The “Fall Mullet Run” is here! Trout, redfish, and snook are now actively feeding throughout the day as the Indian and Banana River Lagoons are becoming filled with migrating silver and striped mullet. These mullet are favorite food among gamefish. The migrating schools of mullet are easily to locate as they prefer to move across the surface of the water over shallow grassflats, and fin and splash along their way. It is not uncommon to see an acre of tightly packed mullet nervously swarm certain areas as game-fish pick them off.
Jim and Jake Lusk from Virginia on a recent Orlando vacation with family chartered Capt. Rocky for a three quarter day fishing adventure in the north Indian River Lagoon near Titusville. The weather was absolutely picture postcard perfect with blue skies, mild temperatures and calm seas. Using a variety of fishing techniques including wade-fishing, sight-fishing and fly-fishing, the skilled father and son duo caught and released six reds and seven trout. Pictured below are father Jim with his big red estimated at 30 pounds and a pair of photos of son Jake with two other bronzed beauties.
Darren and Toby Scoles, a father and son from Colorado, experienced the mullet first hand with Capt. Peter. It was a beautiful day with a slight, cool breeze and cloudless sky. Being ice-fishermen, these guys knew how to be quiet and stealthy while fishing. This stealth allowed Capt. Peter to quietly poll his boat close to the fish, and stay on the fish all day. Capt. Peter kept the anglers near large schools of mullet, and fished both schooling redfish and scattered redfish and trout. Toby had the upper hand this trip landing most of the fish, with the joint efforts resulting in 9 redfish (most over 30 inches), and five solid trout. Pictured is Toby with one of his redfish.
Daniel Murphy from Orlando and his two fishing buddies from Woodstock, Georgia, Chad and Jason, aka ‘The Rookie,’ booked Capt. Rocky for a half-day charter last Friday on the Indian River Lagoon out of Kennedy Point Park in Titusville. These three fishing animals had spent the night rescuing Jason’s broken motorcycle from St. Augustine and, as a result, had little or no sleep upon arriving at the ramp. Unfortunately for them, the redfish and trout did not allow any time to doze on the water. Fishing in the morning was outstanding as the trio landed six reds and three trout in blustery conditions due to the approach of our first cold front or the fall. Pictured below are Daniel, Chad and the ‘Rook’.
Dave and Andy from Denver, Colorado chartered Capt. Roland for a half day fishing in the beautiful Banana River. They enjoyed constant action throughout the afternoon tallying 7 reds and 2 trout including this nice double.
The Bloomfields from Orlando, Larry, Karen and Sam, chartered Capt. Rocky recently for a fishing trip on the Indian River Lagoon near Titusville. River fishing was a new adventure for the trio of anglers and our shallow-water, finned friends did not disappoint them. Fishing the following day after the arrival of our first cold front of the season, the weather was absolutely, drop-dead gorgeous … and so was the fishing as the trio boated eight solid redfish and two fine trout on their half-day charter. Pictured below are the Bloomfields with broad smiles and big fish.
Capt. Peter guided CR, Gidget, and Jim to a nice day of trout and redfish fishing in the Banana River. Fishing near Cocoa Beach and the 1,000 islands, they fished schools of redfish and trout up on the shallow grassflats. Early in the morning, the redfish schools were actively tailing in the calm water near large schools of mullet. By casting live mullet at the tailing redfish, the anglers had steady action all morning long. When the water warmed, the fish went into their afternoon pattern, and the anglers keyed in on sandbars under two to three feet of water. Fishing these sandbars with live and cut mullet produced some really nice redfish and the largest trout. The final tally for the day was 12 beautiful redfish, and 5 trout up to 27 inches. Gidget shows off her biggest red of the day.
Mike Arbogast and son David from Melbourne spent the day in Cocoa Beach fishing with Capt. Roland. The weather was sunny but very windy most of the day. The duo caught ladyfish, jacks,trout, and redfish. The highlight of the trip was also a double hook up with these 2 reds. They commented afterwards it was the most reds they had ever caught in a single day.
James Kennell and his buddy, and fellow chiropractor, Chad, both from West Texas, took a few hours from their recent convention in Orlando to do a little shallow water fishing in the Indian River Lagoon with Capt. Rocky Van Hoose. Launching from Kennedy Point Park and heading east into the rising the two doctors were blessed by one of the better fishing days as the strong east winds which had been hammering the area for weeks finally abated. The high winds left the water rather muddy and churned which hampering sight-fishing but not the fish catching. Barely ten minutes into the fishing, Dr. Kennell hooked a monster redfish which quickly broke both line and heart. Ironically James hooked the broken line later in the day when returning to the same area to round out the charter. The Texas duo managed to hook and catch six fine reds on the day and we won’t mention of the ones that got away. Pictured below are the pair of docs with their respective trophies on the paradoxal day.
