Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

With the month of July almost gone, I must say that fishing conditions have been anything but typical.

Water levels have been higher than in previous years, and if you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know that the fish are not located where they normally would be during this time of the year.

My plans to fish the southern end of the Mosquito Lagoon were killed, because of the problems with the space shuttle launch, so, most of the fishing my wife and I have been into, is what we call "jump fishing".

The Mosquito Lagoon has been producing nice sized trout since early June, and is now warming up to the Snook bite.

Some nice Snook being caught north of the spoil islands, as well as sporadic schools of tight lipped redfish farther to the south and eastern flats. Fishing the edge of the flats, on the drop, is a sure fire bet for the large trout that lurk there, as well as black drum that are still in all areas of the lagoon.

The no motor, pole only zones, always produce schools of tailing redfish, and the bite has been slowly picking up during this past week.

Unfortunately ,the glassy, flat, calm, early morning fishing that you normally expect this time of year, hasn't been happening. The big fish are still there, but the windy conditions make it more difficult to sight fish for them. Hopefully, the next few weeks should see some improvement.

The big tarpon that are normally in the Indian River, and Mosquito Lagoon during this time of year, still have not appeared in any number. I have seen many smaller tarpon in both of the estuaries, but the larger ones are still AWOL.

Don't fret, there are still tons of trout, ladyfish, jacks, and black drum to catch when the redfish and tarpon don't cooperate.

My lures of choice are a gold Johnson sprite spoon, a 3" CAL on a jighead, or a Creme swimbait. I also like using a DOA Terror Eye, in the gold/black body color and red eye combination.

When conditions permit, early mornings also call for a Chug Bug, or Skitter Walk top water lure. Big trout love em!

Till next trip, tight lines!

Black Drum Are In The Haulover Canal!

The Haulover Canal fishermen have been scarfing up on black drum this week both in and out of a boat.

My friend Steve picked up eight drum over 25 inches long and a bull redfish 47 inches long, using a friend's boat at the Titusville, Fl. end of the canal, in just under two hours this past week.

He said he was using was old jumbo shrimp heads for bait on a # 5 hook and was fishing the deep drop at the mouth of the canal, with a heavy duty boat rod. I guess the odor of dead shrimp is what attracted the bruisers.

Cut mullet, shrimp, crabs, and clams fished on the bottom, also does the trick on attracting these line busters.

My wife and I drove through the Merrit Island National Wildlife Preserve today, to check out the water level around the peacock pocket area. The winds have driven the

water leve l up considerably. We spotted some fish chasing bait into th e newly submerged shallows, but nothing was touching my lures.

The wind surfers were having a ball in the Indian River near Parrish Park, but the windy conditions hampered any real fishing activity. Check out the pics.

Other than two other vehicles we saw in the preserve, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

One couple that we saw fishing in bobcat cove, caught a nice drum and a couple of catfish, but other than that, no one seemed to be doing much.

We hit Haulover Canal late in the afternoon, and other than a few mangrove snapper didn't have much luck. The current was rushing towards the Mosquito Lagoon end of the canal at a pretty good clip, and even with surf rods and 4 oz. sinkers, we couldn't hold bottom long enough to get a decent bite.

Some anglers were picking up a few snapper here and there but for today, we didn't see any black drum or redfish caught.

There is a spot redfish tournament on the books for April 4th. in Titusville that will probably load up the boat ramp parking lots next weekend.

If the rains start as predicted tomorrow afternoon, and continues through the week, we're looking forward to a good tournament next weekend.

Till then, tight lines!