Skip to main content
Fishing Reports

Fishing Report

By July 30, 2013No Comments

FINELINE FISHING CHARTERS FISHING REPORT FOR ORLANDO, COCOA BEACH AND
DAYTONA BEACH BY CAPTAIN JIM ROSS.

The fish filled waters of the Mosquito Lagoon which is located about an hour
east of Orlando, 40 minutes North of Cocoa Beach, and 45 minutes south of
Daytona Beach is often called the redfish capital of the world. Well I’m
not sure that there aren’t more redfish here than there are in some of the
other location redfish roam, but I can tell you that very few places in the
world rival it when it comes to catching giant redfish while fishing in
shallow saltwater flats with light tackle. Out redfish can be and caught on
almost any day in the Mosquito lagoon which as mentioned is centrally
located to visitors between the Orlando, Cocoa Beach, and Daytona Beach
vacation destinations. These are smart wary redfish and some patients and a
little luck is required to stalk within range of a school to get an
opportunity at one of these prized game fish. Recently my customers have
been getting more and more redfish on our flats trips but we’ve also been
catching some nice speckled trout in the 20 to 28 inch range. These trout
are hitting Rapala Skitterwalk topwater plugs on most mornings. Topwater
lures are a very important component to fishing in the Orlando, Daytona
Beach and Cocoa Beach area waters because they imitate one of the most
prevalent natural baitfish that we have here-the mullet. In fact the waters
around Cocoa Beach and Daytona Beach are so packed with these baitfish that
it often seems like you could walk across the Indian, Banana and Mosquito
Lagoon waters an never get your feet wet. The smaller “fingerling” sized
mullet are what the Rapala Skitterwalk plug is mimicking and it can produce
some extremely aggressive strikes from the redfish and speckled trout during
early morning excursions.

Another fantastic game fish species that has started to make an appearance
this week in the waters near Orlando, Daytona beach and Cocoa Beach is the
tarpon. We’ve been catching good numbers of these highly prized game fish
in the Atlantic Ocean offshore of Cocoa Beach, but this is the first week
that I’ve had my clients targeting them within the Mosquito Lagoon and
Indian River complex. Tarpon are extremely hard fish to hook, they are even
harder to keep hooked, and I guess I don’t need to mention how hard they are
to actually get to the boat. The Orlando area and Daytona Beach area tarpon
in the Mosquito Lagoon are striking lipped diving plugs. We’ve had quite a
few strike from the 30 to 75 pound class fish and jumped a few as well but
we have not been able to land one of the lagoon tarpon just yet. The tarpon
offshore of Cocoa Beach have been willing to bite for us on most days and
we’ve landed fish to over 125 pounds this past week. Along with the tarpon
we are getting shots at cobia, king mackerel, bonito, several different
types of sharks, and a jack crevalle or snook as well.

Over all the fishing has been pretty good on most days here in the Orlando,
Daytona Beach, and Cocoa Beach areas, and it only going to get better. If
your looking to book a fishing excursion with me while you’re in the Orlando
or surrounding area, you can go to the reservations tab on my Fineline
Fishing Charters web site, or call me- Captain Jim Ross- at 321-636-3728 to
book your next Fineline Fishing Charters fishing adventure. Let’s go catch
your next memory!