With water temperatures in the morning in the high 60′s and near 75 by day’s end, the fish are aggressive and will eat even large baits. Unfortunately, the water is still not crystal clear like it should be this time of year. It is clear enough to see the fish though. Most of the month, we experienced extremely low water levels. The water has risen this past week and with it came tons of floating grass that had been washed up on the shore. Weedless jerk baits are a necessity when the grass gets to be too thick. Color has not seemed to be too important as we have caught fish on a variety of shades. Presentation, however, is very important. Trying to catch tailing redfish means you are casting at a stationary target but your bait must get within a foot or less of them or they will not see it.

Ray had an excellent day on the Lagoon before he had to go to a job in Iraq. He landed double digit redfish, mostly on the 3″ DOA CAL tail and a 1/8 ounce jighead.

Joe wanted to try his hand at fly fishing for redfish. A steady 10 mph wind was a bit much for him to overcome with the fly but he did manage several nice reds on the 3″ CAL.

Jim fished Mosquito Lagoon with me the following day. He threw the fly all day long. We tried feeding some uncooperative black drum. We never convinced one to bite. Jim used a small tan shrimp imitation fly of his own creation to catch several redfish.

Mike was my next fly angler last week. We began the day throwing a bendback to some very shallow schools of redfish. While he came close a number of times, 10 feet more on his fly cast would have resulted in some hookups. Again we tried a multitude of flies on some black drum. The only bite he got ended when the leader broke on the hook set. Mike was able to get his first redfish to eat a fly he tied on a #4 hook with some orange/brown chenille, small lead eyes, and a tan wing. With shots at hundreds of fish throughout the day, we called it a success.

This Monday I took a trip to the St John’s River for some fly fishing for shad. While others I spoke to reported catching 30-40 shad, I caught that many fish but only 8 or so were the target species. The rest were a mixture of crappie, bass, bluegill, sunfish, and redbreast. The shad are there, however, and it seems to be a good run of them this year.

Tuesday, I fished with Jeff and Jim on their first flats fishing trip. We found the black drum a bit more willing to cooperate and even got a double header.

Tailing redfish were our next target. The tails were easy to spot as the water was smooth as glass. Soon we had tail in every direction. With lots of floating grass to deal with, I elected to go with a weedless CAL in melonback color. A Woodies rattle inserted near the tail helped the fish find the bait. The next few hours were filled with shots at hundreds of reds and some bent rods resulted.

We ended the day completing a Mosquito Lagoon slam by using the DOA Deadly Combo to catch numerous seatrout off the outside edge of the flat.

Wednesday was nearly a carbon copy of the day before. The only improvement was we had much clearer skies making it even easier to spot the fish when the sun came up. Rick and Cynthia started off the day bringing a few black drum to the boat before we moved on to tailing redfish. The first red came on a DOA shrimp but the weedless CAL bait proved to be a better choice with the heavy floating grass still around.In addition to landing numerous redfish, both caught a seatrout as well to complete a double slam for the second day in a row.

As long as the weather remains stable, the fishing will continue to be outstanding. Should a cold front blow through and drop the water temperatures significantly, the fish will drop off the flats for several days. If you must fish during those times, target the deeper edges of flats and sand troughs with jigs. As long as the water remains warm, however, the fish will be happy, schooling, and feeding.

Capt. Chris Myers

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Guide

The fishing the past couple weeks have been pretty productive. The past couple weeks we have also caught some pretty strange fish. The picture above is one of these weird fish that I have never seen before in the shallow waters of Southwest Florida. We actually caught this guy on the Mirrolure Lil’ John. These baits are proving they can catch any kind of fish. When one of my clients hooked this fish it fought quite like a flounder, hugging the bottom and leaving a dust trail. When the fish got closer to the boat it was quite apparent that it was by no means necessary a flounder. We all had  puzzled looks on our faces as we have never seen one before. Just before the fish got to the boat it came off the hook. After that it then laid on the sand bottom and froze. It gave us good opportunity to study this thing and to try and figure out what it was. When I got home I quickly did some research and this is what I could find. I guess this thing is called a Flying Gunard. It most defiantly looks like something out of a Si-fi movie. Besides all of that, the fishing has been really productive. With the warm weather we have had the past couple weeks and the increasing water temperatures the big trout have been showing up on our flats. Along with the big trout, we have also been seeing a big number of tailing Redfish. Normally we don’t see much of this when the water temperatures are real cold. But when the water temps start to rise these fish start waving the tails everywhere.

You’ll start to see them waving at you most likely when the tide turns and starts coming in. Try an look for them around low tide staging areas like sand holes, troughs, or even bar edges. That is where you should find them first. Once you do find them, it will be sure to get any fisherman’s blood pumping!

If you guys would like to fish the Charlotte Harbor area. Please visit www.nativesaltcharters.com

There have been a couple of cold fronts that shut the bite down for a few days at a time but for the most part, this has been a really great winter as far as the fishing and the weather has gone.

The speckled sea trout fishing has been phenomenal. It’s absolutely amazing at how big our average fish has gotten since the red tide 7 years ago put a damper on things. The numbers are better than ever and the size is more impressive than I can remember. The best bite for trout has been on the really low tides around the new and full moons. They drop off into low troughs and cuts around Anclote key and make it easy for us to find them.

The redfish bite has has stayed strong, especially on the high tide from the Anclote river all the way up to Hudson. The areas just north of the Cotee river has really been productive. Most of the creeks and coves in these areas have held good keeper sized fish. Keep in mind that we need to hit these area on high water as the whole area is very shallow.

Snook are generally taking their normal break this time of year but we’ve had a few surprise catches of tarpon and cobia in the last week or so. The one tarpon we caught was caught on a live, free-lined shrimp and looked to weigh about 20lbs. It was a really cool surprise as we rarely ever catch tarpon this time of year.

Sheephead have invaded the flats and though we don’t target them much, we’ve had some great by-catches of 3-5lb fish. They taste great and are great fighters in shallow water.

Many people don’t realize what a great fishery we have here in the winter time. The trout fishing on our coast is some of the best in the whole country. I’m often asked, “I know it’s winter, but, is there anything to catch this time of year?” I answer with an emphatic, “Yes!” This is the only time if year where we have days of catching 75-100 trout; all keeper size or better. The redfish are still cooperating and you never no what other surprise might be awaiting at the next fishing spot! This is an awesome time of year to fish here. Don’t mis your chance to get out on the flats during this mild winter! Be sure to give me a ring to discuss your next fishing adventure.

Trips over the past couple days have brought mixed results. Wednesday, anglers reported finding nice sized schools of fish that were eager to bite a fly or a DOA crab. Thursday, Capt. John Kumiski and I had and outstanding day fly fishing from a canoe and wading the flats. We both caught a fly slam of redfish, trout, and black drum and landed too many fish to count. The black redfish worm fly accounted for most of the fish.

Yesterday, the fish were few and far between. Mark managed to fool this redfish using a golden bream DOA 3″ CAL tail that we spotted cruising along the outside edge of the grass line.

Mark also had some shots at black drum and redfish in the 20 pound class but did not hook up. Reports from other anglers and guides told of similar results.

While the cold weather has made the mornings a bit uncomfortable, it has begun to make a significant improvement in the water clarity. While it still has a long way to go to be crystal clear, you can see the bottom and spot fish in most areas. As the warmer weather returns, look for the fish to head back onto the flats this week and begin tailing in search of crabs, shrimp, and other shellfish and marine worms. Sight fishing will work best when the water is clear. Stealth is the most important factor for getting into casting range. Once you can reach the fish, a quick accurate cast is key to getting hooked up.

Capt. Chris Myers

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Guide

There is nothing like breaking in the New Year with a little fishing. With the current cold front bearing down on us, the fishing has slowed down just a bit. The big schools of mullet have yet again disappeared and went on one of their mini vacations. Now this doesn’t mean you still cant go out and get some nice fish to the boat. If you use a lot of artificial’s, like I do in the winter and notice the bite slowly decreasing, you might have to go back to the basics. There is nothing wrong with going back to the ol’ live shrimp on a bobber. Sometimes the fish can’t resist a hand picked shrimp on a cork. If you still find that to be slow, ditch the bobber and resort to free lining a shrimp. Since the tides will still be low through the upcoming weeks make sure you target the sand holes and bar edges for Redfish and Trout. Another werid thing that we have been taking advantage of for this time of the year is the shark fishing. With the water temperatures being fairly warm for this time of year, the sharks have been everywhere!! If you would like to catch any of these toothy critters, all you have to do is find the mullet schools along the beach. Where you find a big ball of mullet, you will find the man in the grey suit. How you catch the bait (mullet) is your choice, you can snag them with a hook or throw a net on them, it’s entirely up to you. After you find a good school of mullet to fish, take the bait and butterfly it backwards (this gives the bait a lively look that sharks go crazy over) and toss the bait into the school. It shouldn’t take long until you get your line stripped and maybe your feelings hurt a little bit.

If you would like to book a trip, please visit www.nativesaltcharters.com

While the fish have been feeding the last couple weeks, we have seen very few tails breaking the surface. A lot of fish can be spotted nose down digging for food but remaining completely submerged. If you don’t have a proper pair of polarized glasses or if the sun is obscured by clouds, the fish are nearly impossible to spot before you run over them. If you can spot them, a variety of soft plastics have been working well. Topping the list is the 1/4 ounce DOA shrimp. Tailing redfish will rarely refuse it and the trout love it as well. I have been using the watermelon holographic color but presentation is much more important than the color you use.

If conditions do not allow for sight fishing, blind casting with the 4 and 5.5 inch CAL baits has been landing both trout and redfish. Adding a Woodies Rattle to the baits has improved the bite. Choose areas with a mix of sand and grass to improve your chances for landing both species. Blind casting is exactly what we had to do all day on a trip last week with Joe and his son Joe Jr. The skies were solid clouds all day and we could not see the fish in the water. They threw 5.5 inch Cals and landed numerous redfish and trout.

The two previous days had both sun and clouds and we had multiple opportunities to sight cast to redfish on the flats. We also used the DOA Deadly Combo along the deeper edges of the flats for some steady trout action.

Jeff and his son George threw melon back Cals on a perfect December morning and landed several nice trout and redfish as well.

I went out for a bit after dropping them off to take advantage of the clear skies and water. Unfortunately, I did not have my flyrod on board but the DOA shrimp and crab were eaten by almost every fish I cast at.

This week, I had the pleasure of having former Nebraska Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne on board to do some fly fishing for redfish. The first day we were going to do the trip it was blowing 20 with a 4o degree wind chill. The following day, it was calm but we had solid clouds for the first 5 hours. We saw plenty of fish all morning, after bumping into them with the boat that is. None of the fish would tail and the coach never got a shot all morning. Finally the clouds passed through and the sun came out. A short time later, he was hooked up with his first redfish of the day. That fish came unbuttoned after a minute or so. The second redfish that ate the black worm fly stayed on the hook and was brought in for a quick photo.

Yesterday’s trip brought the best weather of the week. Crystal clear skies and no wind made for excellent sight fishing conditions. My client landed both redfish and trout on a three inch DOA CAL and had shots at dozens of tailing redfish and black drum throughout the day.

The next couple months will offer some of the best fly fishing and sight fishing of the year. The fish will be targeting small baits such as crabs and shrimp and will eagerly eat similar sized flies and plastics. As always, the better you cast, the more you will catch. The number one thing you can do to catch more fish on the flats is to practice casting quickness and accuracy.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

To start the month off, I had fellow FFF Certified Casting Instructor Dan Boggs on board for what I was hoping would be one of the best fly fishing days of the year. The fish had been tailing well the week before and I was certain Dan would be able to hit the target. We arrived to find winds sustained at 19mph, chilly temperatures, and plenty of clouds. Not only do redfish not tail as much in the wind, it is more difficult to spot them when they do. Needless to say, the tailing fish were nowhere to be found. Dan’s father reeled in the only redfish of the day.

A few days later, I was joined by fried Rick for a day of fun fishing. We spent the first part of the morning exploring miles of water that held very few fish. After much searching, we found some clean water and plenty of cruising redfish. The black redfish worm fly and the watermelon holographic DOA shrimp were pounced on by most of the fish that saw them. While many of the fish we saw were digging in the grass feeding, we saw very few tails break the surface.

The following morning, I returned to a slick calm flat to find schools of tailing redfish in every direction. The first cast of the day with my 5wt flyrod resulted in a redfish eating my brown and gold bendback fly but the fish broke off. I tied on a green and silver bendback and got 4 bites on the next 5 casts but no hookups. I inspected the fly and discovered the hook had broken just below the eye on the first bite. I grabbed my black redfish worm and quickly began hooking, and landing, fish. About 45 minutes later, the tails all went down, the fished moved off, and I never saw them again. I spent the remainder of the day scouting for some places to fish on what I knew was going to be a windy charter the following day.

Scottish angler, Brian, joined me for another one of the days of 20 mph winds we have had. To go along with the wind, we had morning temperatures in the 40′s. The water temperature had dropped thirteen degrees overnight. It was the last day of his trip, however, and he wanted to give it a try. His preference was fly fishing but, due to the wind, he decided a spinning rod might give him a better chance. Unfortunately, none of the fish I had found the previous day were in wind protected areas. We were the only boat in sight when Brian began getting bites on his weedless rigged three inch DOA CAL. For some reason, the fish were not getting hooked so I switched him to a four inch CAL in golden bream color. We were fishing in about 2 feet of slightly cloudy water with both grass and sand patches. A Woodies Rattle in the baits seemed to be helping the fish locate the small lure. Brain caught redfish on the 3, 4, and 5 inch CAL baits. The bite was consistent and he even got out the flyrod and made some blind casts with a brown crab pattern. He landed his flyrod redfish and turned some poor weather into an excellent day of catching.

This week’s weather was even less flats fishing friendly with gray skies dominating the days. Steve and Hank joined me on the Lagoon for some sight fishing. The winds were light for a change but the clouds were thick in the morning. Unable to find any tailing fish we tried some trout fishing while we waited for the clouds to clear. I tied on a couple DOA Deadly Combos and we began hitting islands, bars, and dropoffs. They caught a dozen or so and we suddenly had a break in the clouds. We raced off to the flats in search of redfish. We had just located a decent concentration when the clouds. Unable to see the fish until we ran into them, they were forced to change tactics to blind casting for the rest of the day. Both guys had several bites from redfish but failed to set the hook and they never managed to land one.

When the weather cooperates and the fish are tailing, the fishing is excellent. During periods of clouds and wind, finding the fish can be a challenge. Hopefully, as we move towards what is traditionally the coldest time of the year in Florida, the algae bloom will clear and more areas will be open to sight fishing. Clean water and blue skies are at the top of my Christmas wish list.

Capt. Chris Myers
Orlando Fishing Guide

Well folks as soon as it gets colder; here comes some more mild weather, hey I’ll take it!  Two cold winters in a row, we need it and deserve it!  I have got to tell you not much has changed since my last report as what fish are biting and what they a hitting.  One thing that has changed is I’m starting to see some very nice size trout biting, with trophy trout coming in the boat on most of my trips.

This season has been a very good grub/jig season with hundreds of trout coming to the boat on grubs.  The two hot grubs this season for me has been the Berkley Gulp Fire tail 3” shrimp and Saltwater Assassin 4” sea shad pattern.  The colors that are catching the most and biggest trout in the fire tail shrimp are watermelon red fleck, pearl and new penny.  In the sea shads; chicken on a chain, salt&pepper silver with chart tail, sweet pea, cantaloupe, chart diamond and 10w40 with chart tail.  If you really just want to target bigger trout try a Berkley Gulp 6” Jerkshad or a Gulp 4” Shrimp pattern; you’ll need to work these baits a bit slower, but it might just put that five pound or bigger trout in the boat for you.

Live baits like Shrimp, mud minnows and small finger mullet have caught my charters some big numbers of keeper trout lately.  I rig these baits on float rigs in shallow waters of three to five feet and light Carolina rigs for deeper waters of six to over ten foot deep. Lively bait is very important to getting Speckled trout to eat your live bait, take care of your live bait.  The livelier the bait the more bites you will get; trust me!

There have still been lots of good by-catches while we are trout fishing; these include Tautogs, Sheephead, Flounder, Black drum and Red drum.  These by-catches are hitting the grubs and live shrimp we are using for the trout.  The great thing is they are all good eating!  My favorites are the Tautogs and Sheephead.  If your bait gets close to the bottom, you’ve got a good chance at picking up one of these guys.  One client last week put a four pound Tautog in the boat with a Berkley Gulp Fire tail shrimp; I just knew he had a nice trout on the line, but no it was a nice tog!

When the waters start to cool down the Cape Fear River Striped Bass start bite; these fish are not the easiest to catch, but they fight very well even in cold water.  Working drop offs on the edge of the river is where you can find the Stripers, using swim bait lures and Berkley Power Bait and Berkley Gulp Jerkshad should put a few Cape Fear Stripers on you line.  Don’t forget that the Cape Fear River Striped Bass Fishery is closed; catch and release only!

Large winter Redfish schools are one of my favorite fish to look for during winter mouths.  On calm, light wind days you can find these Reds on dark mud flats and oyster rocks.  Also you can find large schools around inlets and sand bars just off the local beaches.  When you find these schools approach very slow and quietly, for they spoke very easily.  Most of the time the winter school Reds will bite pretty easily, but one thing that will help is scented baits like Berkley Gulp!  I prefer Berkley Gulp Ripple Mullet in colors Pearl/chart tail, New Penny and Rootbeer gold/chart tail; also the Berkley Gulp 5” and 6” Jerkshad work well too.  Sometimes you may need to work the bait a little slower during colder months, so try using a light jig head; this will allow you to work the bait slower.

If you have any questions about the tactics I use fishing the local waters please e-mail me or catch me on Face Book at:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capt-Jot-OwensJot-It-Down-Fishing-Charters-LLC/134340373310487

Don’t forget my special rates will start January 1st2012 and will run to March 31st2012 save on great winter fishing trips for Redfish, Striped Bass, Speckled trout and Large Mouth Bass.  Winter fishing around this area can be great and it looks like we are going to have a milder winter; which means even better fishing this winter!

Fishing Gear I use:

Speckled trout, Striped Bass and Redfish: Reels Penn Battle 2000, 3000 & 4000 spinning reels.  Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70ML and Penn Legion rods  Line: *new line I’m using and really enjoying for Trout fishing is NanoFil from Berkley, this line is for spinning reels and its very smooth casting line!  I prefer eight and ten pound for trout fishing.  Fluorocarbon leader material, Stren Tinted Fluorocarbon in tints Gunsmoke for clearer waters and Tannic for river or stained waters in twenty pound test.

Thanks for reading!  Don’t forget take a kid fishing and good fall fishing to you!

Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
Penn Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139

Reid discovered the fun of sight fishing from the Native Versa Board.

Battling the incessant winds, kayak fishing has been successful and the right game plan a “must”.   Without question: If the tides are decent, the fishing is going to be very good somewhere.   The latest cold episode shouldn’t change things a great deal and it is exciting to think about the action returning to exactly what it has been.   Redfish, trout and even flounder have remained easy targets through the second half of November.    Redfish finally got into patterns I would categorize as “Fall” behavior.    On one trip, 22 were caught in a two-hour period throwing only 12 Fathom lures and only moving twice to stay on the school on a rising tide.
 
Speckled trout are closed to harvest until January 1, 2012 in the South region but the larger trout are beginning to displace the underslot runts that have dominated the flats.   One 27-inch trout was caught on the 12 Fathom SlamR.    A good number of 17 to 22-inch fish have been caught on almost every outing.
 
Flounder are migrating out of the upper Bay areas and holding around the mouth of Tampa Bay getting ready to follow their food sources right off the coast and to also spawn.   If we get through 2012 without any Harmful Algae Bloom, flounder fishing next summer and Fall should be even better than the excellent action we had from August until present.
 
Reid and his father Dave booked a trip with me for an outing on Reid’s 12th birthday.   Their first trip with me?  Exactly three years earlier on Reid’s ninth birthday following some tough weather, it was not as good a situation as we had for this outing.   After a discussion with Dave, I told him that Reid should be in his own kayak and the plan was set.    Dave and Reid got onto a wild bite just after sunrise and were throwing the Mullet to connect on trout before Reid said, “Is it time to go find those redfish?”    I replied in the affirmative and we made a trek around a sandbar and up a flat to where I expected redfish to arrive.   Right on schedule they did and Reid went to work on them.   Here is Reid standing in the Versa Board and fighting a mid-slot redfish.
 
His Dad went a short distance away and connected using the pearl white buzz tail.    He connected multiple times and enjoyed the thrill of the strike and the battle.    
 

Dave and his second redfish caught on consecutive casts.

The competitive nature of even fathers and sons on the water is fun to observe.    Suddenly Dave’s taunting Reid “I’ve caught more” but Reid said “Oh yeah, well I caught the biggest.”    That was true.   It didn’t matter, they had fun all day long and these could be two contenders in the March Captain Mel Classic.
 

He stood for the rest of it, why not stand up for the photo too? Fought like a pro!

As December gets rolling, extra opportunities exist.    Taking along some fresh shrimp is a great idea to give you the opportunity to connect with sheepshead (like this one Reid caught on his first trip three years ago!)
 

Three years younger (both of us) but the smiles are the same.

Silver trout will arrive in schools of millions and are hard-hitting, great light tackle action.   Bend down the barbs on your hooks for throwing lures to the speckled trout.   Keep your lures moving nice and slow for the redfish in cooling waters and don’t be surprised to still catch some big flat flounder this month!   Pompano will also be an option and keeping the Silly Willy jigs handy will be the best way to connect on December gold nuggets!