I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but the wind still presented us with challenging fishing conditions this past week. On every one of my charters, a strong northeasterly fetch made locating and sight fishing redfish unfeasible and non productive for the most part. On the positive side, the winds have been dying down between civil twilight and sunrise, and we have had shots at tailing redfish before the wind kicked up, so if you're planning a trip this week I would consider being in your desired fishing location when the sky begins to grow light.
Erik Pedersen and His Son Kai with an IRL Snook
On each of my adventures last week, our best action came from jigging soft plastic baits like the Riptide 3" Mullet along the deeper edges of the flats and in areas of glass minnows out in the open water of the lagoon. To be more specific, almost all of the shorelines in each of the three lagoons within the IRL system are paralleled by a vast shallow grass flat. These flats are basically non tidal with the exception of the northern Mosquito Lagoon and the areas around the inlets like Sebastian, so their contours are influenced by wind driven waves rather than tidal currents. The typical layout of the flat is shallow close to shore, and as you move out towards deeper water the flat is bordered by a shoal or sandbar following the contour of the shoreline. As you cross the shoal, the water begins to deepen creating the edge. Most of the fish this past week have been concentrated in two to three feet of water on the deep side of the shoal. Top-water plugs have also been effect in this same location.
Erik's Slot Redfish
To locate schools of bay anchovies (glass minnows) in deeper water, simply watch for bird activity. Look for small white terns dipping down and touching the water, and pelicans diving. Also cormorants and seagulls will often be present as well. Additionally, a good way to tell if pelicans are diving on small baitfish is the amount of time they hold their heads in the water as they strain the water from their beaks before turning their head back and swallowing, the smaller the bait the longer it takes to strain the water. Once you have located diving birds and concentrations of glass minnows, take a moment to observe their direction of travel and setup a drift ahead of the school. On one charter last week we actually caught six species of fish from within one school. Feeding near the surface are ladyfish, bluefish, jacks, and gafftop sail catfish, and below the school are sea trout and hardhead catfish.
Action along the beach is also heating up with good reports of bait pods shadowed by spawning schools of large jacks and even some smoker size kingfish in as shallow as 40 feet of water. The best action has come from anglers slow trolling live menhaden (pogies) on stainless steel stinger rigs. So, if the winds and seas subside a bit, keep a sharp eye on the horizon for the green shades of Three Quarter Time.
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
www.irl-fishing.com
407-416-1187 on the water
407-366-8085 office
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