American Shad Run On St. Johns

Mosquito Creek Outdoors Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report

By Captain Tom Van Horn

Well, the extremely cold weather we experienced these past few weeks has subsided and Chamber of Commerce weather has settled in just in time for race and bike weeks in Daytona. It's these cool, clear, and bright sunny days that make Central Florida such a great place to live and visit, and we are truly blessed to have excellent fishing as well.

My week started on Monday when I had the opportunity to join Captain Eric Ciocher host of the Ultimate Catch Fishing Show for a day of filming on the St. Johns River near Puzzle Lake. The episode we were filming was about fishing from Malibu Kayaks, and our original plan was to film a black drum and redfish show in the legendary Banana River No-Motor zone, but every time we scheduled a shoot, either the weather was unfavorable or some other unforeseen event would scrub the event. Well. We finally decided to shoot the show fishing for American shad on the St. Johns River, and all of our delays were rewarded by one of the best shad runs I seen in years. From the first cast of the day until sunset, we had constant action catching over 100 fish between us on both spin and fly tackle. All of the fish I caught were on a 5 weight fly rod throwing a very small chartreuse crazy Charlie and on several of the fights I had large roe shad take me all the way into the backing. The weather was gorgeous, the fish were chewing, and the non stop action produces over four hour of footage for a 30 minute show.

Ultimate Catch Fishing Show is broadcast on Bright House Sports Network covering the entire Central Florida region from Tampa- St. Pete across To Daytona and Melbourne Beaches. Ultimate Catch airs on Channel 47 Sundays at 11:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 11:30 a.m.

The following counties are included in the Bright House Sports Network Coverage area: Brevard, Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Manatee, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Sumter, and Polk. This covers the major Metropolitan areas of Daytona, Orlando and Tampa.

I returned to the river again several times during the week, but the bite was slow, so I would have to classify the shad bite as hot and cold.

On the Lagoon, water levels remain very low and there are a good number of redfish and black drum schools working the flats, but the shallow clear water makes for some really spooky fish bringing our catch levels down. It's very frustrating when you see hundreds of fish, and you can't get a cast in front of them or they just swim past your offering without even a sniff, but that just adds to the challenge of sight fishing.

Although getting the fish to eat is a challenge with these conditions, patients pays off as was the case with 7 year old Brian Rohde and his dad from Casper, Wyoming. Between the two of them, 4 black drum between 10 to 20 pounds came to the boat, 3 caught by Brian the Drum Major Rohed.
On a side note, black drum numbers have improved to the point they are becoming a common targets, adding to the excitement of an emerging fishery, but greedy meat hunting anglers are pounding these schools taking illegal limits and if this practice continues this new fishery will be short lived. Don't get me wrong, because I enjoy a fresh fish dinner as much as anyone else, but there is no reason to be out there every day taking more fish then you can eat. So, please be respectful of our resources, and we will all benefit in the long run.

As always, if you have any questions or need more information, please contact me.

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
407-416-1187 on the water
407-366-8085 land line
www.irl-fishing.com

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