This past Wednesday, the Academic Angler, Dr. Charlie Roberts, and Jeff Brown of Winter Springs, launched Jeff’s Hewes flats boat at dawn into the mosquito Lagoon for a day of fishing. We were going to fish for Redfish and trout.
The wind was coming from the east and the lagoon was flat and a little dirty. We decided that we would try top water lures since the water was so still. After arriving on the flats, Jeff made a cast and sure enough there was a swirl behind it. On his second cast, Jeff hooked up with a really good-sized trout. We knew then that this was going to be a good day of fishing.
As we slowly trolled the area, Jeff hooked up with an under sized redfish. The little fellow certainly put up a great fight but in the end he was landed. We took a picture of him and released him to grow a little larger.
After, about a half hour later, I finally caught my first fish of the day. It was a small redfish. We photographed the little fellow and released him. The bite turned off in that area so we motored further down the lagoon and into a backwater flat.
Jeff immediately began catching several small trout. He was displaying his fishing ability and although I was trying hard, I just could not catch those trout. Finally after changing baits several times I caught a few of those small trout. We had a lot of fun in that area but we decided to leave the flats and head for a little deeper water.
As we headed for deeper water, we saw several other fishermen in an area so we decided to check it out. We were courteous as we slowly approached because if they were on fish we did not want to spook them. Sure enough there were a couple of large schools of Reds in the area. Jeff put on a piece of cut ladyfish and made a cast. Almost immediately he had a hook up. He gave me the rod to fight the fish and after a valiant fight, we landed a ten-pound redfish.
My next goal was to catch a big red on an artificial lure. I made a long cast and sure enough, I hooked up with a line screaming red. I had cast a half ounce gold spoon and he attacked it viciously. We battled for a while but in the end a nine pounder was landed. We caught a couple more reds before the bite ended and all of them were over eight pounds. They were all released in good shape but Jeff and I had a great day of fishing.
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