Fishing can be tough as the winds of March blow in on the east central coast of Florida.  This has and will be the case this past week and next week on the Indian River, Mosquito, and Banana River Lagoons and the Atlantic offshore and near-shore waters where 3 to 5 foot seas and small craft warnings have been and will be experienced.  Currently elevated winds and seas are forecasted through next Sunday, but even when the winds do lay down it will still take a few days for the water to clean up.  This was our experience last year when we had rough conditions for two weeks straight and we missed the cobia run completely. Another product of the winds of March are their effect on the water levels in the non-tidal waters of the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoons.  Earlier last week we experienced a  water level drop of close to 12 inches when a strong northeast wind pushed lagoon waters south, and then water levels in the north Indian River Lagoon returned as the strong winds shifted direction out of the southeast. Currently water clarity has improve in some areas of the lagoon system, but overall the brown tide conditions remain a factor.

Despite the windy conditions experienced last week, we still managed to find some hungry black drum holding around lagoon structure, so even though conditions are less than ideal there are still locations where fish can be caught, you just have to be careful about how and where you operate and understand the limitations of you equipment.

Although I did not fish the St Johns River this week, my sources tell me the bass bite has slowed down some, but the American shad run continues to be good with the best bite coming in the afternoon and evening hours.

As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn