Orlando Florida Report 12/29/07

[Capt Chris M]

Last week I was out of town and did not fish. Upon returning to the water on Monday of this week, I discovered the water had risen allowing the fish to spread out again. During three trips this week, we saw fish every day but did not see near as many redfish tailing as there had been the first two weeks of the month.

Monday, I was greeted with a stiff north wind that increased throughout the day. The wind was not nearly as much of a problem as the solid cloud cover that makes sight fishing nearly impossible. I caught a redfish and a trout on a DOA shrimp and another redfish on a crab fly. I finally decided the conditions were not going to improve and went home early.

Thursday, the weather was much nicer. After a cool start, the temperatures rose to near 80 and the winds were calm. Bob and his son Brian from Atlanta made the drive down to experience some redfishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. As we poled across the flat in the low light, we bumped into several schools of redfish that we never saw until it was too late. We finally came across a school of reds moving slowly across the flat with the backs out of the water. Brian made a perfect cast with a gold 4 inch CAL and was soon hooked up to his first redfish.



We had more tailing reds throughout the morning. When the sun was high enough to see into the sand holes, we went in search of black drum. For over an hour, we encountered numerous schools of drum from 10-100 fish. Brian managed to hook up with a drum of about seven pounds that was a bit camera shy and squirted overboard before we snapped its photo. The remainder of the drum proved to be difficult to catch. We went back to the redfish. We saw quite a few along with some big trout but never got any more to the boat.

Friday was another beautiful day. Dennis and Dede from Orlando were on my boat while Dede's twin brother and father fished with Capt. Tom Van Horn. We started the day trying to catch some large drum. We saw them and managed to get off a few shots but no hookups. The great weather brought out tons of anglers and the hardest part of the day was finding an unoccuppied piece of water. We spent the rest of the day focusing on the redfish. We saw a lot of fish including small schools, pairs and singles. All were in very shallow water and were very spooky and selective. We ended up catching some redfish and one trout and had a few long distance releases.



If the weather forecast holds, we are in for a drastic drop in temperatures by the middle of next week. This means the water temperatures, which are currently around 70, will most likely fall into the mid to low 50's. Expect the fishing to be slow for a few days after the front as the fish adjust to the change. By next weekend, however, the highs should be back to the mid 70's and the fish will be seeking the shallow flats which will warm the quickest.

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

[pingu]

another nice report

coor looks chilly with water temps at 70 going to 50


dave

[tonybolton]

Nice report, who knows a couple more years of global warming and we'll be catching some of those in the solent!

[Norfolkboy]

Some lovely fish as always, Chris

[Twiddler]

Great report/pics Chris......some lovely looking fish.....whatever they are