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Fishing Report for Homosassa, Florida
Capt. Mike Locklear
October 12, 2005
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
October Gator Trout and Reds Report
At dawn on Sunday, Florida Gator Alumni Ron Clark and Bill Simms of Sun Trust boarded my Mercury powered Hells Bay custom flats skiff for a morning of awesome redfishing on the Homosassa, Florida west coast.
It was just an incredible day of catching redfish, one after another. There were some that had shoulders over the 27 inch maximum slot size. We decided to keep our limit of redfish and were done with that before 8:00 A.M. They fought the nice school of reds while at anchor for about one hour and 30 minutes.
Later that morning, leaving the reds biting, we got into the trout and it was like fall had arrived. Ron caught his limit of 5 beautiful 19 to 20 inch trout in 4 short drifts and Bill had his limit on but they ended up releasing themselves before making it to the boat. It was a fun six hours on the water. Electric Chicken Bass Assassins were the killer baits.
Last weekend Frank Craft and party enjoyed their semi-annual trip to the Homosassa Fishing Club. The day started out with tropical moisture and bands of rain from the remnants of Tammy. Capt. Ray Wallace and I met with Frank and friends on the porch of the club house to discuss the probability of going. We conceited that we would be alright as long as no lightning was involved and headed out for the day for a pleasant surprise.
With overcast conditions we began the day fishing for redfish and had some good luck releasing all we caught, perhaps 30 trout; except for a few as main course to a fine meal to be prepared by Betty Jo. Most of the afternoon Bill and Stewart spent catching and releasing trout using ¼ ounce Bass Assassin jigs with 5-inch Electric Chicken Eels.
The next day, a nice redfish was fought and self released while Frank and I were astonished that it got away. A big clump of grass around the redfish did not help us out any. Stewart landed a few puppy drums or rat reds that provided fun for a while. Then again we drilled for trout, casting 200 times each for another 30 to 40 trout. We got tired of using 3-inch Sea Shad tails as the puffer fish were thick as fleas, biting out paddle tails into.
My last two trips were with Dr. Watson’s brother-in-law Bill Minnich Jr. He had a ball catching a trout on the fly rod and several more on the spinning rod. The second day we left at daylight and with foggy conditions and northeast winds, Bill hammered the reds with 13 caught and released to 27 ¼ inches. Also, 3 nice trout to 21 inches were released to fight another day. A delicious shore dinner with all the trimmings was enjoyed the second day.
Both redfish and trout catches have been pretty good this past week on a whole. Still we need a little cool weather to bunch the trout as catches remains hit and miss. There has been plenty of the junior sized trout to catch and release. For those in the know, limits of trout have come easy.
Top water lures such as the 5M 808, the Poppa Dog and Skitterwalks have been working well for both trout and redfish.
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