Mosquito Lagoon Florida Report 9/15/07

[Capt Chris M]

Last week an offshore storm brought some high winds. That, coupled with a sudden rise in the water level made for some tough fishing the first few days of the week. The catching was less than spectacular but redfish, some large trout, and a couple tarpon came to the boat. By Friday, the wind was still blowing when Capt. Keith Kalbfleisch and I arrived in Mosquito Lagoon. We spent the day fishing areas we had been unable to access when the water was low. The day started off slow but we ended up with five redfish and jumped six tarpon.

This week, the water was still high but the weather was back to normal. The good weather brought with it some great catching. Monday's charter resulted in numerous trout and a few redfish. Tuesday, Capt. John Kumiski and I headed out of Port Canaveral to assess the mullet run. We only saw one large school of mullet that was being bombarded by large ladyfish. We headed down the beach looking for tarpon. We saw only a few scattered fish and stopped to toss out some plugs. After catching a few nice spanish mackerel, several blacktip sharks started chasing my plug. We tossed out a couple mullet and were soon connected with two big sharks. A storm chased us back in to the Port and we decided to head over to the Indian River to look for tarpon. The tarpon were nowhere in sight but we did discover several schools of large redfish. I threw my gold Baitbuster in front of the school and was quickly hooked up.



Capt. John's flyrod was rigged with a Cousin It tarpon fly but the redfish found it to their liking and he landed a fish of about 35 pounds.



Wednesday, I was back in the Lagoon with my parents, Chuck and Lois. They threw a DOA Deadly Combo around the bait schools and caught over 50 fish. Most were trout but ladyfish, jack crevalle, bluefish, and snapper were caught and released. We moved on in search of bigger fish and Lois hooked up with a black drum followed by a 37" redfish.





Not to be outdone, Chuck caught a 36" red of his own.



We caught about a dozen more redfish and a few nice trout including this double hookup.



Friday, the hot bite continued. After catching several trout on topwater, I threw a tan Merkin style crab with my 5wt flyrod and landed a 34" red. I then spotted a nice trout lying in a sand hole and he ate the crab as well.



Next, I threw a chartreuse EP Minnow to some baby tarpon getting three bites and landing one. Having completed my flyrod slam, I spent the rest of the afternoon fishing for redfish landing seven more on EP mullet flies and six on the gold Baitbuster.

The flats are alive with all types of baitfish and the predators will be gorging themselves as long as the food hangs around. Soft plastics skimmed along the surface have been providing some great top water bites.

Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com