Hutchinson Island Fishing Charters & Guides

Hutchinson Island Fishing Charters

Hutchinson Island is on the southern end of a barrier island on the Atlantic Coast of Florida. Indian River is on the west side of the island that makes the Hutchinson Island community. Plenty of white sand beaches, golf courses, and a load of outdoor activities are the reason so many people visit this area. A few stretches of rocky beach, the famed Indian River, and offshore giants are reasons so many fishermen visit here. With plenty for the whole family to do, Hutchinson Island is a great place for a vacation or family getaway.

Hutchinson Island Inshore Fishing

Inshore fishing in this part of Florida is split between the Indian River and just off the beach in the Atlantic Ocean. The same fish are found in both places. Fishing techniques will vary depending on what you try to catch. Indian River, a saltwater river that runs nearly one-third the length of Florida's east coast, is a legendary shallow-water fishing destination. The river is well known for gator trout, bull reds and tarpon. Snook, flounder, black drum, sheepshead, shark and more species are also caught here. What makes the river so attractive to anglers, aside from the huge amount of fish there, is the shallow water. Stalking fish like reds and tarpon is immense fun and quite a challenge at the same time. Make too much noise or the wrong presentation with your offering and the fish may vanish. Speckled trout hiding in the grass flats are harder to see, but are there. Live bait will connect with these fish when nothing else will. Shrimp, menhaden, fingering mullet and blue crabs for larger fish are the best choices. The new generation of artificial shrimp lures are often just as effective as live shrimp. When the water is murky, a popping cork adds sound and vibration to help the fish find your offering. Black drum, which get just as big as reds and are equally good on the table, are less aggressive. Fast fishing will not catch these big fish. Use live and cut bait on the bottom in channels. Hutchinson Island fishing charters look for sandy bottoms for flounder. These flatfish love to spread sand over themselves to hide. They particularly like to settle on the bottom at dropoffs waiting for the current to sweep something to them. Throw live and artificial shrimp with just enough weight to cast above the ledge, Let the water push it over or slowly pull it over yourself. Drag the same setup over the sandy patches. On the beach side, sharks and tarpon are the main pursuits. If you fish for shark from the beach, you must have a free permit and understand the Sunshine State's shore-based shark fishing regs. This part of Florida also has a lot of mangroves growing in and around the water's edge on Indian River. Catch mangrove snapper with live bait, jigs and grubs tossed around the root system.

Hutchinson Island Offshore Fishing

Sailfish pack these waters in fall and winter. OpalUnpacked calls it the "sailfish capital of the world" during these months. Finding and getting a hookup with these billfish is the easy part. Getting one of these piscatorial acrobats to the boat is entirely different. The jumping, spinning and even the diving will snap the line if the angler is not paying close attention. Other offshore denizens include reef fish like amberjack, grouper, hogfish, barracuda and the snapper species. In the upper part of the water column, you can find wahoo, mackerel, marlin, mahi mahi and tuna. Cobia are found pretty much everywhere from Indian River to the reefs and wrecks offshore. Trolling will connect with most of these fish, even AJs and grouper. If you connect with a reef fish while trolling, land that one and head back to drop lines over the side. Live and cut bait are fished on the bottom. Jigging is an old fishing technique but has recently drawn fans for how well it works offshore. Jigging can be fast or slow.

Hutchinson Island Goliath Grouper

You will need help to land one fish that lurks around Hutchinson Island. The goliath grouper can hit 500 pounds and takes bait measured in pounds. No shame on your game if you ask for assistance to get one of these monsters to the boat.

Book A Hutchinson Island Fishing Charter

Ready to fish? Let's fish. FishAnywhere has the Hutchinson Island fishing charters that know how to find what you want to catch. Let us connect you to the experts.