After another outstanding week of fishing last week, the weather took a turn for the worse this week forcing several trips to be cancelled. Five inches of rain fell during the week causing the water level in Mosquito Lagoon to rise dramatically. Some of the redfish schools are beginning to disperse, some seemed to have vanished altogether, and others are still holding the same areas they have been frequenting. Trout fishing has been improving each week. They have been both aggressive and good sized.

Last week, Brian and his son had a tough time both seeing and casting to the redfish. Fortunately, the trout were willing to cooperate and both used the DOA Deadly Combo to catch numerous fish.

Rich and Pat had an excellent day targeting redfish. The most effective bait was a DOA 3 inch CAL tail with a spinner blade. This setup accounted for double digit redfish as well as some double hookups.

[The following day, I was on Mosquito Lagoon with Doug and Jeremy when a thick fog bank moved in on top of us. That did not stop the fish, though and both guys used 3 inch CAL tails in watermelon holographic with and without the spinner blade to land double digit redfish for another excellent day of catch and release fishing.

Scott from South Carolina had shots at schools of redfish throughout the morning with his flyrod. After some instruction and practice, he was able to get the black redfish worm to the fish and hooked his first red on fly.

This Monday we had to cancel due to thunderstorms but Tuesday I was able to get on the water with Rob from Wisconsin. It was his first saltwater fly fishing trip and we spent much of the morning working on casting. Heavy clouds made spotting the fish difficult until they were just a few feet away from the boat. He did land several seatrout using a clauser minnow fly but no redfish were landed.

After two more weather cancellations, I was able to get out yesterday with Rico and Chris. We had high winds but clear skies which allowed us to spot hundreds of redfish throughout the morning. Again the spinnerbait proved to me the most effective.

The trout fishing was steady with multiple fish landed with the Deadly Combo.

Last April brought excellent tailing redfish action to Mosquito Lagoon. Hopefully, it will be just as good this year. Now that the trout fishing is becoming consistent, there will always be the chance to bend a rod even if the sight fishing for redfish proves to be too much of a challenge. With more and more baitfish arriving daily, the ladyfish, bluefish, and jacks should not be far behind.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

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Orlando Area Saltwater Report 3/20/11

20. March 2011 by Capt Chris M.

The fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon has been outstanding this month. Except for a few windy days early, the weather has been perfect as well. Most of the redfish are still in schools although some flats are beginning to hold singles. During this transition period between winter and spring, the fish have been moving around. Some spots may hold
hundreds of fish one day and none the next. Find the right spot and catching dozens of redfish is easy. The fish have been biting well with the DOA shrimp and the 3 inch CAL bait accounting for the most bites. As always, casting is the key and the better you cast the more you will catch.

Trips have been too numerous to detail each one so I will hit some of the highlights. Lionel and Terry started off the month and we had an excellent day with huge schools of redfish around the boat. Both guys used the 3 inch CAL to hook up with some nice redfish.

Brothers Dan and Mark spent the day casting at redfish from 30-34 inches. The silver mullet 3 inch CAL was the only bait they used all day.

By this week, the water temperatures had climbed into the 70’s and we had calm winds and blue skies. Ed and his son Eddie enjoyed some great redfish action throughout the morning. 12 year old Eddie did an excellent job casting to and catching all of his own fish.

Jimmy spent two days fishing Mosquito Lagoon. Day one was tough with many of the fish having moved from the flats where they had been the day before. We finally found an area holding some tailing singles. He hooked one on fly but it broke off and quickly followed up catching two on a DOA
shrimp in watermelon holographic. Yesterday started off the same with several spots holding no fish at all. We finally came upon some large schools and the catching began.

With more excellent weather in the forecast, I expect some great fishing next week. This time last year was when the fish began tailing consistently. Spring is also an excellent time for fly fishing for both tailing and schooling fish. More and more bait fish are returning to the Lagoon each day. As a result, the trout fishing should begin to improve and topwater baits will begin to become effective around the bait schools.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

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Orlando Area Flats Fishing Report

26. February 2011 by Capt Chris M.

Significant changes have taken place over the last few weeks but the one thing that has remained consistent is the excellent fishing on the flats.

Just ten days ago, we were still experiencing frost in the morning and water temperatures in the low 50’s. This week, the water was reaching 70 with air temperatures hitting 80. The white pelicans are flying off signaling an end to winter and the baitfish are getting more plentiful by
the day. Huge schools of redfish can be found roaming the flats with some having over 500 fish in them. There have been few, if any, days in recent weeks when we have not seen nearly one thousand redfish per day.

On one of those aforementioned frosty mornings, Canadian anglers Juha and Linden joined me on Mosquito Lagoon. Despite the cool temperatures, the fish seemed happy and they landed twenty redfish between 5 and 8 pounds on three inch DOA CAL jigs.

The following day, Don joined me for a solo trip. He tarted off with the fly rod and within minutes, Don hooked up with his first redfish on a black crab fly.

It was a great start to the day and it only got better. Don switched to a CAL jig to get a bit more distance and battled ten more redfish from 8-15 pounds.

The fishing was so good I couldn’t resist grabbing the flyrod and hookinginto one myself.Don ended the day with some shots at 20-30 pound fish but was unable to convince them to play.

The next day brought clouds and rain. Fletcher started off hooking up with a black drum from a school of tailing fish. Our second spot held lots of tailing redfish. He had several bites but was unable to hook up.

Near the end of the day, the sun made an appearance and we spent an hourfollowing a school of giant redfish. Unfortunately, the casts never quite landed in front of the school.

Bob and Darryl were with me the next day, We had more clouds but at least it did not rain. We had tailing redfish in the morning and fish to 30 pounds late in the day when the sun came out. Both guys landed a few reds on CALs but visibility was tough much of the day.

Last Friday was picture perfect. Light winds, clear skies and warm temperatures made for some excellent sight fishing conditions. Everywhere we went the fish were happy and hungry. Will caught around twenty redfish on a variety of lures including several colors of DOA shrimp, CAL’s, and
even had a few bites on a Baitbuster. His first fish of the day was around 15 pounds and his last weighed in at 19.

Sunday I had a fly fishing trip with Jed and Joan. We encountered some huge schools of redfish in the morning. Even with large schools, cast placement can still be very important. Coming from small trout streams at home. Jed was not able to quite reach in front of the schools. They soon
spooked and fled the flat. We moved to another spot holding a slightly smaller school and hooked up with a few fish on the spinning gear. Near the end of the day, we had some shots at some slightly larger fish and got one of them to eat.

Russ and Judy had some fly fishing shots at schools of redfish over 500 strong first thing in the morning. We could get within 50 feet of them but the casts did not quite reach far enough and the fish soon took off for deeper water. We had one large redfish hooked up momentarily but it came off. We tried some trout fishing along the deeper edges of the flats. It was not red hot action as it will be in a couple months but they did land several.

Ray and Linda had shots at the giant schools of redfish early Tuesday morning. Ray landed one on a black crab fly. Our second stop produced a couple more fish and then we spent the final hour targeting large reds which they saw but did not catch.

Wednesday’s trip brought clouds, fog, and high winds to Mosquito Lagoon. Kacy and Jessica quickly landed three redfish before the wind really began to kick up.

We briefly considered packing it in but decided to bundle up and keep going. That decision paid off with Kacy landing two redfish between 15 and 20 pounds and Jessica catching the biggest fish so far this year, a 48 inch redfish weighing 32 pounds.

The next day, we were back to the perfect weather, Sunny, warm, and calm. The big schools of fish eluded us in the beginning of the day but John jr. finally broke the ice with a beautiful redfish with a 7 weight rod and a black #4 Clauser Minnow.

A couple hours later, we hit the gold mine with some huge schools of happy redfish all to ourselves. Every cast that landed in front of the fish resulted in a bite and both father and son had some fast and furious action. A prior commitment forced them to have to leave the fish biting.

Hopefully, we have seen the last of the cold weather for this year. The fishing for redfish will remain excellent and the trout bite should get better each week. This is still an excellent time for fly fishing as the redfish are still eating small crabs and shrimp. Spin fishing anglers
should stick with the smaller three inch baits for the most consistent bite.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

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Orlando Area Flats Fishing Report

5. January 2011 by Capt Chris M.

December turned out to be the coldest in recorded history here in central Florida but we still managed to have some excellent fishing. While the cold snaps were frequent and severe, they were not as prolonged as last January and I have not seen any significant fish kills. The water is crystal clear and redfish, black drum and huge seatrout can be found in schools throughout the Mosquito Lagoon. Both fly and light tackle anglers can expect some spectacular days on the water.

During mid December, I made a trip to Mosquito Lagoon with fellow guide Capt. John Kumiski on a frigid morning. With the water temperature at 46, we did not expect to find any happy fish. To our surprise, the fish we found were a bit sluggish but happy to eat our flies. During several hours of fishing, we landed 18 redfish with 13 of them on fly. We used mostly black or olive redfish worms or crab type patterns.

The following day, the weather had warmed significantly and I took a canoe trip with friend Capt. Charlie Imwalle. We had an excellent day targeting redfish and black drum on fly.

Mid-month charters brought varying levels of success. We saw plenty of redfish on each trip but they were very shallow and required quick accurate casts to get a bite. The past week, another strong cold front drove many of the fish off the shallow flats and into deeper channel, sloughs and edges. Even with water temperatures at the beginning of the week in the lower 40’s, the fish were often fighting over the baits.

Malcolm and Wayne were visiting from South Africa and wanted to try targeting some redfish. They had an outstanding day of catch and release action landing at least twenty redfish and several nice trout on 3″ DOA CAL jigs.

The following day, I was joined my Maureen with her son Michael, 12, and Brittany, 17. It was another banner day with thirty redfish landed and released.

The following two days were a bit tougher due to thick cloud cover. We saw plenty of fish but many were nearly under the boat by the time we noticed them. At the end of the day on Thursday the clouds finally parted but the wind began picking up. At our last stop before heading in, Fred talked me in to making a few casts with him. A nice trout was willing to eat my 3″ CAL.

Friday, we barely saw the sun all day but we did see hundreds of fish. Ray got a Mosquito Lagoon slam landed several redfish and drum, along with a couple seatrout.

This month, anglers should expect more top notch sight fishing. Weather is the most influential factor during the winter. Because of the shallow depths of the Lagoon system, water temperatures can go up or down significantly in a short time. Sudden drops will chase most of the fish off the shallows but they will return as soon as the water warms. Small lures and flies are the key to success. The colder the water, the slower the presentation should be.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

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Welcome - Invitation for Fishing Guides to Write Reports

19. October 2008 by webmaster.

MyFishingPlaces.com blog invites all Fishing Guides (and anyone else who enjoys fishing!) to stop by frequently, and let our readers know where the fish are biting, what you are catching, and what methods and techniques seem to be working.

It is easy to add YOUR fishing report, just REGISTER on the link located on the lower left side of this page, and then add your fishing report, to the Fishing Report category! Don’t forget to include in your blog a link back to YOUR website too!!

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Fishing stories from my youth - Yellow Perch in South Jersey

11. October 2008 by webmaster.

I remember fondly the lazy days of spring and summer when us kids would walk or ride our bikes to our favorite fishing place, located on a tidal tributory of the Tuckahoe River in Cape May County New Jersey. Most of the time we fished for pickerel or white perch, but there were other fish there too, like catfish, roach, and occassionally a sunfish or bass (very rare). It was a tidal river, brackish, so you would catch more white perch on mid and high tides, and generally more pickerel when it was more fresh on the low tides. Sometimes on a high tide you would see saltwater things like blue claw crabs. And very occassionally, on very low tides, we would luck out and get into some schools of yellow perch. I remember one time in particular when we had some minnows for bait, and good old “cane poles” and a red & white bobber and got into a nice school of decent sized yellow perch, catching them one after another. That was indeed a rare day, as I would bet over the hundred or so times I fished there in my youth, that it was about 50 times more likely to catch a white perch, as opposed to catching a yellow perch. But it is always those special days that keep you coming back!!

Even now, when I occiassionally go “back home” for a visit, I will still stop by and take a few casts there (although now with fly gear only), and I do still catch the white perch, the pickerel, or catfish……..but would give anything to get into a hungry school of yellow perch, like that magical day.

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Orlando Area Saltwater Report 4/2/11

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Welcome - Invitation for Fishing Guides to Write Reports

Fishing stories from my youth - Yellow Perch in South Jersey