The water levels have dropped in the Mosquito Lagoon but the temperatures have remained well above normal with several days in the 80's. The redfish schools have been plentiful and the black drum have been showing up on occasion. It has been more like fishing in April than January but I never complain when I can fish in shorts during the winter.
Last Friday, Paul H. from Orlando, and I hit the Mosquito Lagoon at dawn for some fun fishing. We came upon a school of reds in shallow water chasing small baitfish. Paul had five bites on five casts with his homemade topwater plug before he was connected to the first redfish of the day. I caught one from the same school with a four inch gold DOA CAL tail.A short time later, I spotted a group of four reds tailing and tossed my gold CAL tail to them. A 31 inch fish slammed my lure immediately and we had red number two.I landed a smaller redfish a few minutes later and Paul followed up with a couple trout on an olive colored jerk worm.The skies became overcast and the wind picked up but we continued casting soft plastics to the sand holes and finished the day with six reds and six trout.
Sunday, I fished Dave B. from Eustis. The day began with rain but the wind was calm. Dave started with the gold jerk worm and hooked a red from the first school we saw that shook loose. After trying a few more spooky schools, Dave caught a seatrout and finally landed up with his first red of the day. The clouds cleared out but the winds increased. We decided to look for some bigger fish and made a move. We found about six schools of reds and several schools of black drum at our next stop. Dave used a DOA Baitbuster to catch a 32 inch red and had a larger one on that came unhooked.Blustery conditions made casting tough but Dave landed two more nice redfish and had several more bites. We tried to get the black drum to eat but were unsuccessful.
Monday, Clifford W. from Texas joined me for his first Mosquito Lagoon trip. Clifford works for Kistler Rod Company and was eager to put a bend in a new prototype rod he brought. With perfect morning weather, we spotted a school of several hundred tailing reds. Clifford threw a small topwater bait that was struck immediately and his new rod was put to the test. We encountered multiple schools of redfish and black drum of various sizes throughout the morning.We ended the day by sight casting to several tailing fish in shallow water. Clifford wound up with ten reds, two black drum and a trout for a Mosquito Lagoon winter slam.
Our stretch of unseasonably warm weather seems to be coming to a close by mid week with a cold front followed by more average January temperatures. This may bring more of the large seatrout up onto the flats where they will offer some fun but challenging sight fishing opportunities. Remember, as the water cools, downsize your baits and slow your presentation.
Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com
