Big Summertime Jacks are Back
Capt. Tom Van Horn
June 21, 2008
Indian River Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report, June 21, 2008
Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida
The winds have finally subsided as the summer doldrums settle in along the Indian River Lagoon Coast of Florida. Calm mornings have provided for some great sight fishing conditions both inshore on the flats and offshore. Clean green ocean water has pushed in close to the beach and the kingfish, jack cravelle, bonito, sharks, and tarpon have moved in with it. These conditions have provided for some excellent catches this past week, and if they hold, next week should be good as well.
My first adventure this past week was on Father's Day where I had the pleasure of fishing with Rick Giddens from Washington State, and our plan was to target some of the inshore gamesters who frequent our coastal waters during the summer. Although Rick is an excellent angler and we jumped at least ten quality fish, Mr. Murphy hounded us all day and whatever could go wrong to lose a fish went wrong. Rick's first fish was a school bus size jack carvalle that slammed aD.O.A. Bait Buster right next to the boat, but within seconds of the strike it had Rick's line wrapped around the boat bounding up in a trolling rod on the back platform, and it freed itself. We had leaders break, monster kingfish bite through # 7 wire, we pulled hook on at lease 4 different fish, we had numerous tarpon blowup on and miss our baits or throw the hook, and yes we even had a knot fail which was totally my fault.
At one point in the afternoon we spotted an enormous school of 100 plus pound tarpon moving north in our direction, so I positioned Three Quarter Time, my trusted Maverick skiff, well ahead of the school and chucked out about twenty dead pogies. As the school daisy chained in our direction they passing directly under us and we could see that the school consisted of at least a hundred fish. When they reached the chum line they exploded into a frenzy eating every dead bait in the water without touching either of the live baits we had placed in front of them. These schools were north bound at a good rate of speed, so those of you who fish out of Ponce De Leon Inlet (Captain Fred) be on guard. Although we had great action all day, when it was all said and done, Rick's score was one shark and one large Spanish mackerel.
My next endeavor consisted of a venture into the Banana River No-Motor Zone with John "BooDreaux" Baumann of the Reel Outdoors TV Show on Brighthouse Networks. With my good friend and sight fishing specialist Paul Macinnis serving as our spotter and camera boat, we explored the west shoreline with hopes of capturing some hefty redfish and some good footage for BooDreaux's show. When scheduling this event, I failed to grasp the fact we were fishing on a full moon and although it was a gorgeous day with a good number of fish sighted, we failed to entice a substantial fish to play, so we will have to schedule another session to complete the show, that's fishing in the Reel Outdoors.
Yesterday, it was back to the beach with my good friends Roland Van Arsdale and his son Roland, and our intent was to target anything that pulled hard for Roland Sr.'s 80th birthday. Roland was determined to catch a big jack, so after netting a live well full of Atlantic menhaden (pogies) we returned to the Port Canaveral Buoy Line and we immediately tied into a school bus on our first drop. The area was loaded with big jacks and rolling tarpon and our final score was 2 jacks in the 20 to 25-pound range, a 60-pound tarpon, and a 30-pound smoker kingfish also caught by Roland Sr.
All in all, it was a great week of fishing, and if you desire to tie into some of these mid-summer gamesters, you better make your plans before the doldrums are gone.
As always, if you need information or have questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
www.irl-fishing.com
407-416-1187 on the water
407-366-8085 landline
[email protected]
Mosquito Creek Outdoors, it's were your adventure begins, www.mosquitocreekoutdoors.com.
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