Member since: February 02, 2019
As a lifelong Central Florida native, Captain Tom Van Horn spent his youthful years tromping through the backwater swamps, lakes, rivers and lagoons with a fishing rod in hand, and things haven’t changed much for him since. Currently working as a professional fishing guide on Central Florida’s St Johns River, east Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon, Indian
Fishing in the Orlando area and in the Mosquito Lagoon has ranged from good to excellent the past few weeks. The weather has been nice for the most part with exception of a few passing fronts. This past week we experienced exceptional adventures on both the Econ River near Orlando and the Mosquito Lagoon.
Spring is one of my most cherished seasons to fish in Central Florida notwithstanding the windy weather conditions, and thus far the Spring catching has excellent. Over the past few weeks, the fishing has been outstanding in both the freshwater and saltwater arenas with great catches on both.
Spring has arrived here on the Space Coast, and my focus thus far has been targeting trophy size redfish and black drum in deeper water. The flats fishing has been good when the weather is favorable and should improve as the silver mullet continue to migrate back into the lagoon. The nearshore tripletail and black drum have been good as well, but again in late March and early April Mother Nature holds the upper hand in determining where we fish.
On the Mosquito and the Indian River Lagoons, water levels are in a moderate range and the water clarity is still dirty in most locations. Add these factors to the winds of March, and you have challenging fishing conditions. Although the conditions have been challenging, we have still managed to catch some very respectable redfish and black drum, you just have to work harder to locate and catch them. In addition, the silver mullet have returned to the flats in good numbers, so the top water plug action for sea trout is picking up in the skinny water.
As the days grow longer and the ocean begins its gradual warming phase, (68 to 72-degree range), the spring fishing bonanza on the east central coast of Florida kicks in. Thus far we’ve experienced a warmer then normal winter and as of this correspondence (February 24, 2019) the water temperature at the Canaveral Nearshore Buoy Station 41113 is 68.7 degrees. As usual, weather will serve as the determining factor in establishing the magnitude and progression of the bite and the predator species we love to catch.
My fishing adventures thus far in February have covered a wide spectrum of opportunities from freshwater American shad and crappie fishing to targeting redfish, black drum and sea trout on the Mosquito Lagoon. As always when fishing in Central Florida in February, weather fronts can make catching challenging with windy and cloudy conditions.
As winters go here in Central Florida, we certainly can’t complain about the weather we’ve experienced thus far. Other than some rain and extreme winds we experienced this week, gorgeous fishing conditions have prevailed, and we’ve had some first-rate catching as well.
Nathan's Mosquito Lagoon Trophy Redfish
Paul's all time largest black drum while fishing the Mosquito Lagoon with Captain Tom Van Horn.
Paul managed to beat his all time redfish and black drum on the same trip to the Mosquito Lagoon.
