Orlando Florida Report 9/30/08

The high water persists in the Mosquito Lagoon and has made for some tough days of fishing recently. In addition to being high, the water in many areas is dirty making sight fishing even more challenging. There is no lack of bait as the mullet are nearly everywhere. There is so much bait that not all places holding bait are holding fish. Covering lots of water and moving when areas are not producing have been necessary to catch the fish.

Last Friday, Capt. Duber Winters from Stuart joined me on Mosquito Lagoon. The day started off cloudy and windy and we threw topwater baits near the shoreline. As is common when fishing for redfish with topwater, we had more bites than hookups but we managed to get several to the boat up to 32 inches.

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The sun finally came out and we switched over to DOA CAL baits and landed a couple more reds. Capt. Winters got out the flyrod and hooked up with a redfish on an EP Pinfish style fly on the 7wt.

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We hit several more spots that did not produce and ended the day catching some trout and one more redfish on the CAL baits.

Monday's trip was a washout, literally. I informed my clients that the forecast was predicting rain but they wanted to give it a shot anyway. The rain began about thirty minutes after we started and did not stop until they called it quits three hours later with only a couple trout to show for their efforts. Five miles from the ramp it was sunny and warm the entire drive home.

Wednesday, I was invited by Capt. John Kumiski to join him on a trip for peacock bass with Capt. Alan Zaremba about 200 miles to the south in Delray Beach. The peacock bass is native to South America and was stocked in south Florida canals in the mid 80's to control the excessive tilapia population. We caught both peacock and largemouth bass on a variety of topwater and subsurface lures and flies fishing the narrow urban canals.

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Friday, I was back in Mosquito Lagoon with Steve, a fly angler from South Africa. Clouds were our biggest enemy and made it difficult to spot the fish until they were only a few feet from the boat. Steve landed one redfish on an olive and white bendback and caught several trout on a variety of weighted flies.

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We tried finding a snook to compete the slam but were chased off the water by a heavy storm.

Saturday, Sam and Kelly were excited to see fins and tails of a school of redfish breaking the surface as they made their way across the flat at our first stop. They had not even had time to shake the rust off their casting skills when the fish appeared. They did not hook up but our hopes were high after seeing the school. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it was going to get for the day. Clouds moved in for the next few hours killing the sight fishing. We moved out to some deeper water and the guys threw CAL tails on a jighead landing a dozen trout. Hoping for something bigger, they elected to go back to the flats in search of redfish. With lots of boats on the water, several spots we wanted to go were taken. We headed to a flat which normally produces well and began poling. We covered over two miles of flat and saw two redfish. Definitely not a typical day for Mosquito Lagoon.

The most reliable fishing right now is for trout. The edge of nearly every flat is holding trout and you may come across jacks and ladyfish as well. The three foot depth has been the most productive recently. CAL tails on a jighead as well as the Deadly Combo and weighted flies should produce.

Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com