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Indian River Lagoon
Capt. Tom Van Horn
February 13, 2006
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report 02-13-06
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
First, I would like to apologize for the delayed report, as I was off the water and away from my keyboard on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday teaching seminars at the Bass Pro Shop Spring Classic in Orlando. As always, it was a great show, and it was good talking fishing with so many old friends and meeting new ones at the event. Coastal Angler Magazine will also be supporting the event next weekend, and I will be in attendance on Sunday the 19th, so stop by the Traveling Lagoon Booth and say hi. Also, for those of you who were interested in the new Evolution Rods I’ve been using, they are now available at Bass Pro Shop in Orlando.
Fishing this past week was overflowing with bizarre weather and picky fish, and my escapades all required persistence and patience, but they still resulted in decent catches.
On Monday, Kieran Pusey from New York City, and his friend Scott from Houston joined me, and due to the cold nature of my Yamaha, and the fact that it was freezing outside, my engine failed to start and my battery died.
Determined to take these guys fishing, we loaded the boat and used the electric trolling motor to reach a nearby flat, and then began polling once we found shallow water. In this case, the weather conditions couldn’t be better, as sunny skies and glassy waters greeted us. My hopes of a great day of fishing were waning due to my engine problems, but the fish gods smiled on our misfortune as a mass of large redfish tails popped up on the flat. The school consisted of about 50 super spooky fish, and they weren’t interested in our offerings. They would spook, and we would quietly wait for them to settle down, we would quietly move into casting range, and they would fly again. We were on fish all morning, but only managed a 40” 22-pound red, before calling it a day at noon.
My next two charters carried me to the St. Johns River north of Lake Harney in pursuit of American Shad. On Tuesday, I met Michael Grant from the Washington DC area, and our goal was to target shad on fly. We started out working the mouth of the Econ Creek, and we soon found all the cows lying down and we could not raise a strike. I then decided we would check the Deep Creek area, and we ended up running all the way down to Marina Isles, and still no fish. Soon, a visible bank of dark clouds reached all the way across the sky to the northwest, and the race was on to beat the approaching cold front back to the dock. Once we reach our launch area and the front past, we continued to fish, and the bite finally kicked in around 2pm resulting only 4 shad and a dozen or so assorted pan fish and small bass, all caught trolling pink Culprit crappy jigs.
On Thursday, I returned to the Econ accompanied by David Gossett from Lakeland, Florida, and our goal was the same as before. Again, we were faced with windy conditions, so we elected to troll until we located fish, and then switch to the fly rod. Once more, the bite was dead to start with, and it was sporadic throughout the day resulting in only 4 shad and about 20 assorted pan fish and bass.
For some reason beyond my understanding, the shad run has yet to materialize. There are some fish present, but not in any numbers. I’ve experiences some of the same findings on the lagoon this season with both flounder and shrimp, and hopefully this new moon will kick things off.
As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
www.irl-fishing.com
407-366-8085 office
407-416-1187 on the water
866-790-8081 toll free
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