Summer finally arrived this week in east central Florida. For the first time in nearly three weeks, we have had calm winds and warm temperatures. Hopefully, this weather pattern is here to stay. The past month was difficult for sight fishing with sustained winds of twenty knots for days on end. I had to cancel my planned tarpon trip to Homosassa due to wind but I was able to get in a few days of fly fishing for tarpon with Capt. John Kumiski in and around Pine Island Sound. The water was cold and the fish were scattered but I caught a fish of about 80 pounds on an EP minnow at the end of the second day. Last week, I took a trip to Stuart hoping for some snook and tarpon action. Again, wind and cool water dampened those plans but we did catch a few nice fish in the inlet including a large flounder on a DOA Swimming Mullet.



This Monday, I spent several hours fly fishing for small tarpon in the Indian River. There were plenty of fish and I tried eight different flies but never got a bite. A strong wind came up so I took shelter along the shore and caught a black drum on an EP minnow fly meant for trout. I grew tired of fighting the wind and got out the spinning rod to catch four reds and a trout on a 5" CAL tail in greenback color.

Tuesday, Capt. John Kumiski joined me for some fly fishing in the Indian River. The wind was not bad in the morning and Capt. John quickly caught two trout over seven pounds on a popping bug. The wind came up early and the flyrod was not working. We switched to spinning rods and I caught a trout of six pounds on a DOA Chug Head with a 5" black and gold tail. Capt. John used a topwater plug to land a few trout and a ladyfish and finished off with another trout on a Baitbuster.



Wednesday, Tom and his father-in-law from Missouri joined me for some fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. The winds were light for a change but the clouds covered the sun the entire day. We were still able to find some redfish due to the slick surface. Tom and Howard both landed a large redfish and had shots a quite a few others throughout the day. The trout fishing was slow with only a few small fish on the DOA Deadly combo.



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Thursday, I was back in the Indian River Lagoon with Jose, and his son, Jose, from Puerto Rico. He wanted to catch his first redfish. Although we had great weather, and plenty of bait was present, the reds were not as cooperative as we hoped. Jose finally got his redfish after much effort along with a few trout.



The large redfish will remain schooled up throughout the summer in both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River. The smaller redfish schools have thinned out and there are more single fish cruising the flats. Big trout are still holding in the shallow sand holes ambushing mullet schools. A few tarpon are in the Mosquito Lagoon and the numbers will increase as the summer progresses.

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