North Indian River Lagoon (Titusville) 2/23 & 2/25

gettinwet

Had a hunch that after the warming Sat & Sun and the calm winds Mon morning that the top water bite would be on and was not disappointed. Was on the water a little after 8AM (hit traffic due to an accident leaving Orlando). It was dead calm in the cove I was fishing a chartreuse and white top dog. Had a short strike on my second cast and caught two nice yellow mouths (4 to 6lb range) before I had even waded out to where I was going to start working the shoreline south. Ending up catching 5 trout total before 11AM (when the wind picked up and the bite just stopped) - the biggest probably 7lbs - plus had multiple misses. Most were on mud flats in very shallow water (less than a foot and half). Long casts and slowing down the retrieve were the keys - did a stop and go walk the dog with long pauses. Also with the water as flat as glass they were giving their locations away - a swirl or baitfish skipping here and there.

So, I returned Wed morning with my son - I've been wanting to put him on some fish since our last couple of trips were wet, cold, and disappointing. Planned to get there a little later in the day since it wasn't really warming up until 10ish. Well, it never really warmed up and the wind was swirling and sporadic. My son was a trooper though - threw a paddle tail on a jig head all morning while I tried top water, a catch 2000 (suspending hard twitch bait), and zoom flukes - not one strike. Determined to put him on some fish, we went to lunch, warmed up, and stopped by the local tackle shop for some live shrimp - and boy they had some jumbos (one of the shrimp had to weigh a half pound). Anyway, we went back to the same spot and free lined shrimp just on the edge of the flats (from 3ft to as shallow as a foot of water - the fish were surprisingly close in especially given the fact we had been splashing around the area most of the day). Mission accomplished - my son ended up catching 5 reds all slot size (plus a couple of big catfish) during the last couple of hours of daylight. Following are some pics from our trip:

duckmanJR

Good going Dad!

palmbeachpete

Great report. Looks like you both had a great day.:Rockon

clem

nice job at fishing and parenting

Pescatoral Pursuit

You guys did great.

gettinwet

Thanks all! One of those days to remember........