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Indian River Lagoon
Capt. Tom Van Horn
August 26, 2003
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report, August 22, 2003
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
First, I would like to apologize for the late release of this report. I typically try to maintain some manner of consistency, but I was besieged and bewildered by the influence of the (sobig) worm, which in it’s s peak was delivering an average of 3500 infected e-mail messages a day.
Here we are again on the Lagoon coast in the mitts of the summer doldrums. A time of year when catching usually shows some form of stability, but to say the least, hit and miss best describes our current situation. Persistently cooler than normal water temperatures have confused our scaly foe, and they’ve completely made me loopy, which isn’t hard to do. As of this writing, warmer waters and bait have started to return along the beach, and it’s only a mater of time, before things fire up.
Speaking only for myself, these past few weeks have been difficult, but I think I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and as it grows brighter, I know it’s signaling a turn for the better. On Wednesday, while spending my day off the water detailing both my skiff and my truck, a vision from above landed right smack on the end of my sweaty nose. My first reaction was to curse those stinky little black love machines going at it right before my eyes, but than I remembered what the late summer love bug love fest and mullet have in common. In fishing, we’re all failure with the term match the hatch, but here in the sunshine state, the dreaded late summer hatch of love bugs, also signals the beginning of the fall mullet migration south. As the days grow shorter and cooler, hordes of black and silver mullet leave their summer estuaries to begin their long journey south, and along with them come the predators species we so desire. So put some wax on your trucks, break out the bug screens, and tune up your fishing gear in preparation on the bait run.
Each charter this past week experienced improvement over the last, with Saturday topping the list. We started our morning with the intent to fish the buoy line outside of Port Canaveral, but overnight squalls offshore kicked up the predicted two foot seas to an easy three to four foot with a four second interval. After taking water over the bow several times, our plans quickly changed as we decided to pass through the locks and fish the Banana Lagoon until the seas settled down. Once inside, we quickly located a school of redfish aggressively feeding on finger mullet along the edge of a sandbar. Clearly the bait schools are forming up inside the lagoon in preparation for their migration south. Our focus was in the area of the west shore just south of Kars Park, were we managed a number of slot size fish, up to 28 inches, all released for another day. As we monitored the radio, we learned the seas had settled and the bite was on at the end of the buoy line, so back through the locks we went. With storms building to he southwest we knew our fishing time was limited, so we quickly set our trolling lines with live pogies and finger mullet. Within minutes we had our first fish on which turned out to be 20 pound cobia. Other fish taken in the area Saturday were kingfish up to thirty pounds, bonita, barracuda, and tarpon. The squalls to the southwest continued to build and move in our direction, so we left the bite for another day, and hulled butt back to the shelter of the Tiki Bar, arriving just before the storm hit.
As always, if you have questions or need information, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
www.irl-fishing.com
[email protected]
407-366-8085
407-416-1187 on the water
866-790-8081 toll free
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