Orlando Florida Report 4/15/08

[Capt Chris M]

The water levels in Mosquito Lagoon have risen nearly a foot in the last couple weeks. This makes places that have been nearly dry for a couple months accessible. It also means the fish can spread out into areas they have been unable to reach. Water temperatures had risen
into the 80's but a cold front passed through last night and the overnight lows will be in the 40's. Behind the front will also be several days of wind.

Wind is what we had plenty of the first two days of last week. On Monday, I fished with Louis and Ron, two Orlando physicians. It was a breezy and cloudy day making sight fishing difficult. We found several schools of redfish that didn't seem to mind the weather.





After catching a few reds, we changed locations and Ron caught the fish of the day, a 30 inch seatrout.



We finished up the day with another redfish for Louis and a few more trout.

Tuesday, the wind was blowing at 20-25 at first light. Despite the dreary outlook, I set out with Harold hoping conditions would improve. The wind never did stop but Harold managed to fool five redfish on 3 and 4 inch DOA CALs.



The following morning, Harold and I arrived to find calm waters and warmer temperatures. He started the morning throwing a DOA Baitbuster. A few redfish tried to eat his lure and missed but a decent trout did catch the mullet imitation.Throughout the day, we encountered quite a few spooky large trout and some cruising and tailing redfish. Harold landed five redfish with CAL tails in morning glory and watermelon seed colors.

Thursday, California resident Javier came out for a day of fishing on Mosquito Lagoon before he returned home from a conference. At our first stop, we were greeted with several schools of finning redfish. Javier had three redfish to the boat within the first half hour. The redfish moved on but we encountered plenty of black drum and Javier hooked five and
landed three.



We took off in search of a nice trout to complete his slam. We finally found one around 24 inches long willing to eat a 3 inch CAL.

Friday, Texas natives Kirk and Rusty made their first trip to Mosquito Lagoon. After finding some uncooperative fish at the first stop, Rusty landed a black drum.



Both guys caught some trout on a DOA Deadly Combo to 21 inches but the bite was not what I had hoped. We went back to looking for redfish. At our next stop, Kirk landed a 32 inch redfish.



We made one more move and found redfish everywhere. Unfortunately, the guys had only a few minutes left to fish before they had to leave to catch a plane home. Rusty completed his slam with a 27 inch redfish.

After dropping them off at the ramp, I went back out to check one more spot. I landed two trout over 24 inches and a redfish all on a 3 inch CAL in watermelon seed.

With the higher water levels, it may be necessary to do a bit of searching to find the fish. Look in areas you have not visited when the levels were low. When you find them, they have been willing to eat well placed soft plastics. Dark colors such as the mostly black morning glory and the dark green watermelon seed have been very effective.

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

[Norfolkboy]

That's a cracking looking trout!

[Banana Steve]

Great report, The fishing looks fantastic, well done

[fishypaul]

i love them redfish