Cocoa Beach Florida

[Fang]

Back in last night from a week in Cocoa Beach Florida. My fishing time has been reduced the last couple of years as my son has been playing rep baseball year round. Last fall he tried out for the Oakville Royals in the Premier Baseball League of Ontario as a 15 year old and was offered a development contract to play and train with the 16 Y team all winter. He was also offered a travel spot to Florida for their spring training in Cocoa Beach. Wasn't a hard decision to take a weeks vacation to go down and watch some high level baseball and get the chance to do some inshore fishing in the famous Mosquito Lagoon.

 

I searched many redfish guides through google, youtube and other Florida fishing forums and liked what I saw about a young Captain located out of Cocoa Beach. Booked a 3/4 day with Captain Jamie Glasner who runs Fin & Fly charters and the weather was perfect. Got picked up at the hotel at 5:45 and we drove north to launch out of Haulover Canal. As we drove we chatted about fishing and tackle and found that Jamie was a full time guide getting out on average 20-25 days a month - what a life!!!

 

 

It was still dark when we were the first to launch but the ramp was getting really busy behind us. Had to be 6 boats pull in withing 2-3 minutes and all were guide boats. I got to drive out through the channel as Jamie got the bait and lines ready. In the dark I could here the manatee rolling in the channel. My spot for the day.

 

 

Out in the Lagoon we headed east across to spot number one, a sandbar that had a water pipe ditch right off the one edge and a deep sand whole off the other side.

 

 

After hearing about the size of the fish he was hitting the last couple days I left my rod under the deck for possible use later. We chatted on the drive so Jamie could get a sense on what I was looking for and I had an idea of first making sure of getting into some fish, then going for a big one and if all the stars aligned I wanted a fish with multiple tail spots. The first 2 were possible in spot number one. As we were slowly pulling up, the water went crazy in front off us as a big school of reds turned in the shallows and went back in the ditch. Jamie got excited as he indicated a school of big reds were here.

 

Also on the ride up, Jamie explained that if I wanted to chuck lures I could but cut bait was the ticket for big fish and numbers at this time of year. No questions from me as I learned a long time ago to listen to the guide. We chucked out 2 lines with 4" slabs of fresh pinfish and in less than a minute (7:14 am) the right side line went tight and just kept going. I'd heard redfish pull harder than a lot of other saltwater fish and found out very fast how true that is. This fish peeled off half a spool from a 2500 shimano before it stopped and ran out to the side. The only word to describe this fish is BULLDOG, such power on each run and I was really laying the boots to this fish as it desperately wanted to rejoin the school. My arm was feeling the burn and this was just the first fish. I got to have the hands on experience and Jamie asked if I wanted to tail my first fish. Heck Ya!!

 

Leaned down over the rail and grabbed my first red, what a fish - 32" and around 12lbs (Jamie's guess). Another item learned is the guides around here frown on those boca grips being used on redfish.

 

 

Kept chunking out the cut bait as the school moved in and out around the sandbar for the next few hours. A clone of the first one came aboard a little later

 

So with a couple redfish caught, someone read the script and I felt a pick up on the rod I was holding. Fed some line and it kept running. Jamie said to hit it and when I closed the bail and lifted back on the rod I could tell this fish had some bigger shoulders (7:59 am strike time). The fish peeled well off over half of the spool of 30 lb braid and just would not give up any line. It was a full 14 minute fight of straight pull, pull, pull mixed in with big head shakes. My arm was killing me and I had to use my left hand above the handle numerous times to lessen the burn in my right arm.

 

My big red at 36.5 inches and maybe 16-18 lbs

 

We worked this school a bit more and was holding both rods on the bow with cut bait out and had simultaneous takes going in different directions. Handed the right rod back to Jamie and set the hook into another solid fish. The other fish came unbuttoned after a few turns of the handle but I got wish number 3, a double spot 34"

 

 

We must have been making a bit of commotion as more and more boats had gathered around us. Jamie's phone went off and his good buddy was pulling in just behind us. He had 3 guys in from Texas and hadn't seen a thing all morning and asked if he could slip in and get some baits in the deep sand hole. Being an OFC member here has taught me the importance of kharma and without even asking I told Jamie not too worry and tell his buddy to come on in.

 

Didn't take them long to double up and the guide and guests thanked us several times. You can see 2 other boats in the background out of the 10 or so around us. Things did die down after this as there was alot of traffic around. Had a couple other big bumps but nothing committed.

 

As we pulled off this spot, I was treated to a rare sight but did not get pictures. We pulled off the flat and as we fired the big engine up, off to the right about 25 yards the water started to churn up in a series of big swells. Jamie points and says "manatees". They are huge!!. Got to watch them for a few seconds until they got a few feet of water under them and disappeared.

 

We moved down to a long big flat of seagrass and sand holes and got a few more small redfish and small sea trout, nothing really pic worthy except this guy. Jamie couldn't really see it from the back so when I asked him what the slot limit was for gators he first thought I was asking about big seatrout. This one was somewhere in 8-10 ft length and I was told to move back off the front of the deck if it got closer

 

 

I'll definitely be back one day in August when the redfish spawn and 30-40 lb fish are in and aggressive. If you're going down it's only a 30 minute drive from Orlando to Titusville for some awesome saltwater fishing

 

A good day fishing

[Musky or Specks]

That'd a great day. Thanks for the report. That gator would make me nervous.

[Big Cliff]

Super report and some really nice pictures! Congrats!

[misfish]

Dude,that,s some great pictures and what a vacation.

[landry]

I really liked your report. Looks like a great time.

[Whopper]

Excellent report!

[leaf4]

great report, definitely something I want to do in the future

[irishfield]

Thanks for the Warm post Paul !

[spincast]

very cool, heading that way soon, and gonna put this guy on the list to check out. That shot of the boat with the three dudes in the front

looks like if someone sneezed you be swamped.

[Viking]

Thanks. Great report.

[aplumma]

It is kind of deceptive the flats boats have low gunnels but loaded with flotation. However they are maxed out with that load in the front. If they spread back out they draft very little on and off plane.

 

 

Art

[Joey]

Very cool report and pictures. As for that boat that looks like it's swamped, I wouldn't want to be in that near that gator

[TDunn]

Sweet! I played ball for team toronto when I was 16 at the same camp in cocoa beach! It was quite the experience and opens up a lot of doors. Division one scouts everywhere!

 

Great report!

 

TDunn

Edited March 17, 2014 by TDunn

[Toronto_Angler]

Great report! I work with a lot of the kids from OBJ, Toronto Mets, Team O and Terriers. Spring training down in FLA is always one of the highlights of the year!