FL Fishing Report

Complements of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida

Although some nice fish were caught on every outing this past week, the catching was very slow for the most part.  Over the past 8 days, I had the pleasure to fish on the St. Johns River for American shad on three occasions, the east side of the Banana River No-Motor Zone, and a solo scouting trip to the Indian River Lagoon in Titusville.

For starters, I fished the St. Johns River in the area south of Lake Harney, and the American shad have arrived, but they are not in good numbers yet.  On both of these excursions we caught several nice shad each and a mix of some nice bass, speckled perch, and even catfish, but the catching wasn’t on fire.

Billy’s No-Motor Zone Redfish Caught on a Salt and Pepper RipTide Flats Chub

On Friday, I had a charter with three brothers Chris, Tom, and Billy on a quest for a large redfish, so we paddled in to the east shore of the No-Motor Zone.  Although it was a nice morning, with light winds from the south at about 5 knots and a marine forecast of 5 to 10 knots in the afternoon, I was a little concerned about this wind situation because paddling in would be a breeze; paddling out would be a challenge.  In the afternoon my apprehensions proved true as my experience with the marine forecast is a prediction of 5 to 10 knot winds means you add the two together, and in this case, as we faced at least 15 knots right down the teeth on our return trip.  Notwithstanding the wind situation, we did not see a single tail the whole day, and our final score was 6 puffers and one nice upper slot redfish caught by Billy on a RipTide Salt & Pepper/ Chartreuse Flats Chub.

Due to the windy conditions today, I returned to the St. Johns River with Captain Chris Myers.  I wish I could tell you the bite was on fire, but the truth be known, it was not.  We fished hard in the area of the old Marina Isles Fish Camp, and I caught on shad on a pink crazy Charlie, and between us we boated a half dozen speckled perch.  As my good friend Captain Chris stated, “It was a good day to be out of the offices”.

Seminar and Event Schedule:

January 17^th, 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th, Central Florida Boat Show Orlando Convention Center.

            No Motors, No Problem Seminar Friday the 18^th at 700 PM.

January 22^nd, Orlando Kayak Club Meeting, Gander Mountain in Lake Mary 7 PM, Rigging Soft Plastic Baits for Redfish and Sea Trout.

March 1^st, 2^nd, and 8^th Bass Pro Shop Spring Fling, Orlando Florida

April 18^th, 19^th, 20^th, Coastal Angler Magazine Boating and Fishing Expo, Melbourne, Florida.

As always, if you have any questions or need more information, please contact me.Good luck, good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn

Contact US HERE

Last week, coldest weather of the season came through the area causing the water temperature to drop twenty degrees in twenty-four hours. High winds and cold made for unpleasant fishing conditions so I stayed off the water. This week, however, was the complete opposite. For the most part, it was sunny, warm, and calm. I spent four days on the water with some excellent results.

Monday, Capt. John Kumiski and I spent the day fly fishing the Mosquito Lagoon. We began the day targeting tailing redfish in very shallow water. After spooking the first few fish, I caught one around four pounds on an olive #2 crab pattern. Capt. John quickly followed up with a redfish of similar size on a black redfish worm fly. As we were looking for the redfish, we came upon numerous large trout lying in shallow sand holes. I switched to an unweighted bendback style fly and managed to convince one of them to eat. With both trout and redfish having been landed, we went looking for some black drum. We found a school of them and Capt. John made several casts with a brown Merkin style crab. The lone redfish among the black drum was the first fish to grab the fly. The drum moved off and we were unable to find them but I was able to get my crab in front of a 27 inch redfish which grabbed it as I let it fall. John got a nice trout and I followed with one more redfish before some rain arrived and we headed in.

Tuesday, I was joined by brothers Rob and Gray from South Africa . Rob wanted to fly fish and his brother stuck with spinning tackle. We came upon numerous redfish and big trout throughout the morning. Rob was used to fishing in more remote locations with fish that are much less wary than our shallow water redfish. Although he made a valiant effort, most of his casts didn’t quite get to the fish quick enough. I elected to give them a shot at some black drum and we found a school of about 50 fish. Rob cast an olive Merkin crab to them and hooked up with a drum around 20 pounds.