July is such a super time of the year as the skies are generally blue and water is usually clear while the fishing is always terrific. This is also the time of year when many Floridians vacate the state for vacations. My family and I had the rare opportunity to spend much of the month of July in Eastern Europe visiting and traveling with our two daughters through the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Germany. During this month, Capt. Peter guided the lion’s share of the charters for Native Sons Fishing, LLC as I vacated the premises and Capt. Roland pulled his boat off-line to repower his 200 HSP Yamaha engine. (The following reports are written by Capt. Peter.)
There’s nothing better for us than having the same group of people fish with you for multiple days in a row – especially here in Central Florida. We have such a huge variety of game fish that multiple days of fishing are almost required if you truly want to enjoy them all. Recently, I had the pleasure of fishing for an entire week with my good friends from Washington State, Colton, Karen, and Ken. It was a blast! The best part of this family is that they would rather fish than anything else, and were excited about catching as many species of our local fish as they could. Each day was spent targeting different types of fish, and in different lagoons in our area. I will have to say AWESOME JOB to Colton for his great fly-casting! He caught redfish, trout, ribbonfish, ladyfish, BIG gar (on his custom rope fly…no hooks!), and tilapia all on fly.
Troy and Stephanie, of Winter Park, wanted to treat their guys to a day of fishing before school started. It was a beautiful day out on the Banana River Lagoon with blue skies, clear water, and some great anglers. The morning started off with us fishing schools of trout and ladyfish. That was a blast as the trout and ladyfish had balled up schools of minnows on the surface, and were just absolutely swarming beneath them. Once all arms were sore from cranking on these trout, ladyfish, and a few whisker-faces, we made a short run to a flat for redfish. These skilled anglers boated a bunch of great redfish before the rain clouds pushed us back to the ramp. Great work guys!!! Check out these fish!
Greg and his son Greg Jr., of South Carolina, were able to come down and fish with us again. These guys are always fun to have out on the boat, as their endless jokes will keep you smiling. On this particular trip, we sight fished schools of redfish on the flats in the Banana River Lagoon. We must have fished over a dozen different groups of tailing reds, and they were all in very shallow, crystal-clear water. These sights can make you forget to fish…and you end up just watching these fish swim and tail around the boat! Note – While Gregory was holding this redfish for a photo. . . I would bet that he was dreaming about his dad’s famous shrimp and grits.
On this trip, I head the pleasure of fishing with Noriel and his two sons that had come down to Orlando from New Jersey for a family vacation. Due to a weather front moving through, we were only able to fish for a couple of hours. These three guys were awesome on the boat, catching trout, bluefish, gar, and ladyfish. We fished, in the Indian River near Melbourne, around islands and grassflats with live mullet.
The next two pictures are of the Van Hoose family – the first overlooking the Blue Danube outside of Prague, Czech Republic and the second on the shores of the Mediterranean near the Tuscany area of Italy.
