagoon Coast of Florida. Tropical weather system are waning in the Atlantic, giving way to the arrival of our seasonal cold fronts, as the fall bait run nears an end.

This year's bait run started early, and in some locations finger mullet schools are thinning out, but reports of heavy bait concentrations to the north indicate more is yet to come. Large tarpon, snook, sharks, jack crevalle and breeder redfish will all be present in the inlets and along the beach as the feeding frenzy continues.

November is one of the best months to target snook at Sebastian Inlet. In addition, large flounder and oversized redfish should begin to show up on the Port Canaveral buoy line and in the inlets, and their numbers will increase as the flounder begin their seaward migration out of the lagoon.  Also, let's not forget the increased numbers of schooling Spanish mackerel and bluefish shadowing schools of finger mullet and glass minnows along the beach.

On the lagoon, schools of pompano will form up and move off of the lagoon flats through the inlets, and invade the beach in search of mole crabs (sand fleas) their favorite winter food.  Currently, reports of skipping pompano have been coming from anglers working the flats in the north Indian River Lagoon, and the flats on the east shore of the Indian River Lagoon south of Titusville.  Also look for large schools of ladyfish, jacks, Spanish mackerel and small sea trout to be working the migrating schools of glass minnows as they move south in deeper water through the lagoon.

As water temperatures cool, look for cobia and tripletail numbers to increase along the Port Canaveral Buoy line and on flotsam, both inshore and offshore.  When you find weeds and other debris, look for tripletail to be hanging just below the floating structure.  Live shrimp and small jigs tipped with shrimp work well when targeting these brim on steroids.  For artificial bait, nothing works better than a well presented DOA Shrimp.  Also when sight fishing, it's important to keep the sun to your back to improve your range of sight, and to keep a medium-heavy rod rigged with a one-ounce chartreuse or white buck tail jig ready to throw to any cruising cobia.  Also, look for the fall kingfish run to commence, as well as an occasional sailfish or blackfin tuna on the near-shore reefs and wrecks, like 8A and Pelican Flats.

Captain Tom Van Horn