I will be in Orlando at the end of March for business. I should be able to get out for a few hours of local fishing in morning or evening. I am wondering what is available in that area for DIY fishing. I would assume that there are plenty of ponds and lakes in the area for bass and pan fish, but I would also be willing to drive to do some saltwater fishing. Any ideas on where to go?
Thanks,
Al
Several years ago the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commmision and the City of Orland put together the Fish Orlando project to promote fishing and conservation in urban Orlando. Here is a link to the website. You can also order a map that gives the locations of all the lakes through the FFWC link at the bottom of the page. Most of the links on the left side of the page work, but some don’t. There is a lot of good fishing in Orlando that you could hit in a few hours.
http://myfwc.com/conservation/freshwater/fish-orlando/
While either the west or the east coast of Florida is within a reasonable distance, you would need about a whole day to make it worthwhile.
http://myfwc.com/conservation/freshwater/fish-orlando/urban-ponds/ Down the list to Santiago and you’ll find a jewel of a pond. The cats there feed heavily on the baby bluegills, etc attracted to the aerators, etc–Just throw a big Muddler out and hang on as these are fighters. Like most of the urban ponds the access is tremendous. I mentioned Santiago specifically since it was kind enough to give me a World Record on the fly rod several years back. Great Cat and Bass fishing, crappie and bluegills and Tilapia all abound and it’s a pretty park/place and easy to reach right off of a couple main streets, Semoran and Curry Ford plus it’s straight down the main road coming out of Orlando International about three miles or so.
Hit the Fly Fisherman in Orlando and Titusville for hot flies/where to go and the Black’s Point Bird Refuge across the bridge from Titusville is an easy place to spend a day casting to Reds, Sea Trout, ladyfish, etc as it’s laced with salt water canals and has abundant Indian River shoreline. Check out Eric Perez or John Turcot if you are guide inclined as these two are superb at sight fishing in Mosquito Lagoon as well as the Indian River and also the No Motor Zone of the Banana River (Turcot).
I’ll be there for business in two weeks. Staying at the J.W. Marriott.
If there’s water on the property, find out if you can fish it. At the Marriott they have guided fishing.
We use to stay at the Cypress Gardens and I’d fish that water unguided for large mouths. Always did well on poppers.
Some options on the Take Me Fishing site:
http://www.takemefishing.org/fishing/select-a-state/places/state/FL
http://www.cityoforlando.net/fpr/Html/Parks/BillFrederick.htm check out the bass boat rentals! At one time they did that in a couple lakes in town.
Thanks for the information. The place where I am staying has two lakes and a canal on the property. Hopefully I will be able to fish there, but I will check out some of the other places.
. . . Florida Fish & Wildlife Commmision and the City of Orland put together the Fish Orlando project . . .
Be advised that lost tourism due to the economy hit Florida Fish & Wildlife very hard, and when I was there last Spring, their web site was woefully out of date. The Orlando office listed on the site was closed (had been for a couple of years). A call to the Kissimmee office put me in contact with a young woman who professed to have worked there for years and she recommended I visit the Orlando Bass Pro for help. If you aren’t shopping for a high end fishing guide, don’t bother making the trip out there, because Orlando Bas Pro has no fishing info to offer you.