Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report 3-8-10

This Weeks Report

For sake of not sounding like a broken record, I'm not going to tell you that it was cold again and the wind was blowing hard again this past week here in Central Florida. Instead, the sun has been shining bright most of the week, which is good for sight fishing on the shallow flats of the Mosquito and Indian River lagoons and the mornings have been a bit nippy. On the shallow flats both schools of redfish and black drum have been prevalent in groups ranging from 15 to 50 fish, but the fish have been very shallow and very spooky. When casting to spooky fish, they must be lead by at least two rod lengths, and hopefully they will swim close enough to your offering to see your bait before hightailing it. Although not as sporting as casting to tailing fish, I find staking out the boat up wind from a school and letting them come to you offers more success this time of year.

My preferred bait for this situation is live shrimp, and as you see the school approach, quietly cast the shrimp well ahead of the lead fish, and let them swim into your bait spread. This technique can be very productive, especially in areas where heavy angler pleasure has the schools moving. Although we've been complaining about the unusually cold and windy weather this winter, we've had it good compared to our angling friends outside of Florida. This past week I fished an American shad charter with Bill Massey from West Virginal, who has experienced nothing but repeated snow storms every few days all winter. Cabin fever finally got the best of him, and our day on shad alley yielded us 16 fat and sassy shad. All fish were taken on spinning tackle casting tandem 1/16 ounce crappie jigs with pink and white curly tails fished very slowly on the bottom. The shad run hasn't been the best this season, but we are still catching fish and I feel we may still have a few weeks left before they begin to thin out.

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.