Orlando/Mosquito Lagoon Florida Fishing Report
Capt. Chris Myers
January 1, 2009
Mosquito Lagoon - Saltwater Fishing Report
The first day of the new year has brought with it some high winds and cool temperatures. My clients for today decided to cancel and try again tomorrow giving me a chance to catch up on some work at home.
Water levels in the Mosquito Lagoon are lower than they have been all of last year. The warm temperatures as of late have kept the water from the mid 60's to over 70 on most days. This spell of warmer weather has seemed to push many of the large trout off the shallow flats though we have still seen some each day. As soon as the cooler weather returns, look for the trophy trout to reappear.
Redfish are in their winter schooling mode which means there are not as many single fish roaming the flats. Casting at schools increase your chances at a hookup but if you cannot find the schools, you may cover a lot of water and see very few fish. Again, since the water
has warmed up, the redfish have not been tailing nearly as well as they were at the beginning of last month. Just because you do not see them tailing does not mean they will not eat a well placed bait or fly.
A couple weeks ago, my wife and I spent several days in the mountains of north Georgia. We took a trip with a guide on the Soquee River to do some fly fishing for rainbow trout, a first for both of us. We landed 8 nice fish and lost many more.
On the 23rd, Dan, a local resident, wanted to show his guest from Louisiana the Mosquito Lagoon. Unfortunately, the winds blew over 20 the entire day and fishing was tough. We saw very few fish and only caught a couple trout.
On Christmas Eve, I was joined by a father and son team from Alabama. We had great weather throughout the morning. Our first spot produced tons of tailing redfish and a few black drum. They did not get a lure in front of the fish but had fun trying. Our next few spots all held schools of redfish and John was able to hook up with his first redfish.
My wife and I made a trip to Mosquito Lagoon this Monday. I used a black crab fly to hook up with a black drum right after Julie landed one on a spinning rod. We checked several spots I had not visited in a while and only found scattered reds and trout. I got two reds on a DOA shrimp and another on a bendback fly. After much searching, we found an area holding numerous large seatrout. While we saw some much bigger than we caught, I was able to complete the slam on fly and a couple more came on DOA CAL's.
Tuesday, Jim and his wife Sandra enjoyed a beautiful Florida winter day on Mosquito Lagoon. We started the day fishing a school of black drum. Sandra brought the first fish of the day to the boat.
Jim hooked up a few minutes later and followed with a second drum after that. The flat became crowded with boats so we moved on in search of other fish.We found an area holding multiple schools of redfish. Jim caught a couple reds but the schools were spooky and tough to keep up with. We made a move and Sandra landed two redfish of her own. Seeking to complete the slam, we went searching for trout. Sandra used a DOA Deadly Combo to catch a few trout before we called it a day.
Wednesday, it was significantly cooler as I headed out with the brother and sister team of Jim and Juanita. A few minutes after we started fishing, Jim landed a black drum. Juanita soon had one on but the hook pulled. We went in search of redfish and had a tough time
finding some as the wind began to increase. Both Jim and Juanita caught a redfish before the school vanished.
With the high winds, we elected to try fishing some deeper water for trout. Using a Deadly Combo as well as 3 inch CAL tails, they caught and released about 15-20 trout.The holiday crowds will be gone in a few days and the fish should get a chance to settle down a bit. The
water will cool soon and the redfish and drum will happily tailing on the flats.
Visit http://www.floridafishinglessons.com/FishingReport.html for photos from the past couple weeks.
Target Species:
Redfish, Seatout, Black Drum
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