Mosquito Lagoon Florida Report 3/5/07
Schools of redfish continue to roam the shallow flats of Mosquito Lagoon. In addition to schools of 20-200 fish, there are plenty of single reds to be found in the same areas. The water level has risen in the past few days and water temperatures are pushing 70 degrees. The fish are active and targeting small crabs and shrimp. If you can get a small soft plastic in front of them, they will eat it. Fishing with chunk baits, however, has not been producing as well lately because the fish are so focused on the small crabs.
Sunday, I fished the Mosquito Lagoon with Bill and Jennifer from New Jersey. There were relatively few boats out for a weekend and we found ourselves alone at the first stop with a large school of black drum. The fish were not in the mood to cooperate, however, and even refused fresh blue crab. We followed them for a short while before they eventually disappeared into deeper water. At our next stop, a porpoise decided he also wanted to work the sandbar we were working and did a thorough job of scaring off all the fish. We moved again and Bill was the first to score with a 35" redfish. Jennifer followed up with another red she caught with a gold spoon. The winds picked up and we continued to see feeding reds but conditions made sight casting to them difficult.
Monday, I fished the father and son team of Dave and Mike. Again, we started out trying to convince the black drum to eat. We had one bite but the hook did not stick. Just like the previous day, they stayed around only a short while before moving deep. The breeze pickup up and action was slow for several hours. Around mid day, the winds died and suddenly we were surrounded by redfish tails in every direction. The calm winds lasted on a short while, however. As soon as the wind began to blow, the tails went down. We did manage to catch one red before the feeding frenzy was over. We continued poling the flats and had a flounder and
a nice trout shake loose and saw plenty of redfish the rest of the day. Although we did not set any catching records, we certainly had a fun and entertaining day.
Tuesday, JR and his twelve year old son Austin from Oregon, fished with me in Mosquito Lagoon. Both were excellent fishermen. We had to overcome cloudy and windy conditions most of the day. Dad caught the first two redfish on a gold DOA CAL tail.
Austin followed up with three reds of his own.
The sun came out at the end of the day and they had several shots at tailing redfish but only had one more bite.Poor weather kept me off the water for the rest of the week. This week's weather is supposed to be excellent and I am looking forward to some excellent days on the water. Some clear skies and light winds shoudl allow us to get some shots at tailing fish with the flyrod.
Capt. Chris Myers
Mosquito Lagoon Fly Fishing Guide
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