Indian River Lagoon Coast Fishing Report, November 29, 2007
Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida
After an agonizing week off of the water due to an illness, I was chomping at the bit to relax and stretch some line. The day was last Friday and a cold front was pushing through Central Florida. Although we have had a bit of cooler weather this fall, we have been experience warmer than normal condition and the situation was perfect for a pre frontal sea trout bite.
Over the years, I only managed to hit it right a handful of times, but when the barometer shifts on an approaching cold front the bite sometimes goes ballistic, and this was the case last week. We launched about 730 AM facing cloudy skies and a light northwest breeze of about 5 knots, with the anticipation of a northerly shift in direction and speed once the front past through. As I polled my modified Indian River Canoe into the Banana River No-Motor Zone, my long time fishing buddy Mike Murray blind cast a ¼ ounce gold Captain Mikes spoon from the casting seat in the bow. We started out throwing soft plastic jerk baits, but the puffers were relentless, so I switched Mike to the spoon. As we worked our way along the flat, Mike's first hookup was a lower slot redfish, and then he caught a puffer, but that was it for the first several hours.
Compliments of Mosquito Creek Outdoors, Apopka Florida
After an agonizing week off of the water due to an illness, I was chomping at the bit to relax and stretch some line. The day was last Friday and a cold front was pushing through Central Florida. Although we have had a bit of cooler weather this fall, we have been experience warmer than normal condition and the situation was perfect for a pre frontal sea trout bite.
Over the years, I only managed to hit it right a handful of times, but when the barometer shifts on an approaching cold front the bite sometimes goes ballistic, and this was the case last week. We launched about 730 AM facing cloudy skies and a light northwest breeze of about 5 knots, with the anticipation of a northerly shift in direction and speed once the front past through. As I polled my modified Indian River Canoe into the Banana River No-Motor Zone, my long time fishing buddy Mike Murray blind cast a ¼ ounce gold Captain Mikes spoon from the casting seat in the bow. We started out throwing soft plastic jerk baits, but the puffers were relentless, so I switched Mike to the spoon. As we worked our way along the flat, Mike's first hookup was a lower slot redfish, and then he caught a puffer, but that was it for the first several hours.
As we worked our way deeper into the Zone, I spotted a concentrated area of nervous baitfish in about 18-inches of water, so I staked out the boat and began working a RipTide Morning Glory (dark color) Flats Chub on a #4 Woodies Rattle hook quickly across the top of the water twitching it in a walk-the-dog style to keep the puffers at bay. Within the first 10 feet of water covered, a huge sea trout exploded on the bait, and the fight was on. Mike was still throwing the spoon, but after my third large trout on consecutive cast, I switched Mike over to the same bait, and the game was on.
It didn't mater which direction we threw the lure we had a fish on almost every cast, and when it was all said and done we had 28 sea trout, 2 redfish, and 1 jack between us, with some sea trout reaching the six to seven pound range. After about an hour of catching fish on the Flats Chubs, Mike wadded up his line with a huge birds nest and instead of burning time messing with the knot, he switched rods and started casting a RipTide 3" red/white mullet on a 1/8 ounce screw jig which worked equally as well, only smaller fish. All total, the frenzy lasted a little over an hour, and once the front pushed through and the wind picked up, the bite turned off as quickly as it started.
Yesterday, I returned to the same flat, but on this occasion I had the great pleasure of fishing with Willie Howard, Staff Writer for the Palm Beach Post, and my good friend Captain Rodney smith. The wind and weather conditions were about the same as last week, so on Rodney's advice, we started fishing off of the beach. We started out throwing the RipTide 3" mullet (Red/White) on a ½ ounce RipTide Screw Jig with a Woodies Rattle Capsule inserted into the bait. The tide was low and incoming, and we commenced to catch fish one after another, losing count. After about two hours, we had managed a good number of jack crevalle, bluefish, spotted sea trout, and one 24" snook, and to also wipe out my stash of jig heads.
Next we launch on the east shore of the Zone and I polled the canoe north until Willie started catching fish. On this occasion the bite was a bit slower, and the most productive bait was top water plugs. It's hard to fathom trout readily striking top water plugs at the end of November, but warm weather has prevailed. The plugs of choice were red/white Skitter Walks and Spook Juniors (Lures for the Cure) and overall the trout were smaller than those caught last week.
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
http://www.irl-fishing.com/
captain@irl-fishing.com
407-366-8085 landline
407-416-1187 on the water
866-790-8081 toll free
Visit http://www.mosquitocreekoutdoors.com/
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