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East Central Florida Report

St. Marys River to Jupiter Inlet

Moderator: admin

East Central Florida Report

Postby Capt. Chris » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:53 am

This week produced some stormy weather and cut a few fishing days short but at
least we are not dodging hurricanes as we were this time last year.

Last Sunday, Paul Huffman and I went in search of some tarpon in the Indian River
around Cocoa. We didn't find the tarpon, but we did find some schools of big jacks
terrorizing the schools of mullet. Paul landed one on a live mullet before a group of
porpoises charged in and ruined our fun. After spending the next hour or so catching
numerous ladyfish on both fly and light tackle, we decided to look for some redfish
and trout action. While the reds proved to be a bit scarce, we did find a small school
and each caught one. The first came on a DOA Baitbuster and the next on a soft
plastic jerk bait. We saw more big trout than reds and the DOA Baitbuster fooled a
nice fish near the shoreline.

Image

The jerkbait scored another nice trout for Paul and we left the water as the storms
approached.

Monday, I checked out a few areas in both the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon
I had not fished in a while. The first spot produced two tarpon, one on a small black
fly tied on a #4 hook and the second came on a silver DOA Tiny Terroreyz. A baby
bass colored jerk bait fooled a 27" trout in my second spot but only a few reds were
spotted. The third spot held a more redfish and I landed one on a gold Capt. Joe's
Shredder rigged on a Mustad Power Lock weighted worm hook.

Tuesday, Mark Kaplan and Greg Mikkelson met me at the dock for a day of fishing
the Indian River. I had planned on taking them to the schools of big jacks I had seen
on Sunday. When we arrived at the spot at sunup, the jacks were not there but we
did see dozens of rolling tarpon in the 30-80 lb class. By 7am, we were tossing baits
to them in the pouring rain but the action was slow. A large ladyfish and a sail cat
were the only bites we got. The next spot produced a few more ladyfish and we left
them biting to outrun an approaching storm. We ran several miles and spotted a
school of large reds as we came down off a plane. Rods were baited up with some
fresh cut ladyfish but we only got one shot at the fish before the black clouds caught
up with us. We made a run for the dock and I gave Mark and Greg a rain check.

Wednesday. I fished with Randy Dennis from Tampa. We ran to the spot that had
held the tarpon the previous day. The wind was howling and the tarpon were
nowhere to be seen. After grabbing a few ladyfish on topwater baits, we went in
search of some redfish. I spotted a school of large reds but they quickly
disappeared. A few small trout were all that followed for the next few hours. After
dodging the first squall line. We ran back south to look for some bigger trout. We
only saw about a dozen big trout but Randy landed one with a well placed cast with a
gold jerk worm. We spotted a couple big reds cruising by a full throttle but could not
get them to eat. As the second line of storms approached. we called it a day and had
a long wet ride back to the ramp.

Friday, I was back in the Mosquito Lagoon with Jason Brandt and his wife Mandy. We
found several schools of oversize reds. Spotting them was the easy part. Staying up
with the fast moving schools and getting them to eat was a bit more difficult. Jason
brought two fish to the boat while Mandy's only hookup pulled loose.

Image

While waiting for a storm to pass by the next spot I wanted to fish, they caught
several trout on a rootbeer DOA shrimp and a Capt. Joe's Shredder in 2-4 feet of
water around the mullet schools. The rain passed by and we moved in shallow to
target reds. We saw plenty of fish but could not get any to bite. By the time we left
the reds, the wind had picked up and fishing in the deeper water was less than
comfortable with the large waves.

Saturday, Dede and Dennis Prokopowicz of Orlando celebrated their anniversary
with a fishing trip on the Mosquito Lagoon. We left the ramp before sunup after
donating several pints of blood to the mosquitoes. As the sun came up, we saw what
we were looking for, several schools of large redfish. For the next couple hours, we
poled after these big fish but, try as we might, could not get one fish to bite. Our luck
changed, however, as we pulled up to our second location that was filled with mullet,
glass minnows, and diving birds. A rootbeer DOA shrimp with a noisemaker float
produced a couple dozen trout.

Image

Image


When the trout action slowed, we moved on. While running to the next spot, we
spotted more large schools of mullet and stopped to catch a few more trout. The rest
of the day was spent trying to convince a redfish to eat. All the reds we encountered,
however, seemed to have their mouths glued shut. We never got a red to show any
interest in our baits despite some well placed casts.

Capt. Chris Myers
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com
Capt. Chris
Cabin Boy
Cabin Boy
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Mar 18, 2006 8:18 pm
Location: Titusville

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