Banana River fishing info

Chasinum1

Hey Guys, I'm new to the forum and was wanting to get some tips for fishing the Banana River in the area from Dragon Point to Pineda. I have a CS J16 and was wondering about snook,reds and tarpon in the fall. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Spineyman

It been a long time ago but I used to spook the bridges at Pineda and slay the fish. The flats on the north side of the bridges used to hold some good fish as well.

Trout Tamer

Snook... look for 3 things at any likely spot.. Bait (food) Cover (bridge or mangroves) and Deep water or Moving water (escape the temps). If you find only one.. move on to another spot. If you find two of the three.. they are only there occasionally probably when the bait show up.. if you find all 3 and you don't hook up.. fish it at different times to determine when the feeding time is for that spot.

Reds... flats with grass and bait nearby. Look for birds to tell you where to start looking... stay quiet and look for tails first thing in the morning. My go to bait to locate a school that is hiding is a chunk of cut ladyfish. If you don't hook up in an hour, move because they are not there.

I don't fish tarpon but I would soak the same chunk of ladyfish or a big crab in the channel around the bridge and see what shows up to play. Good luck.

Chasinum1

Thanks for the tips. I really appreciate it. I may even try around Thousand Islands behind Cocoa Beach also. either of you ever fished up there?

seadeuce72

Thousand islands has some good areas. Most of the success I've had has been on the deeper mangrove edges or the flats just south of the golf course. Usually you can find big mullet schools on those flats and I've seen some tarpon and redfish out on the edges of those schools

Trout Tamer

I use to fish the flats beside the Golf Course alittle north of there.. there is a school of reds that are all over 40 inches that live there. Also.. try the docks that are alittle south of the ramp road boatramp on the river.. throw a big live shrimp under the docks. Use to have a blast pulling big reds from under old docks.. look for the ones with a lot of barnacles on the pilings.

PS; use a stiff rod and a large reel with the drag locked down.. pull the fish out from the under the dock with the trolling motor. Its a blast.

Chasinum1

Thanks again for the tips. i'll be fishing around thousand islands this thursday 10/12 thru sat 10/14. i'll give a report over the weekend.
if any of you are in the area let me know.

JohninFl

Often fish Thousand Islands. Water is really high now...places I pole and bump bottom I can run a trolling motor thru. Reds cruise all around the islands, trout in deeper holes, Snook in the mangroves (though right now probably way up in the roots) and small tarpon. Mostly I fish fly or plastics, but cut bait or right now finger mullet work well. Look for stuff busting on bait. Fish along mangrove & tree lined areas. Go really slow..it's easy to run right up on a school of reds in 2 ft of water, go fast you miss them.
In the deep canals find trout and black drum.