The flats fishing in Mosquito Lagoon the second half of this month has been good. Redfish, trout, and black drum have been plentiful on the flats. The water clarity is still not what it should be for this time of year but there are places where you can sight fish. This week's cooler temperatures along with some nights in the 40's next week will hopefully kill off the algae that has been plaguing us for several months.
While the fish have been feeding the last couple weeks, we have seen very few tails breaking the surface. A lot of fish can be spotted nose down digging for food but remaining completely submerged. If you don't have a proper pair of polarized glasses or if the sun is obscured by clouds, the fish are nearly impossible to spot before you run over them. If you can spot them, a variety of soft plastics have been working well. Topping the list is the 1/4 ounce DOA shrimp. Tailing redfish will rarely refuse it and the trout love it as well. I have been using the watermelon holographic color but presentation is much more important than the color you use.
If conditions do not allow for sight fishing, blind casting with the 4 and 5.5 inch CAL baits has been landing both trout and redfish. Adding a Woodies Rattle to the baits has improved the bite. Choose areas with a mix of sand and grass to improve your chances for landing both species. Blind casting is exactly what we had to do all day on a trip last week with Joe and his son Joe Jr. The skies were solid clouds all day and we could not see the fish in the water. They threw 5.5 inch Cals and landed numerous redfish and trout.
The two previous days had both sun and clouds and we had multiple opportunities to sight cast to redfish on the flats. We also used the DOA Deadly Combo along the deeper edges of the flats for some steady trout action.
Jeff and his son George threw melon back Cals on a perfect December morning and landed several nice trout and redfish as well.
I went out for a bit after dropping them off to take advantage of the clear skies and water. Unfortunately, I did not have my flyrod on board but the DOA shrimp and crab were eaten by almost every fish I cast at.
This week, I had the pleasure of having former Nebraska Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne on board to do some fly fishing for redfish. The first day we were going to do the trip it was blowing 20 with a 4o degree wind chill. The following day, it was calm but we had solid clouds for the first 5 hours. We saw plenty of fish all morning, after bumping into them with the boat that is. None of the fish would tail and the coach never got a shot all morning. Finally the clouds passed through and the sun came out. A short time later, he was hooked up with his first redfish of the day. That fish came unbuttoned after a minute or so. The second redfish that ate the black worm fly stayed on the hook and was brought in for a quick photo.
Yesterday's trip brought the best weather of the week. Crystal clear skies and no wind made for excellent sight fishing conditions. My client landed both redfish and trout on a three inch DOA CAL and had shots at dozens of tailing redfish and black drum throughout the day.
The next couple months will offer some of the best fly fishing and sight fishing of the year. The fish will be targeting small baits such as crabs and shrimp and will eagerly eat similar sized flies and plastics. As always, the better you cast, the more you will catch. The number one thing you can do to catch more fish on the flats is to practice casting quickness and accuracy.
