Catfish, Peacock Bass And Permit

Mosquito Creek Outdoors Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report, June 6, 2009

By Captain Tom Van Horn

Events and Seminar Schedule:
June 13, 2009 "Free Fishing Classes" Introduction to Saltwater Flats Fishing Series, Class 4 of 8, "Soft Plastic Bait Applications" 10am-12 noon at Mosquito Creek Outdoors, 170 S Washington Avenue in Apopka. Instructors are Captains Chris Myers and Tom Van Horn. For more details or directions, contact Mosquito Creek Outdoors at (407) 464-2000 or visit their website www.mosquitocreek.com.

For those of you who haven't seen the news and do not live in Florida, our record drought conditions were flushed away by an extraordinary rain event which dumped up to 28 inches of rain on some Central Florida locations is less than a week. This excessive rain fall added as much a foot of water to the lagoon and has pushed most local freshwater creeks to the edge of their banks.



Mike Murray with a big St. Johns River Catfish

As many of you know, I purchased the Coastal Angler Magazine franchise in Orlando Florida back in August 2008, and I publish a monthly periodical about boating, fishing and conservation. My goal is to keep our readership informed on local fishing trends through pertinent articles intended to improve their success on the water and to respect the resources. Well, in the May issue I wrote an article about catching freshwater catfish when our seasonal rains arrive called "Creeking Around Town". Catfish love flowing water, and when the water levels rise in the summer, they move into the creeks to spawn. When I wrote the article in mid April we were entrenched in an extreme drought, so I knew my credibility could be at stake if the rains failed to materialize, but materialize they did.



Andrew McCullough with a fat channle catfish.

With water levels increasing in our local creeks, it was time to put my money where my mouth was, and I hit the local St. Johns River accompanied by my good friends Mike Murray, Charlie McCullough and his son Andrew for a day of creeking for catfish. I know for most anglers sitting in the boat soaking bait doesn't sound exciting, but for me, tight lines and screaming drags are exciting regardless of how you accomplish the task. So, we lunched at the C. S. Lee Park on the St. Johns near Geneva, and within 20 minutes we were catching fish. Mike drew first blood with an 20 pound channel catfish caught of dead shrimp fished on the bottom, and we commenced to catching fish after fish ending the day with 14 catfish ranging from 5 to 20 pounds with several fish over 15 pounds.



Rick Wieder and Captain Tom with ywo nice peacocks bass.

My next adventure carried me to south Florida where with the help of some good friends, I accomplished several first in my catching log. My adventure started when Sandi, my wife, and I headed south to Miami to spend the weekend fishing with our good friends Cliff and Rick. We arrived on Saturday afternoon at Rick's house located on a small lake, and as we enjoyed an afternoon cocktail and good conversation, we caught at least 20 peacock bass from Ricks dock. Even Sandi, who doesn't fish much, caught six nice bass.



Sandi kisses her first peacock bass.

Early the next morning we departed Rick's house at 4:30 am on our way to Flamingo with Rick's 21 foot Maverick in tow. After about a 45 minute drive and a bait stop, we launch and motored Rick's Maverick into the Everglades. Our first stop was to chum and cast net bait, and once acquired we headed into the back country for some early morning snook fishing. As the incoming tide reached its peak, Rick set us up at a creek mouth and we commenced to catching snook one after another. All in all we caught at least 20 snook before the tide started out and the bite shut down. From there we moved outside into the Gulf and Rick put us on 3 of his secret spots. The first was called the "A" Hole, were we caught 12 sea trout in about an hour before moving to the "B" Hole and the "P" Hole, I didn't make these up I was just along for the ride, where we finished the day catching cobia, sharks, and permit.



Rick Wieder with a nice permit.

As mentioned earlier in this report, the two highlights of the trip were my first peacock bass and my first permit.

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

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn
Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters
www.irl-fishing.com
407-416-1187 0n the water
407-366-8085 Landline
www.irl-fishing.com

Visit www.mosquitocreekoutdoors.com for your outdoor adventure needs, its Where the Adventure Begins!