Every so often I feel the need to go fish a new area of Florida, so when I got a call from my buddy Steve Carl we did just that. Steve suggested we go to Scootsmoor and fish the northern most area of the Indian River Lagoon. A few days later we embarked on our trip.
Steve picked me up at 5:30 AM on Friday morning and we loaded up my tackle and set out on the drive to the boat ramp. The drive from my house to the boat ramp took about 45minutes. The boat ramp is small but there is plenty of parking. The only draw back is that there are no bathroom facilities. Once you launch your boat it takes less than a minute to where it opens up into a large body of open water and within minutes you can be fishing the grass flats.
Our target species that day was to be redfish. Steve, having fished the area several times before, knew some of the better spots to search for the fish. We drove to the shoreline on the north end, cut the motor and Steve got up on the poling platform. We worked a couple of creek mouths and the shoreline with no luck so we fired up the motor and moved to a different area.
We worked the shoreline of the new area and again no luck. It wasn’t until we moved about 50 yards off the shoreline that we started to see redfish. The water in this area is usually clear but with the rains they’ve had lately made the water murky and difficult to sightfish. It wasn’t until we were right on top of them that you could see them. By that time you have already spooked them and you could watch them swim off. We had a couple of shots at some cruising fish where steve put a Berkley Gulp right in front of their noses and they wouldn’t eat it. I had a shot at a cruiser that stopped and I lost where he went. I knew he was somewhere where I last spotted him and when I threw the fly I must have hit him right in the head because the water erupted and he was gone.
We didn’t catch any fish that day but I did see enough of them to bring me back to Scottsmoor again.
Locally the flounder bite has been hot. Use a Berkley Gulp on a jig head and work the shorelines of the ICW. For big trout, locate schools of glass minnows around docks and throw a Mirrolure 17MR for big results.

Tarpon fishing along the areas beaches has been spotty as of late due to cooler water temperatures. Lately the water temps have been bouncing back and forth between the seventies and eighties. The lower temps will either shut the tarpon down or they will leave to find warmer water. Higher temps will bring the tarpon in and turn the bite on.
Tarpon are often called “silver kings” or “poons” so you will see me use these terms in this article.
Last week Dan and Ramona Rutkowski went out Matanzas Inlet in search of tarpon and were rewarded with two silver kings that they brought to the boat and released. Both fish were in the 80 lb. range. Dan said they didn’t find any tarpon on any of the bait pods they came across but instead they found them by accident as they were cruising around searching for signs of poons. They noticed a silver flash in the water and stopped the boat to investigate. What they found were a couple of schools of tarpon that were lazily hanging out just a few feet below the surface. Dan said most of the fish they saw seemed to be kind of sluggish which he said was probably caused by the cooler water temperatures. They placed their baits right in front of the fish’s noses but they refused to eat the baits. They finally found a couple of fish that cooperated with them and the fight was on. Dan emailed me some of the pictures he took while Ramona battled her fish. He had some great shots of the tarpon leaping out of the water.
If you want to try your hand at catching a tarpon, start by trying to choose a day when there is no wind. Morning is usually the best time because the ocean is flat and it is easy to spot the pods of bait on top of the water. As the day wears we usually get the afternoon breezes and this puts a chop on the water making it difficult to see the bait. Once you locate bait you’ll have to throw the cast net and fill your live well with it.
Your tackle should consist of a rod in the 30 to 50 lb class with a reel to match. Line should also be in the same size class to match the rod and reel. You’ll need a 50 to 80 lb leader attached to the line with a triple surgeons knot. On the end of the leader you want a 5/0 to 9/0 circle hook depending on the size of the fish. Hook your bait in the back and cast it to the edge of the bait pod and our good to go.