Last Friday and Saturday, I fished with brothers Mike and Larry. They reserved one of the islands in the Lagoon for camping and spent a few days fishing, camping, and enjoying the launch of the space shuttle. Our first day fishing was calm but cloudy, making sight fishing a challenge. Larry caught a redfish on his second cast and landed another a while later, both on a DOA CAL tail. The fish were finning and tailing in the shallow water but were very spooky. We moved out to some deeper water and Mike landed a nice redfish of about 34”.
On day two, the competition among the brothers was heating up. It was cutthroat fishing as they battled to see who could catch the most and biggest. Larry caught a trout of about 18” and two more redfish around 30”. Mike also caught a redfish around 30”. The smaller reds were not cooperating and most of the fish we saw were buried in the grass.
Sunday and Monday, I fished with Scott and his son Scotty, from Ohio. The mission was to get Scotty a big redfish. Within and hour or so, we had found a large school of big redfish and Scotty did an excellent job of catching and fighting a redfish that measured 40”.
After having the hook pull on another large fish, a few other boats arrived and the bite shut down. We moved to a deeper grass flat and Scotty caught his first flounder on a 5” DOA CAL, and his dad caught a trout on the same bait. We moved again and came across another school of large reds. Scotty caught one fish from that school, another beauty over 35”.
The next day, Scotty caught a 26” trout on a green 5” cal tail to start the day. The fish squirted out of my grasp and back into the water before we could snap a photo. We tried several schools of big reds but could not get them to eat. Around mid day, we returned to the flat where we had started and began to see big redfish and trout cruising the flat. I tied on some gold Baitbusters and Scotty was soon hooked up to a redfish of around 33”. His dad managed to get a nice trout on the Baitbuster and had several reds follow his lure but did not hook up
Wednesday, Shane and his wife Courtney too a break from the theme parks to go fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. We started out the morning throwing chug bugs and a DOA chug head/cal tail combo and landed a few trout. As the sun began to rise, we went to a large school of big redfish but found them unwilling to eat. We left those fish and made a short run to another spot. The couple quickly connected with two 34” redfish.
A line of dark storms drifted in off the beach and forced us to run back near the ramp to wait for them to pass. The skies cleared and we resumed fishing. The reprieve, however, was brief, and before long, we found ourselves trying to outrun a second wave of storms.
Thursday, I fished out of Port Canaveral with my friend Rich aboard his 22' bay boat. The bait was scattered as were the fish. I hooked up with a kingfish of about 20 lbs only to have the hook pull when it made a sudden run under the boat. Rich caught a king of about 15 lbs a while later. We had a few short strikes and saw a couple tarpon and jacks but the action was slow.
With the summer weather pattern now having arrived, be prepared to see large tarpon moving into the Mosquito lagoon and Indian River. During the summer, I keep a heavier action rod rigged with a Baitbuster on board as you never know when one of the silver kings will show themselves.
Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com