FL Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Wind has been the dominant factor in our fishing for the past two weeks. Add in some clouds along with smoke from numerous fires and sight fishing has been nearly impossible on most days. The last two days, the winds have finally subsided but the clouds persist. On a positive note, the fish have been plentiful and bait is everywhere. As soon as the weather stabilizes, fishing should be as good as it gets.

Last week’s poor weather kept me off the water most days. We cancelled Monday’s trip due to wind. Wednesday, the forecast was for moderate winds but it blew 15-20 all day. The goal of my charter with Mike from North Carolina was to catch as many different types of fish as we could. Mike carves fish as a hobby and wanted photos of saltwater fish to use as a reference. We began the day looking for some small tarpon. Unfortunately, we did not find any. Our next stop produced a mangrove snapper and a toadfish. Spot three resulted in a flounder, a trout, and a nice redfish.

I had seminars Thursday and Saturday. Sunday, it was back to Mosquito Lagoon. From dawn until 8, I fished with Paul, the owner of Mosquito Creek Outdoors. I caught a redfish on a DOA Chughead/CAL combo and followed up with a trout on a Baitbuster. Paul had several bites on the Baitbuster as well but switched over to a greene back CAL and landed two nice trout.

We ran back to the ramp as the wind began to blow and I picked up Paul’s sister, Liz, and his son, Lee. We found several large schools of redfish on a shallow flat and Lee hooked up first.

A short while later, Liz had a redfish break off when another fish in the school hit the line. The next one made it to the boat for some photos and was her first ever redfish.

Thick clouds and the wind ruined our sight fishing so we decided to move out to some deeper water and blind cast for trout. After a couple moves, we found the hot spot and I spent the next hour unhooking one fish after the next. Liz used a DOA Deadly Combo and Lee threw various color 3 inch CAL tails. We caught too many to count but Lee had to take a break because his hand was tired from reeling in fish. Now that’s a good problem to have.Tuesday of this week, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Orlando Kayak Club. The following morning, I met Capt. Ron Presley in Cocoa Beach and we went in search of some early season tarpon. By mid morning, the winds were blowing over 20 and we did our best to hide in the canals. We found plenty of small tarpon as well as a few in the 20 pound range. We had a lot more strikes than we did hookups but I did land two tarpon using a holographic DOA shrimp. I switched over to the darker morning glory color and boated a snook as well.

Thursday was a fly fishing trip with Chad from Montana. It was a pleasant change to find slick calm water when we arrived. We never saw the sun all day but the water remained calm. We soon found ourselves surrounded by  dozens of schools of tailing and finning fish. It was a fly fisherman’s dream except for one thing. The fish would seem to let us get almost within Chad’s casting range and then they would take off. We would approach the next group and the same thing would happen. Each time, the fish were five feet farther than Chad could cast. This scenario went on for nearly five hours before we gave up on them. Chad is a long time fly fisherman but in his waters, there is rarely a need to cast over 30 feet. On this day, a 60-70 foot caster could have had double digit hookups. While travelling to our next stop, we came across a school of large reds tailing along the edge of a flat. As we got near, they dropped off into the deep water and vanished. I took Chad to the spot that produced the numerous trout last week and he used a clouser minnow and a 5wt rod to land ten small trout. It began to rain but we were determined to get a redfish on the fly. We tried one more spot and found some tailing singles. Chad finally hooked a redfish using a small black and chartreuse crab.

Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka, Florida
 
Well it looks like May has finally arrived on the Indian River Lagoon Coast.  Today was my first day on the Lagoon where the winds laid down, and yes we even had a rumble of thunder and some well-needed rain although brief, thank you Lord.
 
I started out my week fishing on Sunday, where I was privileged and honored to spend the day on the water with Paul and Diana Faircloth and their nephew Clay.  You see, it was Clay’s 11th birthday, and it was our mission to break in Clay’s new fishing rod.  Our day started out slow with a few small sea trout in the morning, but as the day grew longer the bite improved, and we ended the day with a good number of sea trout caught on Riptide Jigs and top-water Rapala Skitterwalks, and yes Clay was successful in breaking in his new birthday rod.
 
Several other trips were planned during the week, but they were either scrubbed or postponed for future dates due to windy conditions.

For the past two months, I have been diligently trying to fish in the No-Motor Zone with local angler Jim Rawnsley from the Oak Hill/Edgewater area, but windy conditions kept us off of the water until today.  Jim was the winner of the ISAA Raffle for the Captain Shawn Williams Family Charity charter I donated last spring, and I’m glad we waited.

The wind was light from the southwest as we polled out onto the flat, and we didn’t see any significant fish for the first few hours.  After covering a lot of ground and messing with small trout on top-water plugs, we located a nice school of redfish.  At first Jim made several nice top-water presentations, but the school lifted and began moving off.  At that point, we opted to leave them rest and catch us some bait and then return later.
 
As the day grew longer, the wind laid down even more, and on our return the redfish school was spread out across the flat happily tailing in every direction.   In addition to the redfish, there was also a good number of tailing black drum mixed in, which was an unexpected surprise.  For the next several hours we chunked cut bait, and Jim successfully land three over slot redfish with the larges being 43-inches.  The tails continued to pop-up everywhere, but a distant rumble of thunder sent us hightailing it back to the launch site as the rain set in.  Hopefully, this trip was a prelude to the summer and the wind has finally begun to subside, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
 
As always, if you need more information or have questions, please contact me.

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn
visit www.flyfishingfl.com guides page for contact info

Windy conditions have held the upper hand all week along Florida’s east central coast.  Thus far, April weather patterns have carried into mid May making fishing conditions less then desirable.  Additionally, the hot western flow and drought conditions have combined to create dangerous brush fire conditions with tragic results.  If you plan to be out and about in the outdoors anytime over the next few weeks, please be vigilant and take extra precautions to prevent wildfires.

My adventures this past week started last weekend when brothers Robby, Allen, and Dave Robertson joined me for a day on the water.  The trio has fished together for years in a number of locations, and I was honored have them aboard Three Quarter Time for a day of fishing. 

After studying the conditions and our options, I chose to launch early at Kennedy Point in Titusville to avoid encounters with tournament anglers fishing the Extreme Redfish Tour.  Of course, we faced strong west winds, so my first stop was on the west shoreline about a mile south of the ramp.  As the morning light began the wane and I polled in, the trio began working a Storm Chug Bug, three inch Rapala Skitterwalk, and a Mirodine, and the small sea trout and ladyfish were chewing.  The bite was consistent in three feet of water, but as I polled in shallow looking for redfish it shut down.

When exploring for fish on a flat, it is important to poll in a diagonal direction, crisscrossing from the deep edge in shallow and then back out again until you locate the depth the fish are holding at.  In this case, the action began to pick up once we returned to deeper water. Soon the west wind began to settle down, and I opted to give the east shore a shot, where we scored seven redfish and one respectable sea trout all caught on chunked ladyfish.

My next adventure was with repeat clients Don and April Christopher from the Jackson area as they celebrated their 33 wedding anniversary.  Two years ago we fished together and we scored several sizable fish, but this was not to be the case this time.  I spent the first several hours checking some of my favorite locations for big redfish, but the choppy conditions availed.  So we decided to target sea trout instead and the action was fast and furious.  The majority of the sea trout were dinks, but at one point we were seeing how many we could catch on consecutive cast, and the record was 8.  All together, at least fifty sea trout were caught, and the hot bait was a 3″ chartreuse RipTide Mullet on a ¼ ounce jig.  If you are interested in some real fun, fish anywhere along the west flat in the north Indian River Lagoon between the Carbide Flat and the Scottsmore ramp just off of the deep edge where the flat drops off into 2 to 3 feet of water. 

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

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn

Contact info - visit guides - www.flyfishingfl.com

 During the past two weeks, our temperatures have been pleasant and the bait is continuing to return to the Lagoons. Water levels have risen considerably giving the fish plenty of places to explore that they have been unable to access for quite some time.

Last week, I took a fishing holiday down to Biscayne Bay near Miami with friend and fellow guide, Capt. Keith Kalbfleisch. We had one day of nice weather but saw very few bonefish and only one permit. The next two days, we battled high winds and clouds. The bonefish were nowhere to be found but we did have some excellent action with the sharks catching them on fly and spin gear from 20 to over 100 pounds. We sight fished them in clear shallow water and they provided us with some spectacular drag creaming runs and jumps.The day after returning from the trip, it was back to Mosquito Lagoon with Jim and Mick from Britain. The father and son team began the day with a double hookup on redfish.

They caught several trout with the DOA Deadly Combo and landed two more redfish during our half day excursion.

Last Saturday, New Jersey residents John and Mike took their first trip to Mosquito Lagoon. We encountered multiple schools of spooky redfish and Mike was able to land one using a DOA CAL in watermelon seed color.

Mike used the same lure later in the day to fool a nice trout in an area with a mixture of sand and grass.

This Monday, British anglers Russell and David wanted to fly fish for reds. Our first stop was holding 8-10 schools. Russell landed his first redfish with a green and gold bendback fly.

Throughout the day, both anglers had shots at redfish but visibility was less than ideal. We had a few more follows and bites but landed none. Tuesday, I fished Mosquito Lagoon with Brian and Ben. We began the day fishing schools of both redfish and black drum. In several hours, Brain had a redfish, trout, drum slam and Ben had caught both redfish and drum. They had consistent shots at tailing redfish and large trout throughout the day. Several fish came unhooked before reaching the boat with the final tally reading nine drum, four redfish and two trout.

Thursday, fly anglers Jim and Jack battled high winds and clouds throughout the day. We had a couple shots at schools of redfish but most of the day we encountered singles that were nearly under the boat before we saw them. The guys stuck with the fly despite the tough conditions but never got connected to a fish. Friday, local angler Kevin and his twelve year old son Bradley joined me on another cloudy and windy day. We had a slow start, but Bradley was finally able to land his first redfish.

Dad landed a second red and the two also caught several trout during the day. This Saturday, Steve and Rob had an excellent start to the day. We began by throwing melonback DOA CAL’s in an area that has been holding fish. Steve connect with a redfish and a few minutes later they had a double hookup with a 28 inch trout and another redfish.

A few more trout and another redfish were caught before the action slowed including this one at 24 inches.

As had been the case much of the week, clouds and high winds made sight fishing conditions tough. No more fish were landed but the pair had fun trying and learned some new fishing techniques to take home with them.

The Sound AdvantageGame fish locate food by sight, smell, and sound. When presenting artificial lures to fish, we are usually relying on the sight of the lure to attract their attention. Adding the element of sound to your soft plastics can help attract fish that may not have seen your lure. This could be due to low light, murky water, or an errant cast. Whatever the case, sound help the fish locate, and then see, your offering. The trout pictured above, were all caught on 5.5 inch DOA CAL lures with a Woodies Rattle inserted near the tail. I have found that a soft plastic with a rattle will usually draw more strikes than one without. On numerous occasions, I have watched fish turn around and eat a lure that was cast behind them that they would never had seen if the rattle had not drawn their attention. Try adding some to your soft plastics next time you fish.

FishStock 2008The annual event will be held Memorial Day Weekend May 24 &25 at Riverside Park in New Smyrna Beach. In addition to vendors, boats, and a tournament, there will be seminars from various local guides. I will be speaking about how to catch tarpon in east central Florida at 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday. Visit the FishStock website for more information.

Wind KnotsNot using braided line for flats fishing is like not having the Internet, you can get by without it but you don’t know what you’re missing. Braid has superior casting ability, resists twisting, and is much more abrasion resistant than monofilament. A common complaint is that braided line gets “wind knots”. These frustrating tangles can get expensive and often cause anglers to dislike braided line. Some anglers get knots constantly while others rarely do. For example, young angler Bradley, pictured above, cast continuously the entire day in a 15-20 mph wind. He did not get one knot the entire day. Other anglers, however, have problems with knots on calm days. While we would like to blame the knots on the wind or bad line, the simple facts are the knots are all caused by angler error.

There are two simple things you can do that will eliminate nearly all knots in braided line. First, learn to close the bail with your hand. Flipping it closed by turning the handle will lead to problems before the day is through. Second, always reel in the line under tension. Reeling up slack line can cause it to jump off the spool all at once on the next cast. Windy conditions can make slack line more difficult to control especially when casting directly into the wind thus the term, “wind knot”. The lighter the lure you use the more careful you need to be.

Visit www.flyfishingfl.com guides page for contact info

Complements of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida

As the days grow longer, angling enthusiasts along Florida’s Space Coast take pleasure in spending their afternoons after work relaxing on the water.  Warming coastal waters draw streams of baitfish north followed by warm water predators, as our prevailing easterly winds give way to summers genially shifting sea breezes.

Offshore, dolphin fishing will be the focus of blue water anglers this month. April and May are the time of year when the larger bulls are taken off the Florida Space Coast.  The early season dolphin bite has already yielded fish in excess of 60 pounds.  Also, as a bonus, the potential of taking a blue marlin or sailfish are good. Near-shore, the kingfish bite has heated up on the near-shore reefs and wrecks and some cobia are around. As the seas settle down and the bait schools move in close to the beach, look for the kingfish action to move in also.

Spanish mackerel, snook, redfish, jack crevalle, bluefish, flounder, sheepshead and black drum are just some of the species available in the Lagoon inlets and beaches this month.  As the baitfish migration moves north, this type of fishing will only get better. 

Inshore, the bait pods, Atlantic menhaden (pogies), have shown up along the beach, and now is the best time to target the ocean predator shadowing these schools.  It’s not uncommon to catch large redfish, large jack crevalle, blacktip sharks, cobia, and tarpon from within these pods of bait. To locate bait pods, simply look for feeding birds, flipping and jumping bait, muddy water along the beach, and busting fish.

On the Lagoon flats, redfish and spotted sea trout will provide the majority of action for light tackle and fly anglers.  The water has warmed up to the point where jack crevalle, ladyfish, snook, and tarpon are showing up in good numbers.  I like to target redfish and sea trout at first light or at dusk, with top water plugs like the High Roller Florida Special, Rapala Skitterwalk, or Storm Chug Bug.  As the day heats up, change your focus to the deeper edges of the flats (2 to 3 feet deep) jigging with a RipTide 4” mullet on a ¼ ounce RipTide Screw Jig.
As always, if you have any questions or need more information, please contact me.

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn
Contact Info - See guide section at FlyFishingFL.com