East Central Florida: Great time to catch trout on topwater or bass on crank baits

February 26, 2026 By Capt. Jim Ross or Matt Badolato

Capt. Jim Ross discusses fishing from Tomoka Basin to Sebastian Inlet, including Daytona Beach, Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa and Melbourne. Contact Info: Capt. Jim Ross, Fineline Fishing Charters; www.FinelineFishingCharters.com; (321) 636-3728; captjimross@cfl.rr.com

Feb. 26-March 1, 2026

FS staff

Spring is here and anyone who is ducking down into the Sunshine State to avoid the extended chilly weather probably has plans to get a little fishing in. Remember, check the latest fishing forecast from Capt. Jim Ross of finelinefishingcharters.com.

This is a good time to cast topwater plugs throughout all three lagoons-Indian River, Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon-to catch action from speckled trout, redfish, black drum, snook, small tarpon, jacks and ladyfish. Don't forget tossing a naked 3/8-ounce jig tipped with a live shrimp to see if there are any tripletail around the bouys off Port Canaveral. Freshwater fishing in some of the local ponds may be drying up, but in the St. Johns area, throw a lipless crank bait or a spinnerbait to find some spawning bass.

The weekend's marine weather from NWS:

Friday: Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots, becoming southeast this afternoon. Seas 1 to 2 feet. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.

Saturday: Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots, becoming north in the afternoon. Seas 1 to 2 feet. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. Showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms.

Sunday: North winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. A moderate chop on the intracoastal waters. A slight chance of showers in the morning, then a chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Previous reports

Feb. 9-15, 2026

MONDAY Northeast winds around 5 knots. Seas 3 to 4 feet. Wave Detail: Northeast 4 feet at 12 seconds and east 1 foot at 5 seconds. Smooth on the intracoastal waters.

TUESDAY West winds around 5 knots, becoming southeast in the afternoon. Seas 3 feet. Wave Detail: Northeast 3 feet at 13 seconds and east 2 feet at 5 seconds. Smooth on the intracoastal waters.

WEDNESDAY West winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave Detail: East 2 feet at 5 seconds and northeast 2 feet at 13 seconds. A light chop on the intracoastal waters.

THURSDAY North winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. A moderate chop on the intracoastal waters.

Capt. Austin Campbell of Chews Wisely charters in New Smyrna Beach showed on his IG page where hundreds of snook were killed and sunk to the bottom in cold clear water. First, it was shocking to how many snook there were, but secondly, the expanshe on only a couple of minutes time show how widespread it must have been. Campbell told me that he things the FWC should enact a moratorium on snook harvest as a result at least for one to two years (similar to 2010).

Black drum, sheepshead, croaker and bluefish however should be doing better. High pressure may slow fishing for the next week or so. (~ Ed Killer, FS managing editor, ed.killer@outdoorsg.com)

Previous reports

Jan. 30, 2026

Here is the marine weather forecast for the weekend of Jan. 30-Feb. 2.

TODAY: North winds around 5 knots, becoming west late this morning and afternoon. Seas 2 to 3 feet. A light chop on the intracoastal waters. A slight chance of showers.

SATURDAY: West winds 15 to 20 knots, increasing to 25 to 30 knots with gusts up to 40 knots in the afternoon. Seas 3 to 5 feet, occasionally to 6 feet. Very rough on the intracoastal waters. A chance of showers in the morning, then a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. Small craft warnings are in effect.

SUNDAY: Northwest winds 25 to 30 knots, diminishing to 20 to 25 knots in the afternoon. Seas 7 to 9 feet, occasionally to 11 feet. Very rough on the intracoastal waters. Small craft warnings are in effect.

MONDAY: Northwest winds 15 to 20 knots, diminishing to 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. Seas 7 to 9 feet, occasionally to 11 feet. Choppy on the intracoastal waters. Small craft warnings are in effect.

Daily temperatures:

Friday Hi 71, Lo 55
Saturday Hi 61, Lo 30
Sunday Hi 46, Lo 29
Monday Hi 54, Lo 34

florida-freeze — Cold temperatures are coming to South Florida. Watch your plants and especially fish and animals in the outdoors.

If you must fish this weekend, look for sheepshead, croaker, bluefish, flounder and bass and crappie are always ready to tangle.

If you do see an snook stunned, leave a note for us at Florida Sportsman magazine managing editor Ed Killer at ed.killer@outdoorsg.com.

Previous reports

January/February 2026

By Matt Badolato

With its colossal cruise ships, dilapidated docks, and an ominous military presence, Port Canaveral isn’t a pretty place to go fishing.

Fortunately, fish don’t mind the Port’s industrial backdrop. They winter in the deep and food-rich waters of this ever-growing harbor, providing a variety of light tackle options for anglers willing to ignore the omnipresence of man.

Pompano, weakfish, whiting, seatrout, mackerel and bluefish move in and out of the Port depending on water temperatures. If surf temps drop into the 50s, schools of fish stake out in some of the Port’s deepest basins. Some of these turning basins boast depths over 40-feet to accommodate deep-drafting ships.

When temps sink, anglers can use their boat’s sonar to locate deep schools of fish or baitfish and drop small bucktails, spoons, or live shrimp to the bottom. Weakfish and silver trout—usually a pound or two—will hit just about any small lure and make a decent mess of filets. Blues and Spanish will roam closer to the surface. To locate these, look for busting fish or try trolling along granite-lined shorelines with diving plugs or spoons.
As the surf zone warms between cold fronts, pompano leave the Port’s deep basins to run the beaches of the Canaveral Bight, a 5-mile stretch of undeveloped shoreline immediately north of the port. Cape Canaveral, true to its name, is a point of sand thrusting into the ocean, protecting the Bight from winter swells and northwesterly winds. When winter’s winds flatten out the Bight beaches, it’s a small boater’s dream.

Hunting pompano here involves two methods. The first I call “reverse surf fishing.” Anchor up and, casting towards shore, deploy several rods rigged with typical dropper loop surf rigs baited with sandfleas, shrimp or clam pieces. Make moves if fish aren’t hitting, looking for areas with outflows between sandbars. If the tide is moving, you’ll see areas of color change and riffled water—fish there. Bycatch may include bull whiting, black drum, permit and sheepshead.

The second method is jigging with banana-style “Goofy” jigs. At high tide, a trolling motor makes it easy to sneak in close to shore where the pompano roam. Cast towards shore and pop-pop the jigs along the bottom with a sharp jerk of the rod tip, leaving a puff of sand. At low tide, cast to where waves break over sandbars—pomps will feed in the churned up water. If you’re catching bluefish, move. If you’re catching ladyfish, stay in that spot—they tend to feed alongside pompano.

Vast schools of black drum will make their way along Space Coast beaches in February. These are ten- to forty-pounders and can be seen as brown blobs from the beach, usually within a half-mile of shore.

By driving A1A and scoping out beach accesses, kayakers and paddleboarders can get in on the action with a quick deployment when they find them. These aren’t picky flats fish—an obnoxious presentation is fine. Cast bright-colored bucktails, swimbaits, and other easy-to-cast artificials.

It’s prime speck season in January and February along the St. Johns and it’s lakes. I usually leave town and make the drive to Lake Monroe to troll for specks. Located in Sanford, this 8,800-acre lake holds a lot of big crappie.
My good friend Dennis Miller, who caught a crappie in nearly every US state throughout his life, introduced me to speck trolling on Monroe. We’d use a trolling motor to slowly pull a spread of naked crappie jigs of different colors in open water. It didn’t seem to matter where we went, we caught fish, some pushing two pounds. The best trolling was along the lake’s northwestern shoreline, but quite a distance away from land.

We used a combination of Dennis’s hand-tied, mylar dart-head jigs, plastic tube jigs, and curly tails on 1/32-ounce jigheads. Four-pound test was plenty. A long-handled net made netting them a breeze.
Dennis and I met while we were working at a fish camp in Alaska. One evening, we caught sockeye salmon for hours under a midnight sun. I had promised Dennis, who grew up in the Midwest, that I’d put him on a slot snook one day. I never had the chance—he passed away in 2024.

He was forty years older than me, but it didn’t matter. On the water we were still kids excited to catch fish. A good fishing buddy is a precious thing.

Bluefish make their way into East Central waters each winter, providing exciting action in the surf and inlets. They’re not picky eaters—chuck out a big silver spoon or plug and hang on. Outgoing tides at Sebastian Inlet can be phenomenal. In the surf, use cut bait or dead shrimp on long shank hooks to prevent cutoffs.
Contrary to popular opinion, I welcome them on the table. With a knife or shears, cut a few gill arches and let bleed in a bucket of saltwater, then ice. Cook within a day or two any way you like—they’ve got bold flavor that’s great broiled, fried or made into fish cakes.

Previous reports

Sept. 4 Report

OFFSHORE

As the ocean water continue to clean up after the last hurricane, anglers are finding scattered dolphin, wahoo and sailfish on the color changes and temperature breaks starting in about 120 feet of water. The middle and south portions of the region are holding the better numbers of wahoo and dolphin. The northern portions of the region seem to have better sailfish action. Trolling naked chin weighed ballyhoo around these features at 3 to 5-knots is allowing anglers are target the sailfish. You may also be lucky enough to come upon a bait ball or small pod that the sailfish are actively working. If you find one of these, stay well off of the pod and pitch baits into the middle of the feeding activity, Dolphin are also striking these naked baits, but most anglers that are targeting the dolphin prefer a small bubbler style head that creates a good smoke trail and they may kick their boat speed up a knot or two until the find an area that seems to be productive. Wahoo anglers are running 10 to 14-knots with high speed lures. Most of the wahoo are coming from the 27-Fathom Ridge or the Oculina coral bank locally known as the "Cones" or "Steeples." Bottom fishing has been dismal overall, but as the water cleans anglers may find lane or mangrove snapper plus scattered cobia on the wrecks and reefs in the 70 to 125-foot depths.

PONCE INLET INSHORE

Redfish and snook action at the inlet jetties is very good right now. Lots of bull reds are coming from the rocks and causeways pilings right now. Croakers and fingerling mullet are your top live baits. In the backwaters of the Mosquito Lagoon most of the captains are reporting good trout action on pigfish or fingering mullet during the day. Saltwater Assassin Salty Snack lures in the Fried Chicken or Chicken on a Chain colors are producing as well during morning period when the fish are busting baits and lures on top. Later in the day switch to Assassin sea shad in the pilchard, silver mullet, and opening night color patterns for the reds and trout.

PORT CANAVERAL INSHORE

Bluefish, snook, redfish, and tarpon are feeding on the mullet pods that are working their way down the coast right now. Look for the mullet showering in or just outside of the surf break to find good feeding zones that you can stop on and fish. Live mullet are top baits but lipped diving plugs like the Rapala X-Rap in the 12 or 14 size can also be super effective on these fish as they feed aggressively on the mullet.

SEBASTIAN INLET INSHORE

Bull Reds are the ticket for anglers fishing from the T-dock or fish cleaning table area on the south side of the inlet. Live mullet or croaker are best in the daytime. Topwater plugs like the Rapala Skitterwalk, flair hawk jigs, and saltwater Assassin Artemis Shad swim baits are working during low light conditions or at night. Snook, redfish, jack and trout action is also fairly good along the mangroves north and south of the inlet from the Wabasso Bridge to Mullet Creek. Docks along the western side of the Indian River are holding these same species. Until next time.....Catch a memory!!!!

Capt. Jim Ross
Fineline Fishing Charters
www.FinelineFishingCharters.com
(321) 636-3728
captjimross@cfl.rr.com