Learn to Fish Your Own Boat

You bought the boat. The first few months usually go the same way: you run the same stretch of lagoon, anchor where somebody else is anchored, and come home with a sunburn and nothing in the cooler. The boat isn’t the problem. Nobody has shown you how this water works.

That’s what this is. I come aboard your boat, at your dock or your ramp, and spend four hours teaching you to fish it — on the water you’ll actually be fishing every weekend. You stay at the helm. I sit beside you and show you what to look for, where to set up, and why.

What We Cover

• Reading the lagoon. Grass flats, mangrove edges, docks, channel edges and the spoil islands — what holds fish, and how that changes with the tide, the wind and the season.
• Setting the boat up to fish. Coming into a spot quietly, anchoring, drifting, and using your trolling motor or shallow-water anchor if you have one, so you’re fishing the water instead of spooking it.
• Bait and tackle. Catching and keeping live bait, rigging for snook, redfish and trout, and which lures earn a spot in the box. We fish your gear, so you learn on what you’ll actually be using.
• Fighting, landing and releasing. Handling fish so they swim off strong, and knowing what you can keep and what goes back.
• Boat handling as we go. Reading depth so you stay off the bottom, docking, and the habits that keep a day on the lagoon a good one.

Running Sebastian Inlet

Sebastian Inlet is one of the most demanding inlets on this coast, and it’s the reason plenty of owners never take their boat outside. I run it most days. The Inlet & Nearshore session is for owners who are done looking at it from the lagoon side.

• Reading it before you commit. Tide, swell, and wind against the current — and what the inlet looks like on a day you should stay inside.
• The run itself. Your line through and your speed, with me beside you the first time.
• Then fishing it. The nearshore water outside, and how to come back in.

The weather decides whether this session goes outside. If the inlet isn’t right for your boat on the day, we fish the lagoon instead or move the date.

How It Works

Pick a date and I meet you at your dock, marina or ramp anywhere from Port Canaveral to Vero Beach. Any boat under 40 feet — center console, bay boat, flats skiff, dual console or pontoon. You stay at the helm the whole time and I teach from beside you. Bring whoever’s going to be fishing with you; it’s better when the whole crew learns together.

Who’s Teaching

I’m Captain Richard Ladrew, a USCG-licensed Master Captain (25-ton) and a full-time fishing guide on the water most days, from Port Canaveral to Vero Beach. I fish the lagoon, the inlet and the reefs outside for a living, I’m CPR and first-aid trained, and I’m one of the charter captains FWC contracts for its research trips.

Don’t Have a Boat Yet?

If you’re still deciding what to buy, a half day inshore on my boat is a good way to see how the lagoon fishes and what you’ll want in a boat of your own.

Fishing on your own between lessons? The fishing report updates every Monday, and the season guide covers what bites through the year.

Prices

• Fish Your Own Boat — 4 hours aboard your boat, $450.
• Inlet & Nearshore — 4 hours aboard your boat, including running Sebastian Inlet, $550.
• A $100 deposit holds the date; the balance is due at the end of the session — cash (preferred), Zelle, Venmo or PayPal. Deposit details.