This beautiful redfish made Jake’s first trip to the Mosquito Lagoon more than successful!

Fishing this past week was like the weather; all over the place. Warm and windy one day, warm and calm the next followed by cold and windy the next couple of days. Yep, our winter weather pattern is here. Get ready for uncertainty in what to expect for weather conditions for the foreseeable future.

Though we managed to “catch” each and every trip this past week it was often a struggle as we found ourselves weeding through lots-o-catfish in order to catch a few redfish or spotted seatrout.

The highlight of my week was answering a call Monday evening though I nearly let the call go to voicemail. The caller was in a panic to find a guide for Tuesday morning. He and his son desperately wanted to experience the Mosquito Lagoon before heading back to the cold of the Great White North. Since it looked like the high winds on Monday were going to back off considerably for Tuesday morning I agreed to take them fishing.

What’s funny is I was actually looking forward to a day off, alas my day off would need to wait another twenty four hours.

True to the weatherman’s prediction we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and calm conditions. Not sure as to where I wanted to start our day I headed far north of where we struggled to catch anything on Monday. Spot one proved a bust and we only wasted a little time before moving. Spot two was just the opposite!

A hundred yards or so into my “push path” the guys each had a bite on their Z-Man soft plastics, resulting in no hook-ups. As we passed this island point I made a cast over the area they missed their bites and connected with a frisky redfish. All I did differently was allow for more “dead time” on my four inch Jerk Shadz after it hit bottom. The bite was solid and the redfish had no intention of giving it back.

I put my rod away and shared what information I just learned. Jake, the son, used my info wisely while Dad kept playing with his retrieve. Dad did get many bites, though nothing was hooked. Jake stuck and landed two quality redfish and had another top/over slot redfish come off the hook within a few yards of the boat.

On this day a slow retrieve with frequent “dead time” on the bottom received good results on both jerk shads and shad-tailed swim baits. Jake’s favorite lure this trip was a Houdini colored Diezel Minnowz.