Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report Last week, I fished only one day, due to poor weather. Thursday, my wife joined me on the Mosquito Lagoon. Despite high winds much of the day, we spotted a decent number of redfish once the clouds passed through. Nine redfish and one drum was our final tally. Morning Glory and Watermelon Seed DOA CALs were the colors of the day.

This week, I was joined on Tuesday by Joe and his two sons. We saw a lot of redfish but most of the fish never saw the lures. After striking out with the reds, we tried trout fishing for a while but only landed four. The last hour was spent casting to some more redfish but the guys were blanked again.

Wednesday, honeymooners Rusty and Becky joined me for a day of some poor weather but great fishing. We began the morning trying to catch some early season tarpon. We saw a few but did not get a bite. The rest of the morning, we endured some extremely high winds but managed to land nine drum and two redfish. Becky shows off her first drum while Rusty is busy fighting one of his own.

Thursday, Wayne, a central Florida resident, treated British angler Shawn to his first trip to Mosquito Lagoon. Shawn landed the first two redfish of the day and then hooked up with a nice trout on a 4 inch DOA CAL in Arkansas Glow.

The guys hooked up with three more trout even larger but each one managed to throw the hook before we landed them. We saw hundreds of redfish throughout the day but they refused to eat unless the presentation was perfect. Wayne finally fooled this redfish that was following a large stingray.

Friday, I went searching for tarpon and snook. I found plenty of both. The tarpon were a bit smaller than I had hoped for but most of the snook I saw were much larger than I expected. The tarpon, which are notoriously finicky, were feeding well. Using a 3 inch DOA holographic shrimp, I jumped five and landed three. I had bites from more than a dozen others that did not get hooked. On the other hand, many of the snook showed little interest in eating. I caught two, missed a few other bites, and had one in the 15-20 pound range weave my line through a maze of tree branches before breaking off. All of the bites came on the holographic shrimp.

Contact Info - http://www.flyfishingfl.com/fly-fishing-guides.html

Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka Florida

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of this report.  This past weekend I was off of the water attending the Coastal Angler Magazine Fishing and Boating Expo in Melbourne, Florida.   Although the weather was nice, we still had great turnout, great speakers, and a great show.  Yes, nice weather on the same weekend of a fishing show typically draws attendees away, but in this case, our attendance was good. We also conducted another Hook Kids on Fishing event on Saturday, which was a ton of fun and a tremendous success.

My adventures last week started out with the pleasure of sharing a three-day charter with father and son team Rico Panilo and Rico Jr. from New Jersey.  Our plan was to mix it up a bit by targeting a different style of fishing each day. 

On our first day we launched out of Kennedy Point in Titusville for some sight fishing for redfish and sea trout, and the catching was tough.  We had some shots at tailing redfish early out, but after a hard day of fishing we ended up with a good number of ladyfish and small sea trout.  The schools of ladyfish have moved into the north IRL and they are working schools of glass minnows under terns and seagulls.

On our next day we opted to fish near-shore out of Port Canaveral in search of tripletail and cobia, and again we had a tough day managing only one tripletail, a spadefish, one flounder, and a sheepshead. 

On day three we ventured into the freshwater arena targeting schooling bass on the St Johns River near Lake Harney and again the fish weren’t jumping into the boat, but Rico Jr. did manage some decent size largemouth bass and a 5 pound southern flounder of all things caught on a live menhaden.  Oh by the way, we ended up taking the flounder to lunch at the Jolly Gator Fish Camp, where the nice folks whipped up some tasty blackened flounder sandwiches, yum. 

On Monday I guided a group of three into the Banana River No-Motor Zone where we caught a good number of sea trout and ladyfish on top water plugs.  The bite was fast and furious at first light with our best results coming from Storm Chug Bugs and Rapala Skitterwalks fished in 2 to 3 feet of water. As the day grew longer and the wind picked up, we decided to chunk out a few ladyfish, and managed a 36-inch and a 47-inch redfish.  The larger redfish was 47-inches long with a girth of 28-inches, and using the standard fish weight calculator measured out to be 46.06 pounds

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

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn

Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
Contact Info - http://www.flyfishingfl.com/fly-fishing-guides.html

Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida

Reflecting back on past fishing adventures, April stand out as one of the finest months to experience the true diversity of the fishery existing along the Indian River Lagoon coast of Florida.  April serves as a transitional period where the winds of March give way to the heat and humidity of summer.  As spring progresses and water temperatures rise, fishing opportunities abound with the influx of bait moving north within the lagoon and closer to the shoreline along the beaches. 

April marks the beginning of the fishing season for many blue water anglers, representing the start of the northern migration of dolphin in deeper water, 120’ and beyond. This first wave of dolphin is usually credited with some of the largest bulls taken all year.  It also marks the beginning of the spring kingfish run on the near-shore reefs and wrecks off of Port Canaveral.  Traditionally, April is the time of year when the larger kingfish, 30 to 50 pounds, are caught off of 8A Reef, and Pelican Flats.

As we move into the near-shore waters, we can only hope the cobia are still around.  The cobia run was going on last month with some great catches reported in between passing fronts. On flotsam and along the Canaveral buoy line, tripletail should become more dependable throughout the month.  Along the beaches, pods of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) have been showing up south of the Cocoa Beach Pier, and the arrival of these bait pods is a sure sign of predators lurking in their shadows.  Look for tarpon, jumbo redfish and jack crevalle, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, blacktip sharks, cobia, and smoker kingfish to begin showing up in the vicinity of these bait pods.

Inside Port Canaveral and Sebastian Inlet, look for a good number of sheepshead and black drum to be holding around structure such as jetties and docks and look for Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and jack crevalle in deeper water areas.  Also look for nighttime snook and tarpon action to begin heating up in both the Port and in Sebastian Inlet as we move deeper into the month.

On the Lagoon flats, it’s time to start fishing the early morning and late evening bite with your favorite top water plugs for extreme sea trout and redfish action.  During midday periods, work the deeper areas, 2 to 3 feet, with your favorite soft plastics, jerk baits, or jigs.  Remember, April is one of the months where the larger sea trout (all females) become egg laden for the spawn, so it’s very important to handle and release these larger fish with extreme care.  Sea trout have one of the highest mortality rates of catch and release game fish on the Lagoon.

Last but not least, look for the large mouth bass action to heat up on the St. Johns River.  Look for schooling bass at first light feeding on menhaden from the Osteen Bridge to the Econ Creek.  Some of my favorite places to look are the river bends between Lemmon Bluff and Lake Harney, and the south end of Lake Harney where the river dumps in.  To locate the areas of schooling fish, I simply look for congregations of white pelicans and other wading birds lined up along the riverbanks waiting for an easy meal when the hungry bass push the bait to the surface along the shore.  When in the feeding mood, these fish will eat just about anything, but the heavy bite usually only last from first light to the point where the sun crosses the eastern horizon, so an early start is essential. 

Seminars and Events

April 18^th, 19^th, 20^th, Coastal Angler Magazine Boating and Fishing Expo, Melbourne, Florida, Angler’s Improvement Clinics Sponsored by Mosquito Creek Outdoors, RipTide Soft Plastics, Woodie’s Rattles, TTI-Blakemore Fishing Group, and D.O.A. Lures

Future Hook Kids on Fishing! Program Dates

April 19 - Melbourne: To register contact the Melbourne Leisure Services 321-255-4608.

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

Captain Tom Van Horn

Mosquito Coast Fishing Charter

Contact Info

Last week brought some unseasonably cold weather to east central Florida . When I met California resident Jim at the ramp at 8 AM on Tuesday, the temperatures were still in the 40’s. The wind was blowing around 20 and we knew we were in for a tough day. Jim had hoped to fly fish the Mosquito Lagoon but we opted to use spinning gear due to the weather. We found several schools of redfish and some black drum as well. Casting was tough and the fish were in a bit of shock from the sudden temperature drop. Jim managed to fool one redfish with a DOA CAL.

Wednesday, it was a bit warmer but the winds were still howling. It did not look like a good start for my two day charter with Dan, a fly angler from New Jersey . Dan is a certified casting instructor and elected to stick with the fly despite the challenging conditions. His excellent casting skills paid off and he landed his first two redfish on the fly. The first came on a tan and gold bendback, the second on a black crab pattern. Dan also had shots at some big trout that did not eat and had a few more redfish bite.

 The next day, Dan and I arrived to find slick calm water and mild temperatures. Our first stop was holding several schools of finning redfish. After casting several different flies to the schools with no bites, Dan finally hooked up on the first redfish of the day with an EP pinfish pattern.

Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka Florida   

Although the weather during the first week of April has been sunny, windy conditions have prevailed and the catching has been tough.   I have experienced some very enjoyable adventures this past week spending quality time with great clients and good friends, but the catching for the most part was challenging.

My week started on the 4^th where I had the privilege of spending a day on the No-Motor Zone with an outstanding lineup of notable outdoor journalist and veteran lagoon anglers.  The group consisted of three specially rigged NMZ canoes, with Captain Rodney Smith and Paul Macinnis in one boat, Aaron and Fred Wicks of Kaynoe Paddle products in the second boat, and myself and Rusty Chinnis in the third.

While catching fish was our primary objective, Rusty was working on a future article, and I was interested in putting my newly modified Indian River Canoe to the test.  Several months back, I was approached by the good folks at Kaynoe Paddle Products (www.kaynoe.com) in Orlando, Florida to test out their new canoe and kayak stabilizer system and casting and poling decks, and I must say I’m highly impressed.  The light weight system can be modified to fit most any canoe or kayak, and it can be retracted when paddling from spot to spot, and then deployed when you are ready to standup and fish.  Notwithstanding the extremely rough conditions we experienced on Friday the Kaynoe Stabilizer passed with flying colors.

Besides the Kaynoe Stabilizer, I was also eager to check out my new SAS Stick, invented by George Waters (www.eastwatersdesign.com).  The SAS Stick, Stealth Anchoring System, clamps to the side of your boat allowing you the manually stake it out with very little effort.  Both of these innovations will be on display at the New Products Showcase at the Coastal Angler Magazine Boating and Fishing Expo at the Melbourne Auditorium, April 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th.