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this april will be my 3rd year coming to cedar key fishing. i have read about some night fishing and was wondering if anybody does any night fishing in cedar key or anywhere. any tips on this would be appreciated and any general tips about fishing cedar key would be great seeing as how i generally new at this. Rigs, bait, spots etc. THANK YOU !

what kind of fish are you after? i'm not familiar with cedar key.( i grew up fishing fort pierce indian river lagoon and now the big bend so i can't speak for cedar key) are you fishing from a boat? pier, jetty? remember snook season is closed all year so you will be limited to catch and release as far as snook go. but there should be some trout, reds and baby tarpon and a few flounder to keep you busy.

if fishing docks, look for good water depth and current around the docks and some decent light but not too much light. fish live freelined pilchards, shrimp or fish pinfish/piglets under a cork around the shadow line during the fastest part of the tide. use circle hooks and flourocarbon 20-40lb leader. if targeting dock snapper/grouper use a small weight or jighead to get it down to the bottom before the snook get it.

if fishing the inlet, bridge or pier fishing you will want to go with braided line(20-60lb braid and a fast action h-xh rod with3-4ft 30-80lb of flouro leader and 2/0-4/0 circle hook depending on bait size. if you don't want to use heavy mono you can ty a bimini twist or shock leader when fishing right in pilons. i find that the offshore chucking spinning rods for kings, dolphin, albakore work really well because they have a soft tip and lots of backbone but are very castable. try them

Cedar key is a pretty rough area to fish in the day. I would be very careful about fishing it at night until you know it well.

Cedar key is a pretty rough area to fish in the day. I would be very careful about fishing it at night until you know it well.

Cedar Key can be a tough place to fish if you don’t know the area. Night time is even more difficult. I only know a couple of people who do that and they fish for sharks. Pretty much you can catch them anywhere however. The big ones like a channel with moving water. Unless you really familiar with CK I’d stick to daytime fishing.
Brian