One of the benefits of being a publisher of Coastal Angler Magazine is being invited to go fishing. Being from South Florida, I have not spent much time fishing the Mosquito Lagoon. I cut my teeth on the inshore waters of the 10,000 islands in Everglades National Park in Southwest Florida, so I was eager to see first hand what the lagoon had to offer.
In mid-July, Capt. TJ Belmonte of Strung Out Charters invited me to join him and Capt. Bob Sannasardo of Shallow Water Spots for a morning on the lagoon. We met Capt. Bob at the ramp in Edgewater at 6 a.m. and headed straight to a recently producing fishing spot. After quietly poling to the grass edge, we free-lined live finger mullet. We soon heard a āslurp,ā a telltale sound of a likely gator trout devouring my mullet. But the hook pulled. So much for first impressions.
We soon moved to a new location sandwiched between two large sections of grass that reached the surface. We slowly poled a few hundred yards without luck. But then it happened ā¦ the lagoon came to life with redfish and mullet seemingly everywhere. The wind and current appeared to be herding the fish to the edge of a grass flat. Redfish were tailing in only a few inches of water. Others were mixed in with mullet in one or two feet of water. But all of the redfish were quite finicky, not falling for a variety of natural and artificial baits. Just then I noticed a redfish off the bow swimming toward us. A root beer colored grub was too much for the redfish to resist. This time there was no pulled hook, and soon I was releasing a 27-inch redfish. Capt. TJ was next to hook up, landing a 30-inch redfish on a chunk of finger mullet.
Before long we were headed back to the site of my lost āgatorā trout, which to my chagrin had, in the captainsā eyes, continued to grow in size throughout the morning. And here I thought fish stories were for the angler. Is there no shame? But the return trip proved to be a wise decision. Redfish were tailing everywhere in the grass. The glassy calm water accented their beautiful spotted tails. Just picture perfect, and so very different from the inshore fishing I am familiar with in Southwest Florida. Now I am hooked, and canāt wait for my next trip on the lagoon.
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