By Keith Lozott Contributing Writer
The Indian River Lagoon or IRL for short is home to over 700 species of fish and over 2,200 species of plants and animals! Every day that we sit back and hope the river is going to be okay and regenerate its lush seagrass beds and rapidly declining habitat, is a day lost. That being said people have opened their eyes and started projects to help get this treasure of an estuary back to its amazing glory. We have clam restoration projects on the move through Captain Blair Wiggins of Addictive Fishing, University of Florida, and the CCA to greatly help the rivers water quality to the north. I take my hat off to all that have helped, donated, or assisted in any way on this project.
I have fished the Mosquito Lagoon and North IRL too many times to reference and know first-hand how amazing this fishery has been throughout my life. I have caught my personal best redfish in the Northern IRL and the seatrout action can be off the hook up there. I’ve seen tailing redfish everywhere on super slick mornings at Blacks Point in Titusville which is a sight that I haven’t seen in quite some time. I will admit that I haven’t been able to get up there and fish while living around the southern end of the river. My fishing buddy says he is encouraged to see that the water is getting cleaner and the fishing has been improving as well.
Sebastian, Wabasso, Vero, and the Palm Bay area are the middle of the north to south stretch of the IRL and is a place I love to fish. Sebastian Inlet is world renowned for its fishing opportunities. Giant redfish and snook pile up in the mouth of the inlet crushing bait during their runs up and down the coast. One of my personal best seatrout came from Sebastian up until a few years ago where I caught a slightly larger fish by the St. Lucie power plant to the south. As kids, we used to come up and clam with our feet and hands wading through the flats. Little did we know that the commercial side of clamming would have such a grave impact on the rivers water quality in the future. There is a flat also named Blacks Point south of the inlet that I remember being full of seagrass and the biodiversity that comes with it. I have fished it many times catching black drum on D.O.A. Paddle Tails, redfish on Exude DARTS, seatrout on topwater’s, and of course snook on red and white hard baits.
I hope to fish this river system and its numerous picturesque flats many times more before I hang up my rod and reel to tell my grandkids fishing stories of what the river was like when I fished it. Let’s hope they will tell stories of how good the river is when they are fishing! Thanks to everyone making a difference on the IRL.
Keith Lozott
The Fishing Realtor