Orlando Area Saltwater Report 4/24/11

[Capt Chris M]

The flats fishing has been excellent this month here in Mosquito Lagoon. The weather has been about as good as it gets as well. Schools of redfish have been roaming the flats and trout have been working mullet schools in slightly deeper water.

A couple weeks ago, Mike and his son Steven took a day of their spring break vacation to target some redfish. Both landed several nice reds with the 3" DOA CAL getting the most bites.

Great Lakes Forum member Tony member Tony Childs (Eyefull) and his son Josh joined me for a great day of catching redfish and trout. We started off throwing spinner baits at schooling redfish. Clouds moved in making it tough to keep track of the reds so we switched to some trout action with the Deadly Combo. A fun time was had by all.

After having to cancel our trip several times this year due to bad weather, Robert and his son Matthew finally hit some perfect weather for sight fishing the flats. We saw hundreds of redfish throughout the morning and both guys landed their biggest one to date.We spent the last hour or so trout fishing in 2-4 feet of water and had some non stop action with the Deadly Combo.

Larry enjoyed some excellent sight fishing last week landing numerous redfish and trout on both DOA shrimp and CAL baits. We encountered huge schools of reds both tailing and cruising.

This week, Greg and Toby started off the morning with a big school of happy and aggressive redfish. Greg hooked up on his first cast as a fish chased down his DOA shrimp as he skimmed it along the surface. Seconds later, Toby had a bite as well but missed. He was soon hooked up, however, and they caught double digit redfish. A dozen or so seatrout were also caught and released before we called it a day.

Chad and Larry saw hundreds of redfish during their day on Mosquito Lagoon. Some were tailing single fish and some were big schools of 200+ fish. It took a while to get the casting dialed in but both guys were able to catch redfish as well as plenty of trout.

Chuck and his son Zach found the sight fishing more challenging than they expected. We saw reds all throughout the morning but none had been landed by noon. Their luck changed at the end of the trip with an action packed stretch of multiple fish over 15 pounds coming to the boat.

Yesterday was the toughest day of the month. After getting a late start, we found boats in all the spots that had been producing redfish consistently. After searching for an unoccupied flat, we encountered some small groups of reds but none of the casts quite hit the mark. We changed gears and moved out to the deeper water for some trout fishing. While we managed to catch a few in each spot we went, it was far slower than it had been on every other day this month.

While April was outstanding for redfish and trout, May should bring some additional variety to the Lagoon. The first tarpon will begin to appear and some schools of ladyfish and bluefish will show up as well. Watch for schools of glass minnows in deeper water to signal the arrival of the other predators. Trout fishing will remain consistent with most of the fish found in areas where mullet are present in 2-4 feet of water. Many of the schools of redfish over twenty pounds have been missing in action. The few that are around get fished from dawn till dusk by multiple boats each day. Fortunately, there have been plenty of 10-15 pound fish which put up and excellent fight on light tackle.

Capt. Chris Myers

Orlando Fishing Guide

[GLF]

Looks nice Chris!

[Eyefull]

Anyone heading down that way should give Chris a call and get out there. We were on fish all morning, despite tough cloudy conditions. We talked to several other boats that hadn't hooked a fish and we got three apiece! Truth be told, if we could cast or see fish worth a darn, we would have had dozens each. I have to say that those big reds fight like a spring king, but in shallow water, really exciting. Great trip.