ladyfish are gorging themselves on finger mullet. The key has been finding the small mullet. Find these, and
there will be fish nearby. Topwater plugs and DOA Baitbusters have been bringing fish to the boat. Along the
beach, there are plenty of bluefish, some snook, tarpon, redfish, spanish mackerel, jacks, flounder, ladyfish,
and sharks. The mullet along the beach come in waves. Some days may be much more productive than
others. Again, find the bait and there should be fish nearby. If there is no bait around, chances are the fish are
not there either. The cold front which will arrive early next week should bring a big push of mullet south along
the beach. Now for the catching reports.
Darrin Heim from Washington state and Mike, a local angler, joined me for an afternoon of fishing the
Mosquito Lagoon. We arrived to find whitecaps and clouds, not the best sight fishing conditions. We gave it a
try and saw a few fish but we had no luck hooking up. Near the end of the day, we decided to anchor up and
put out some cut ladyfish as a last resort. In 30 minutes, three nice reds came to the boat.
A few days later, Dave Haddock joined me for what we hoped would be a morning of catching tarpon in the
Indian River. The big tarpon were not around but we did find plenty of small poons. We spent several hours
casting a variety of lures at them. I managed to put one fish in the air on a DOA Tiny Terroreyz but that was our
only action. We left the tarpon and Dave was able to fool a nice snook on a DOA shrimp along with a couple
trout. I used the gold Baitbuster to catch a trout and a red but could not fool the snook.
Last Friday, I fished with John and Mark from Colorado and their friend Mike. The morning began with some
thick fog. We stayed close to the ramp until it lifted and the guys caught a few trout on the DOA Deadly
Combo. When the sun came out, we moved over to Mosquito Lagoon to look for some reds. Our first three
stops proved uneventful. After much searching, we finally found some fish and they were able to land eight reds
to 34".
This Tuesday, Mike Pollock invited me to fish on board his new skiff, a 16' Hells Bay. We spent a few minutes
casting to some uncooperative snook and then took off to explore some back country areas of the Mosquito
Lagoon. Heavy clouds limited our sight fishing abilities but we did manage to catch a few fish and see some
big trout. Mike's girlfriend Jackie sight cast to this red with a black and silver jerkbait.
Thursday, I fished outside Port Canaveral with Capt. Tom Van Horn. Using live mullet we netted inside the
Port, we landed seven flounder and lost at least that many. We ran down the beach a bit but the mullet schools
were not around.
Friday, Capt. Ron Presley and I went looking for big tarpon in the Indian River. After searching a few spots
without seeing one fish, we changed gears to redfish and trout. We found some nice schools of small mullet
and Ron used the gold Baitbuster and sight cast to a big trout and two nice reds before we headed in.
For Saturday's charter with Bo and Luke from Ft. Pierce, I returned to the same area and they began the day
using topwater plugs for 8 trout. As the sun came up we moved closer to shore and Bo was able to land a
decent snook, broke off another and fool a red for an Indian River slam. Bo used a white shad tail to fool the
fish.
Capt. Chris Myers
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com
