St. Johns River Catfish
Capt. Tom Van Horn
April 17, 2010
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Mosquito Creek Outdoor's Indian River Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report, April 16, 2010
By Captain Tom Van Horn
Up Coming Events
April 24th, Free Hook Kids on Fishing Program: 10 a. m. to noon at the Apopka Foliage Festival. After completing the five learning stations, each child will receive a free fishing rod, reel and tackle box. To register your children, visit or call Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka Florida at 170 South Washington Avenue or contact them at (407) 464-2000.
Volunteers are needed to assist with the Hook Kids on Fishing Program to be held in conjunction with the Mosquito Creek Outdoors Family Outdoor Day and the Apopka Foliage Festival on April 24th and 25th in Apopka. The HKOF event will be on Saturday, April 24th, from 10 a. m. to noon and is free to all kids. We are anticipating over 100 kids and their parents to attend, so you assistance would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to sign up, please contact me, Captain Tom Van Horn at (407) 416-1187 or send me a message at [email protected].
** Fishing Line Sale at Mosquito Creek Outdoors
Attention all offshore and inshore anglers. For the entire month of April, Mosquito Creek is offering a penny a yard sale on all Sufix monofilament line up to 80 pound test. It's time to respool all of your offshore reels for dolphin season, so be shore to visit Mosquito Creek and begin the season with fresh line.
This Week's Report
In my last report, I informed you about the arrival of the cobia run off of the beaches of east Central Florida. Well, what do you do when you know the cobia are here, but Mother Nature interferes with high winds and a heavy sea state? The answer is you shift gears and target the St. Johns River freshwater cobia.
Cobia in the St. Johns River, you say. With the high winds, cloudy skies, and coastal showers experienced all last week blowing out any chances of fishing in the Atlantic, we modified our fishing strategy by targeted the spring spawning run of freshwater channel catfish on the St. Johns River. Fishing is fishing, so as long as I can find a jerk on the other end of the line, I'm happy.
Thankfully, we live in Central Florida where fishing opportunities abound, and as long as you are willing to be creative and flexible, you can always find something to pull line, and in the case of last week we did just that. Although cobia and channel catfish are not related, they do have similarities. They both are big and black, good table far, and they both are hard fighters and fun to catch.
I fish the St. Johns River on two occasions last week, and on both trips we were rewarded with excellent catches of big catfish. Here in Central Florida, rising water levels in our freshwater rivers and creeks have the spawning catfish on the move. This spawning run also coincides with the arrival of the gizzard shad run and schooling largemouth bass bite. All of the catfish cleaned this week had gizzard shad in their stomachs. We also caught fish using fresh peeled shrimp fished on the bottom in areas of swift current.
Also, be sure to check out the April addition of Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando in print and online for free at www.coastalanglermagazine.com.
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
[email protected]
407-366-8085 office
407-416-1187 on the water
For all you outdoor shopping needs, visit Mosquito Creek Outdoors at www.mosquitocreek.com.
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