We finally have clean water and redfish starting to school up in the lagoon. On cooler mornings, look for the south east facing shorelines to be holding more fish. A great way to catch redfish and trout right now is using a 3 inch paddle tail rigged weedless or a 1/8 ounce jig head tipped with shrimp. Look for several weeks of great fishing with the cooler temperatures ahead.

Happy New Year! Fishing has been good this past week despite the warmer temperatures and should get much better this week with the cooler temperatures and the departure of the full moon.

Fishing has been great for redfish, snook and trout. We are fishing clean water, sight casting to these fish in the flats. Reds are starting to school up. They should continue to stay in nice schools for the next several months. It’s a great time to get out on the flats with a good pair of polarized sunglasses and watch them eat!

The bite has been good this week with some bigger mangrove snapper moving in as well as flounder. The snook have been chewing on live shrimp and paddle-tails. Black drum are starting to school up, too.

The water is starting to clear up and should continue getting cleaner through this week with the cold temperatures. Site casting should be at a premium. Nearshore and in the inlet, we are getting flounder, bull reds and snook. Should have some cobia starting to show up this week. It’s a great time to fish inshore or offshore this week!

Fishing has been great this week in the upper Mosquito Lagoon using 1/4 jig heads tipped with shrimp. Catches have been pompano, reds, flounder, black drum, snook, jacks, mangrove snapper and ladyfish. We had lots of fun catching this mixed bag of species. Look for cleaner water this week with the cold front and this should make sight casting to reds much easier.

Inshore fishing has been good this week with pompano starting to show up. There are a lot of jacks and black drum starting to school up, too. The best bet has been using a jig-head tipped with shrimp cast into the mangroves.

Inshore, the fishing is getting good with the cooler weather. The best bite we have experienced has been on white Z-man Diezel MinnowZ rigged weedless. We are fishing the lagoon mangroves as well as the flats. The most consistent bites have come using a slow and steady retrieve, not jigging it, just slowly reeling it in.

This past week with the approach of the tropical storm, the bite has been very good for redfish and snook. They have been chewing very readily on white Z man paddle tails. After this weather settles down look for fish cruising shorelines with the highwater and look for snook hanging around mangroves as well as any structure such as docks.

With the cooler temperatures over the next couple of days, look for the water in the lagoon to start to clean up. This may just increase the sight-fishing possibilities for redfish. The inlet is also a good option, still holding large bull redfish, tarpon and snook.

Ally with a nice first mosquito lagoon red

Capt. Mike Mann put Cobia on the dinner menu for his customers today!

A juvenile tarpon caught with Capt. Mike Mann

Memphis and his dad, Chris, had a fun day fishing the Mosquito Lagoon with Capt. Mike Mann. This black drum is one of a bunch of fish that they caught, including some nice reds, sheepsheads, and seatrout.

Zander got this nice black drum to eat fishing with Fat Fish Guide Service in the Mosquito Lagoon.

Bill from New York had a great two days of fishing the mosquito lagoon with Fat Fish Guide Service.

Capt. Mike Mann really whacked the fish today with Justin and Hayley.

Max caught his first red casting and working the bait himself.

Colin made it happen reeling in this nice spotted sea trout