East Central Florida Report

[Capt. Chris]

The big redfish have returned to both the Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River Lagoon in full force. Some days they are easier to find than others but if you put in the time, your efforts will be rewarded. The fish are schooling along the deeper edges of flats in 2-4 feet of water. These large fish can be from 15-30 years old and have seen all types of lures and anglers. For the best chance of catching one of them, you will need to use natural bait such as live pinfish, jumbo shrimp or blue crab. If you are the first boat to the school, you can sometime catch them on a topwater plug. Once the fish realize there are anglers present, they will usually respond only to live baits. These fish receive and extraordinary amount of pressure on a daily basis. To ensure they are around for years to come, catch a couple and move on to something else. Handle them with care when boat side and make sure they are fully revived before releasing them. Hanging large fish from lip gripper tools can cause unseen damage to their jaws which may prevent them from feeding. I have been experimenting with a sling type net I made that supports the fish in a horizontal position. The fish can be weighed while still in the net and they remain docile. Last week, Capt. Ron Presley joined me for a day of scouting the Mosquito Lagoon. We found some big fish and Capt. Ron hooked up on his second cast.



We left the fish biting and moved to some shallow water where we found several tailing fish. We caught a few on Exude crabs and Exude RT Slugs and continued searching. We located a few small schools in some shallow sand holes and boated a few more before calling it a day.

The next day, I had Darryl Tse from Toronto on board. The morning air was slick calm and we quickly found a school of big Indian River redfish. Darryl got several shots at these fish with live pinfish but did not hook up. We elected to move to the Mosquito Lagoon and found a school of big reds which we had all to ourselves. Darryl tried over and over to convince one of them to eat but was unsuccessful. He was surprised at the small feeding zone of these fish. Most of the time, the bait must be on the bottom in front of these fish before they get to the spot or it will be ignored. We checked several flats in the ever increasing wind but only saw a few fish. A few trout and ladyfish on jigs saved us from a skunk.

Monday, Mike Pollock and I fished the Mosquito Lagoon. Mike caught two nice reds in four casts and, again, we left the fish biting.




Tuesday, I had an afternoon trip. I went to the Indian River early and jumped 6 tarpon on fly at the power plant outflow. The clients arrived at 1:30 and we fished for a couple hours drifting the deeper flats with DOA shrimp and cajun thunder corks catching about a dozen trout and one ladyfish.

Wednesday, I had Mandy and Ron Moote from Canada on board. Our plan was to fly fish for the tarpon in the morning. We arrived at the power plant at first light but only saw one tarpon. A few ladyfish were landed but action was slow. We looked for reds and saw none. Pitched out a few live baits at Rinker canal but only caught one trout. Moving north of the NASA Causeway, we drifted for trout using the DOA shrimp rig and Captain Joe's Shredders. Mandy and Ron caught about a dozen trout on both




The trout were caught in 3-4 feet of water where you can barely see the bottom.
Today's poor weather is keeping me off the water but tomorrow starts the Redbone tournament to benefit Cystic Fibrosis which I will be fishing.

Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com
321-229-2848