Banana River Lagoon Fishing
Come Fishing on the Banana River Lagoon close to Orlando and the Beaches
Take a guided inshore fishing charter on the Banana River Lagoon for saltwater species including redfish, spotted sea trout, snook, tarpon, black drum and more.
I’m Captain Richard Bradley, and I am a native, local fishing guide, equipped to help a wide range of anglers and their needs. Our flats boat can accommodate youth, elderly, small families and all levels of skill and knowledge. With decades of experience, I am ready to serve my customers and provide a fun-filled day on the water.
Inshore Fishing Charters
The Banana River host the well-known, Cocoa Beach’s thousand islands, which are a paradise for the beginner angler to the most proficient fly fishing experts.
On calm, windless days anglers may be maneuvered around the lagoon’s shallow water “Gondola” style on our specialized skiff. You will be given opportunities to view and cast to fish, known as sight fishing. On less optimal days, anglers may be instructed to blind cast or use a variety of bait depending on availability. Different seasons and conditions present an array of offerings for the anger; you may find yourself fishing around mangrove shorelines or gently push poling miles of large shallow seagrass beds. Along with fishing, you might find some of the early history on the Banana River and more recent events of the Banana River, the waterway you will be guided on a bit interesting.
About the Banana River
The Banana River Lagoon is on Florida’s East Coast near Cocoa Beach. It is an associate watershed that includes the Indian River & Mosquito Lagoon which host the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). While technically the Banana River Lagoon does not add the ICW, the lagoons share the same water and characteristics including the same fish species. The lagoon’s most northern area eventually seeps to the Banana Creek wanders through the Kennedy Space Center where it joins the Indian River Lagoon. If you could continue north by airboat, you’d pick up on the famous fishing mecca the Mosquito Lagoon and onto New Smyrna Inlet or further north on the ICW. North Banana includes the famous No Motor Zone or NMZ as it’s often called, where canoes and kayaks make way to some of the most productive shallow water red fishing in the world. After September 9, 2001, the federal government closed most of this pristine waterway to boat traffic, and it’s become a breeding ground for Florida game fish. If you follow the waterway southward, the shorelines of the Banana River become developed at Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, and Metro Merritt Island. The lagoon ends at Dragon Point and merges into the Indian River Lagoon near Eau Gallie and Melbourne.
If you’d like to read more about the Banana River and our area, visit our Lagooner Local Blog. There are interesting articles about the history of the lagoon including the iconic Banana River Bombing Target, the Banana River Naval Station and other tidbits of history that make our area unique.
Contrary to its name the Banana River is not a river. The original settlers improperly named this saltwater body of water. Water movement is entirely dependent on the wind and very little tidal flow.
It’s a Lagoon, Not a River
This lagoon is a unique estuary system that desperately needs protection against development. Much of the Banana River has suffered from growth over the last fifty years as stormwater runoff has destroyed many of the seagrass beds in the metropolitan areas. The further north you travel in the lagoon the healthier the watershed becomes as the Merritt Island wildlife refuge protects much of the coastline. If you continue south, you’ll find Cocoa Beach’s thousand islands and pass by Merritt Island’s Horte Point, the entrance to Merritt Island’s Newfound Harbor. Continuing northward to Sykes Creek and it’s residential canals, you will eventually find the Barge Canal. Motoring south you’ll discover gin-clear flats, and pelican covered islands on the Banana River’s west bank and Merritt Island’s eastern shoreline of Tropical Trail where wading anglers find tailing redfish and large seatrout. We are not sure where the name “Banana River Lagoon” originated. We speculate that some of the original European settlers probably raised Bananas and exported them up and down the Intercoastal waterways. The Dummit family was known for their agricultural efforts and known to grow citrus, sugar cane and even pineapples. Why not Bananas? You can still find bananas in the Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral area on residents properties.
