By Captain Tom Van Horn
Up Coming Events
March 27th, Free Cobia and Tripletail seminar from 10 am to noon at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka Florida, 170 South Washington Avenue. For more details visit www.mosquitocreek.com/fishing.
April 24th, Free Hook Kids on Fishing Program from 10 am to noon at the Apopka Foliage Festival. After completing the five learning stations, each child will receive a free fishing rod, reel and tackle box. To preregister your children, visit Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka Florida at 170 South Washington Avenue or contact them at (407) 464-2000.
This Week's Report
Although showing some improvement this past week, cooler weather has prevailed during the month of March, and the cloudy and windy conditions are predicted to last through the weekend.
On the flats, the combination of wind, clouds, and cold made sight fishing a challenging again. We did see a little more sun this week, but overall it was tough conditions.
On Wednesday, I had the honor of going cobia looking with my good friend Larry Carter. We launched out of Port Canaveral and headed south looking for warm water. We had heard reports of cobia being caught off of the wrecks so we worked out deeper going south past Melbourne Beach and we didn't find any water temperatures warmer than 64 degrees. Although we had good sun and visibility we didn't see a single fish. We did manage to catch some small bluefish just inside the Port, but that was it.
Chris's Monster Black Drum
My next charter was on the flats as I was joined by father and son team Mike and Chris Carey. Our initial goal was to fish for redfish and black drum. We arrived on the flat just after sunrise, and we quickly located tailing redfish. Although there were a good number of tailing fish, they were scattered here and there, and they were playing a game of hide and seek. When we would approach one, it would disappear, and another one would show up further away. After chasing tails for about an hour I opted for a move to a new location, where Chris hooked up with our only respectable fish for the day, a 30 pound range black drum. As Chris landed the drum, the wind began to increase and we were able to locate the school a second time and we finished the day catching small sea trout and bluefish in some deeper protected areas. The black drum was caught fishing a ¼ ounce DOA jig head with a live shrimp, and the sea trout were caught on rootbeer colored DOA Shrimp.
Besides chunking bait, blind casting in the deeper canals and holes has produced some decent sea trout this week. Try fishing with DOA Shrimp, rootbeer and glow colors very slow. Target these fish by casting up against the shoreline and fish the DOA Shrimp extremely slow just bumping the bottom as you work in down the drop-off.
Also, if you're not sure how to fish for cobia, but would like to learn, be sure to attend the free cobia and tripletail seminar tomorrow at 10 a. m. with Captain Chris Myers and yours truly at Mosquito Creek Outdoors. For more details and directions on the seminar, please visit Mosquito Creek's website at www.mosquitocreek.com.
Also, be sure to check out the March addition of Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando in print and online for free at www.coastalanglermagazine.com.
As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
www.irl-fishing.com
mosquitocoast@cfl.rr.com
407-366-8085 office
407-416-1187 on the water
For all you outdoor shopping needs, visit Mosquito Creek Outdoors at www.mosquitocreek.com.
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