A January Day on Mosquito Lagoon
By: John Kumiski
The sun was already high in the sky when the kayak hit the water. Even in central Florida, sunrise is a chilly time of day in January. Our fish, spotted seatrout, red drum, and sometimes black drum, like it warm. No sense in starting too early!
My plan was to paddle to places where the bottom was firm, where I could wade while fly casting. In January the water is cold, so I wear waders. Wade and blind-fish the spot, then paddle to another spot. Repeat as needed.
The Intracoastal Waterway Runs through the north part of Mosquito Lagoon. When this channel was being dug, the diggers hit patches of limestone rock, which had to be blasted. This rock rubble was piled up with the rest of the dredge spoil, now a string of spoil islands west of the ICW channel.
A black drum, fooled by a black bunny leech. Angler, Rodney Smith.
The fish I was after had been holding on those sparse patches of rock, patches it had taken me years to find.
Weather is an important consideration in this winter fishing. During the winter, cold fronts come rolling through, sometimes on a weekly basis. Fishing right after a front comes through is merely casting practice. You want a sunny day with light winds and moderate temperatures, during a warming trend. On days like this, the water temperatures slowly rise throughout the day. With conditions like this, the chances of finding fish go way up.
You still need to hunt for the fish, though. The fishing is usually not easy.
After paddling to the first spot, I tied on a #4 Clouser Minnow and started flinging. While this spot had been good to me in the past, 30 minutes here this day garnered but a single bite, probably a seatrout, which came unbuttoned. Yeah, you've been good to me before, but what have you done for me lately? I got back in the kayak and headed to the next spot.
Along the way I ran over a small school of fish. Mark that for future reference!
The sun was warm, the water clear. My paddle strokes left little vortexes in the water. The wind pushed gentle ripples, which my boat splashed through. Puffy clouds decorated the sky. Ya-hey, it was a great day to be alive and paddling!
At the next place, I pulled the kayak up on the beach, then splashed into the water. Stripping line from the reel, I began my cast. The fly hit the water, and before I could start my strip the line came tight. The skunk-chaser, a nice trout, maybe 20 inches. Unhooking it reminded me to press down the barb on the fly's hook. I wasn't here to kill fish.
Thirty minutes here got me three more trout, almost cookie-cutters of the first one, beautiful fish. Much easier to unhook without that barb, too.
Seatrout on a Clouser Minnow.
A pair of bottle-nosed dolphins swam by, blowing small vapor-clouds into the air as they exhaled. Three terns hovered, then dove for minnows. An osprey hunted for mullet. A flock of white pelicans wheeled in a loose spiral, a thousand feet above the ground. A faint snippit of a loon cry reached my ears. What a place!
The bite at this spot dried up, so I was off again. The next island was another that had been good to me. Cast, cast, cast. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Suddenly the line came tight. Ah, the bottom. Recent hurricanes had left some lumber on the bottom. Hoping the fly would come off, I pulled hard, and felt the leader pop. My new fly was a black bunny leech.
A few casts later, the line came tight again. This was a fish! A much stronger fish than those trout. Wow, it's pulling line off the reel! A few minutes later a redfish came to hand, a handsome fish- pushing ten pounds! I had to get a selfie of this one.
I wonder if he has any friends out there?
The author's redfish selfie.
A few minutes later I got anoter, smaller red, one with beautiful spots, certainly not standard issue. This one was worth a photo, too.
A couple more trout bit at this spot, then it dried up, too. So I continued my paddling, my search, as the sun arced through the sky. Pickings became pretty slim, although I did hit one black drum over a small patch of rocks. Soon enough though, I found myself at a place past which I did not want to paddle. I went around to the back side of the islands, hoping to find some more fish there.
Behind the second island I came to there were bunch of fish, both trout and reds. Unlike the fish on the ICW side of the islands, these fish wanted nothing to do with me. I'd cast and see puffs of mud come up, wakes moving away from my fly line.
Beautiful and somewhat unusual multi-spot redfish.
I lengthened my leader, and tried again, Same result. I tried standing and paddling. Now I could see the fish moving away without even touching my rod! Finally, I'd spooked everything there, so continued on my way back, searching hard and not seeing much.
I stopped at the spot where I'd run over the small school of fish. A few trout hit, but the other fish were gone. It was late afternoon now, time to go anyway.
A short time later, the kayak was on the van, which was heading west, towards home. It had been an awesome winter's day, paddling and fly fishing on Mosquito Lagoon.
Have you had a great out experience? Join Global Outdoors and write a review to tell everyone about it! We’re building the home for trusted reviews of outdoor experiences, outfitters, and guides.
