Monday, July 20, 2009

July Anything But Typical

Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters

Capt. Chris Myers

Fishing Report and Newsletter July 17, 2009


Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report
This July has been anything but typical for the first two weeks of the month. The water level is higher than usual and the normally slick calm mornings have been few and far between. Places that have held lots of tailing redfish during recent summers have not been very productive and the big tarpon have yet to arrive in our inshore waters. The big redfish have been around but seeing and keeping on them with the clouds and wind has been challenging.

During trips early in the month, my clients caught plenty of trout and had shots at plenty of redfish. With the southern end of Mosquito Lagoon closed for over a week due to several failed attempts to launch the space shuttle, I decided to spend a day last week looking for snook and tarpon. While I only saw one tarpon, I did find some snook to thirty inches that were willing to eat a four inch DOA CAL in silver mullet. Trout were plentiful and a 31 inch redfish was happy to eat a black rabbit fur fly I cast to him.

This Monday, my clients unexpectedly arrived with three anglers. We all piled on board and headed out to look for some snook. After missing several strikes at our first stop, we made a short move. On the next four casts, they hooked and lost a nice snook and landed a smaller one. We spent some time catching trout along the edge of a flat waiting for the clouds to blow over. When the sun came out, I poled up onto the flat and we immediately began seeing redfish. Sight fishing with three anglers did not work out well so we spent the remainder of the day catching trout.

Wednesday, I fished with Sam and his friend Kevin, the guitar player for the rock band The Offspring. Kevin started the day by landing a jack and then a snook on a four inch CAL. Sam had several strikes but no hookups. Next we tried fishing a school of large redfish that turned out to be very uncooperative. After landing a handful of trout, we encountered a few redfish and plenty of black drum.

2 guys, black drum

black drum

They caught a few more trout before Kevin, who had played a concert in another state the previous night, finally ran out of energy. An excellent time was had by all.

Friday, I had the pleasure of fishing with Konrad Krauland, the inventor and former owner of Power Pro fishing line along with his friend Maurice. The fishing was fun but the catching was below average. We encountered lots of cloudy water, floating grass and lats of other boats. We saw a few redfish and black drum but only the trout were willing to cooperate. Other anglers we spoke to found the fishing tough as well.

Hopefully, the coming weeks will bring more normal weather and the tarpon will begin showing up. Baitfish of all kinds can be found everywhere you go. Trout, ladyfish and jacks are usually willing to bend a rod if you find the redfish difficult to fool. A three inch CAL on a 1/4 ounce jig will catch a variety of fish.


The BFL 5.5 is here!
Many anglers have been awaiting the arrival of the much anticipated DOA BFL in the 5.5 inch version. A smaller copy of the original BFL, the 5.5 is available in six colors. I recently used this lure when I fished the CCA Inter Chapter Challenge tournament. A catch, photo and release event, I took second place in the trout division with a fish that was 29 1/4 inches long. The Orlando chapter took home the grand champion trophy. I have succesfully used the BFL 5.5 to catch numerous large trout as well as tarpon and snook. It comes with two interchangeable lips if you prefer to use it as a swim bait. My favorite technique is to remove the lip and work the lure on the surface in an erratic action. The lures are available now at doalures.com

D.O.A.'s BLF 5.5

BFL 5.5


Mosquito Creek Angler Improvement Class

The next class will be July 25 at 10am. Capt. Tom Van Horn will be discussing Hard Bait Applications for flats fishing.

Capt. Chris Myers
Central Florida Sight Fishing Charters
http://www.floridafishinglessons.com/
321-229-2848

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