Mosquito Lagoon Report
Capt. Chris Myers
July 18, 2009
Mosquito Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
This July has been anything but typical for the first two weeks of the month. The water
level is higher than usual and the normally slick calm mornings have been few and far
between. Places that have held lots of tailing redfish during recent summers have not
been very productive and the big tarpon have yet to arrive in our inshore waters. The
big redfish have been around but seeing and keeping on them with the clouds and
wind has been challenging.
During trips early in the month, my clients caught plenty of trout and had shots at
plenty of redfish. With the southern end of Mosquito Lagoon closed for over a week
due to several failed attempts to launch the space shuttle, I decided to spend a day
last week looking for snook and tarpon. While I only saw one tarpon, I did find some
snook to thirty inches that were willing to eat a four inch DOA CAL in silver mullet.
Trout were plentiful and a 31 inch redfish was happy to eat a black rabbit fur fly I cast
to him.
This Monday, my clients unexpectedly arrived with three anglers. We all piled on
board and headed out to look for some snook. After missing several strikes at our
first stop, we made a short move. On the next four casts, they hooked and lost a nice
snook and landed a smaller one. We spent some time catching trout along the edge of
a flat waiting for the clouds to blow over. When the sun came out, I poled up onto the
flat and we immediately began seeing redfish. Sight fishing with three anglers did not
work out well so we spent the remainder of the day catching trout.
Wednesday, I fished with Sam and his friend Kevin, the guitar player for the rock band
The Offspring. Kevin started the day by landing a jack and then a snook on a four
inch CAL. Sam had several strikes but no hookups. Next we tried fishing a school of
large redfish that turned out to be very uncooperative. After landing a handful of trout,
we encountered a few redfish and plenty of black drum. They caught a few more trout before Kevin, who had played a concert in another state
the previous night, finally ran out of energy.
Friday, I had the pleasure of fishing with Konrad Krauland, the inventor and former
owner of Power Pro fishing line along with his friend Maurice. The fishing was fun but
the catching was less than average. We encountered lots of cloudy water, floating
grass and lats of other boats. We saw a few redfish and black drum but only the trout
were willing to cooperate. Other anglers we spoke to found the fishing tough as well.
Hopefully, the coming weeks will bring more normal weather and the tarpon will begin
showing up. Baitfish of all kinds can be found everywhere you go. Trout, ladyfish and
jacks are usually willing to bend a rod if you find the redfish difficult to fool. A three
inch CAL on a 1/4 ounce jig will catch a variety of fish.
Target Species:
Redfish, Seatrout, Black Drum, Snook
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