Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Fishing Reports (November 2025)

Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 8 months ago

Redfish are still schooled up and the large trout are getting on the flats in the warmer days. The schools of big black drum are still around as well. Fishing has been good!

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Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 8 months ago

Redfish are still schooled up and the large trout are getting on the flats in the warmer days. The schools of big black drum are still around as well. Fishing has been good!

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Great night/evening trips for bull reds, snook and tarpon as well as cooking water temps on the flats for aggressive trout and redfish bites

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Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Great night/evening trips for bull reds, snook and tarpon as well as cooking water temps on the flats for aggressive trout and redfish bites

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Now is a great time of year for tarpon and bull redfish. We are catching multiple reds in ver 35" in a 4 hr trip and the tarpon are here in solid numbers for the next few weeks

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Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Now is a great time of year for tarpon and bull redfish. We are catching multiple reds in ver 35" in a 4 hr trip and the tarpon are here in solid numbers for the next few weeks

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Neal Goodrich
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

My latest report is titled Thanksgiving Week. The weather was windy, the water was a little choppy in spots and the sun peeked in and out of the clouds a little each day... But it might as well have been raining redfish! That's how many we caught! The first day...

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Neal Goodrich Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

My latest report is titled Thanksgiving Week. The weather was windy, the water was a little choppy in spots and the sun peeked in and out of the clouds a little each day... But it might as well have been raining redfish! That's how many we caught! The first day (Wednesday), i took out Chad and Kari for a few short hours. They brought 9 redfish, 2 snook and a few mangrove snapper to the boat. It was Kari's day and everywhere she cast she was catching the reds! Poor Chad was a good sport about it, even though Kari gave him her spot on the bow he still didn't catch one. Friday Art and his grandson Daniel got a bit of a late start on another partly cloudy and windy morning but the wind died down a little and we got on the redfish on the first stop and before the morning was over they had caught 30 head of reds, a 20 inch trout, 4 snook and 7 mangrove snapper. WOW!!! They were sure some happy fishermen when we got back to the dock! If this is any indication of what is to come, the redfish season is going to be fantastic!

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the...

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Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the summer. The seatrout spawn throughout the late fall, and into early spring. It is not uncommon to find a group of 20 or more over-slot trout sunning on a patch of hard bottom ready to inhale almost any presentation. As for the redfish, instead of the singles, pairs, and small groups of mostly slot fish we find in the warmer months, we now get the opporunity to target redfish upto and over 30” in less than a foot of water and find schools of more than 50 redfish cruising around together. And last but not least, with the cooler water temperaturs, the fish feed on the flats all day long! Book now to chase the schools of shimmering copper redfish and wolf like packs of gator trout!!

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the...

See Full Report & Photos >

Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the summer. The seatrout spawn throughout the late fall, and into early spring. It is not uncommon to find a group of 20 or more over-slot trout sunning on a patch of hard bottom ready to inhale almost any presentation. As for the redfish, instead of the singles, pairs, and small groups of mostly slot fish we find in the warmer months, we now get the opporunity to target redfish upto and over 30” in less than a foot of water and find schools of more than 50 redfish cruising around together. And last but not least, with the cooler water temperaturs, the fish feed on the flats all day long! Book now to chase the schools of shimmering copper redfish and wolf like packs of gator trout!!

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the...

See Full Report & Photos >

Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 2 years ago

Fall is a magical time if year on the flats. As the cold fronts begin to hit and the water temperature drops, the shallow grass flats of mosquito lagoon begin to flood with the larger redfish and and numbers of trout that have been in deeper water most of the summer. The seatrout spawn throughout the late fall, and into early spring. It is not uncommon to find a group of 20 or more over-slot trout sunning on a patch of hard bottom ready to inhale almost any presentation. As for the redfish, instead of the singles, pairs, and small groups of mostly slot fish we find in the warmer months, we now get the opporunity to target redfish upto and over 30” in less than a foot of water and find schools of more than 50 redfish cruising around together. And last but not least, with the cooler water temperaturs, the fish feed on the flats all day long! Book now to chase the schools of shimmering copper redfish and wolf like packs of gator trout!!
Capt. Hunter

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Hunter Bach
Oak Hill, Florida
Reported: 2 years ago

We knew we'd be up against it due to the moon phase of the past week or so. Full to half-full moon up for most of the night and deadly high mid-day temperatures give the fish an excellent opportunity to feed all night and look the other when no matter...

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Hunter Bach Oak Hill, Florida Reported: 2 years ago

We knew we'd be up against it due to the moon phase of the past week or so. Full to half-full moon up for most of the night and deadly high mid-day temperatures give the fish an excellent opportunity to feed all night and look the other when no matter how well a bait is presented to them during the daytime. Repeat client and good friend, Tyler was not intimidated. We kicked the day off watching 20 - 60 lb. tarpon lazily roll at first light. For about 45 minutes we pitched live shrimp, blue crabs, and baitfish as well as artificial presentations to them. A few sipped down the blue crabs but gave us the slip as a bony-mouthed tarpon will sometimes do. By the time the sun cleared the horizon, the tarpon activity declined and we moved onto the flats. Within minutes we were staked out on a school of black drum in the 5-15lb. range. After a few missed hook-ups we finally landed one around 22" and a slot red before the school moved on. From there it was pretty much all sight fishing. We had a few opportunities at large trout and snook cruising the flats despite the tough moon phase and Tyler followed directions perfectly to sight-fish a couple of over-slot Mosquito Lagoon redfish! They are plentiful but demanding in the clear shallow water and closely adhering to the direction of your guide is all but imperative. In the late afternoon, we returned to the main channel to try our luck with the bull reds. On light tackle, we landed a few more fish including another over-slot redfish and we had an absolute monster on the 6500 penn that somehow managed to break us off on some structure

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