Indian River Lagoon Coast of Florida's Spring Fishing Report
Capt. Tom Van Horn
May 14, 2014
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast of Florida's Spring Fishing Report, May 12, 2014
by Captain Tom Van Horn
Events and Seminars
Saturday, May 17, 2014 ~ Volunteers needed for the City of Casselberry's Hook Kids on Fishing Day. The event will be held at Secret Lake Park from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact me if you are interested in helping at [email protected]. Registration for kids is full, but we still can use some help if you are available for a few hours on Saturday.
Thursday May 15th - Don't forget about the Fly Fish Film Tour this Thursday at the Orlando Science Center. Door open at 6 pm and the show begins at 7 pm. We have advance sale tickets at Mosquito Creek. The show is 2 ½ hours of clips of the latest, exciting new fly fishing films from all over the word. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.
Saturday & Sunday May 17th & 18th - We will be at the Scott's Zellwood Sweet Corn Jamboree at Long & Scott Farms in Zellwood. The sweet corn is in and the "Big Bertha" cooker will be going for this Apopka area summer "kick off" event. The gates open at 10 am both days and close at 5 pm. There will be live entertainment, a zip line, kids play ground activities, food and craft vendors, and plenty of Zellwood Sweet Corn. The address is 26216 County Rd 448A, Mt. Dora. We have advance tickets available here at Mosquito Creek. Advance tickets are - Adult $10, $12 at the gate. Kids under 4 are free.
Saturday, June 7th the Backpacker Magazine "Get Out More Tour" will be here at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka. Join us as Backpacker Magazine professionals Kim Dinan and Brian Patton give a 90 minute presentation on the latest outdoor and backpacking gear and techniques. The presentation is free and begins at 1 pm in the Mosquito Creek "Outback" and there will lots of free give aways throughout the presentation. Be sure to get here early as this is the only Get Out More Tour stop in Central Florida and one of only three in Florida.
This Week's Fishing Report
Windy conditions have held the upper hand all week along Florida's east central coast. Thus far, April weather patterns have carried into mid May making fishing conditions less then desirable. I just postponed my charter for tomorrow as a 90 % chance of thunderstorms and a small craft adversary has been issued. Although our weather has been challenging this week, the summer doldrums are just around the corner.
My adventures this past week started last week when father and son team Paul and Evan Hamel from Orlando joined me for a day on the water. Paul had purchased a charter I presented to a cancer benefit for Orange County Firefighter Carl Andriano who passed away on February 8 at age 22 and I was honored to have them aboard Three Quarter Time for a day of fishing.
After studying the conditions and our options, I chose to launch at Kennedy Point in Titusville and we were on fish right off the bat. Even struck first, catching a very nice 26-inch redfish on a Rip Roller top-water plug that took him around the boat three times before landing it. Within a few minutes Even's dad Paul boated a very respectable sea trout on a Pop Roller. Although the day started out very good, we spent the remainder of the charter looking instead of catching, but it still was a beautiful day on the Lagoon.
When exploring for fish on a flat, it is important to poll in a diagonal direction, crisscrossing from the deep edge in shallow and then back out again until you locate the depth the fish are holding at. In some cases the action begins to pick up once you returned to deeper water.
My next adventure was with my good friend Captain Ron Presley where we ventured into the freshwater realm of the St Johns River in search of channel catfish for an article he was researching for the premiere issue of Catfish Magazine. We hit the river early targeting largemouth bass at first light and then switched to catfish once the bass bite slowed. We have a splendid day of fishing with a final tally of 14 largemouth, 3 sunshine bass and 12 very respectable catfish up to 6 pounds.
All in all it was a great week of fishing in spite of the windy conditions, so hunker down for a few days of snotty weather and gear up for some great fishing.
As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
[email protected]
407-416-1187
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