Fall weather plays a big role in the fishing fortunes along the central east coast of Florida. Over the past two weeks we have greeted our first cold fronts to the area and even though the cooler temperatures were a welcomed relief, the accompanying high winds created challenges for our charters. The cold front also re-ignited the briefly stalled fall mullet run and the resulting feeding frenzies were fun as long as we could safely venture out.

Coffey and his son Buck along with son-in-law Travis drove over from Haines City to go fishing with Captain Roland and myself. Originally from this area, Coffey was well acquainted with the effects of the annual mullet run action so we were full of anticipation as we launched from Sebastian Inlet. However, the cold front from the previous day sent the barometer plummeting and lock-jawed the feeding fish. Captain Roland and I were eventually successful in coaxing some action by switching from finger mullet to ‘greenies’ and flooding the holes with crippled bait as chum. Pictured below are Coffey and Travis each holding snook caught on the day.

The Moura family, Albert, Debbie and their son Justin, blew in from Bermuda for a week of vacation in Disney Orlando plus a day of fishing on the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian. Inlet. Capt. Roland guided them on one of the more blustery days in recent memory; inshore waves were 2-3 feet fueled by a stiff 25 mph north wind. Roland did guide them into some fishable waters however where they caught a nice redfish and huge ladyfish while hooking and losing a few other game fish. Even though their Mickey Mousse ponchos were shredded by the high winds, the Mouras had a great time and are looking forward to a return fishing trip in the area.

The Rimkus clan joined Capt. Roland again in the Sebastian area for a day of fishing followed by an evening of alligator hunting that night with Capt. Peter. The fishing was good with snook, redfish, and marauding schools of hard charging jack Cravelles. Pictured is seven year old Jacob with his first snook and Michael with one of the reds. By the way, later that night Michael took his first gator which was a nice 8 1/2 footer.

Our final fishing account in this report is a special one involving Steve and Dena Prater from Haines City, Florida. This charter was provided for the Praters by the Dream Foundation aka Make a Wish Foundation. The weather was ideal as we launched from Sebastian Inlet and remained so through-out the day. We had a blast catching and releasing some 15-20 gamefish including snook, redfish, trout, bluefish and jack Cravelles. Pictured below are Dena with a 12 lb snook and Steve with a redfish and a jack.

The fall mullet migration continues along our coast and the game fish are absolutely gorging themselves as a result. The fantastic fishing action is spread pretty much everywhere now, especially around Sebastian Inlet and Port Canaveral. Read on for reports of individual charters from last week.

Our first report features Chris DeMasi and Ashley from Virginia Beach, Virginia. This cute couple came to Florida on a job assignment and decided to take advantage of the fall mullet run near Sebastian Inlet. Both Chris and Ashley caught their first feisty snook and hard charging jack Cravelles. They also caught some of the largest spotted trout landed this year in the Indian River Lagoon system including a pair of 30 plus inch, 10 pound monsters along with six other trophies over 20 inches. Redfish, bluefish and lunch waterside at Captain Hiram’s rounded out their fintastic adventure.

Our old friend Mike Rimkus from Colorado returned to the area with a crew intent of some serious fishing and alligator hunting. Their first day on the water was spent stalking giant snook riverside near the mouth of Sebastian Inlet. Both of Mike’s sons caught great fish with Jacob nailing the snook and Michael the monster 32 inch trout. Also fishing with the Rimkuses on day one was their next door neighbor, Jonathon, who caught the giant snook pictured below. The crew managed other species on their charter with Capt. Rolland including flounder, bluefish, jacks and grouper.

The Rimkus crew left the saltwater and headed for sweat-water to spend an evening stalking alligators in the swamps of the nearby St. John’s River with Capt. Peter. They bagged three big gators on the evening before exhausting Peter’s inventory of tags. The gators went seven, eight and nine feet in length.

The following morning the crew returned to Capt. Roland’s boat to venture forth in search of beachside tarpon. Leaving the Inlet mid-morning, Roland located an incredible school of huge tarpon terrorizing the migrating mullet. Stealthily approaching the tarpon pod, they got within ten feet of the 100 plus pound giants. The tarpon were so close they knocked scattering mullet into the side of the boat several times. Two of the tarpon were jumped before quickly spitting the hook. After the trip, Mike said “It was the best trip (I’ve) ever had even though we didn’t land a single one.” Such are things of which life-long memories are made.

We move north to Port Canaveral for our next report. It was my privilege to spend an evening with Capt. Nate Fowler of Laguna Charters and our mutual friend Dr. Bobby Clayton chasing snook under the lights of the cruise ship piers. Once darkness settled in, the mullet schools began swirling thick around the spotlights and became an irresistible temptation for the giant line-siders. We were pitching an assortment of Yozuri and Rapala lures into the terrified mullet schools when Capt. Nate nailed the pictured 31 ½ inch brute shown below.

Our final report comes from the third annual Fishing Chicks tournament held in Sebastian over the weekend. Capt. Roland, his daughter Jessica, and I had a blast fishing a ten mile shallow-water stretch of the Indian River in the tournament. Team Native Sons won the trout division with a 29 5/8 inch monster which weighed 8.10 pounds. Jessica finished the AT&T Florida Flatsfishing Association season as Lady Angler of the Year and second place overall trout. All three of us will be competing in the championships for FLFA circuit in two weeks.

September 27, 2009

The fishing action during the last week has been spectacular as the fall mullet run has pushed into the Indian River Lagoon system filling our waters with a massive supply of baitfish. The resulting feeding frenzies on the incoming tides down in the Sebastian Inlet area are absolutely awesome with a wide variety of predatory species feasting on the mullet, triggering multiple super slams for our charters. We will get to the individual Sebastian reports in a moment, let’s start north in Titusville though where the fishing has been equally impressive.

Our first report stars an old friend of mine, Pastor Larry Zimmerman, from the Villages/Wildwood, Florida area. Larry’s wife surprised him for his 69th birthday with a fishing charter on the Indian River. When I picked him up on Friday from his Cocoa Beach hotel, I asked him if he wanted quantity and variety which would take us south to Sebastian Inlet or monster trophy fish which would direct us north toward Titusville. Larry opted for the big fish. We started the charter hunting a school of tarpon which had been lurking in the Indian River over the past several weeks. The tarpon had moved out with the western wind but slot-sized redfish, gator trout and pesky alligators took their place. We shot north in search of bigger redfish and found some anxious to entertain us (pictured below is Larry with a 30 inch red plucked from this school). Finally we turned our attention to seeking the monster redfish. Pictured below is a 48 inch, 30 lb brute that is a birthday gift Larry will not soon forget.

Mark Keith from Pennsylvania fished with me earlier in the week. Since Mark booked back-to-back charters, having to decide between Sebastian and Titusville would not be an issue. On day one we headed to Titusville to tangle with the trophies. Again, starting the day stalking the Silver Kings, we were able to jump a half dozen or so ‘poons’. (Pictured below is Larry holding his very first tarpon which was caught using a small finger mullet.). Exchanging our smaller baits for something larger and our limper rods for something stiffer, we headed for the monster redfish hole. Pictured below is one awfully happy angler holding a 49 inch, 35 – 40 lb fish.

The second day with Mark Keith took us to the grass flats surrounding the Inlet. Both mullet and ‘greenies or shiners’ were abundant around the inlet. We opted to try both as bait. During the charter we caught 13 mango snapper – all longer than the 10 inch minimum, two grouper, two redfish, two jack Crevalle, one trout, one mutton snapper and a moonfish. We took a shot at least a dozen snook but could not seem to sink a hook into their jaws. Pictured below are the fish that went back to St. Augustine with Mark for a wonderful fish fry at his condo.

Another Sebastian Inlet adventure this week involved Capt. Roland and the Arbogast boys. These Melbourne residents were treated to the same kind of numbers and varieties as the previous report. Pictured below are David with his 16 inch mutton snapper and Daniel with his 7 lb trout.

Capt. Peter has been busy over the past several weeks with alligator charters through Native Sons Outfitters. Among the gators taken during these charters was an 11 foot beast bagged by Arianne Prevost of Satellite Beach and her fiancé, Capt. Robert Rohmann. This feat has attracted wide publicity among newspapers, television outlets including a national Fox News report and even a guest appearance on Good Morning America.. (Check back in a few days for information on this amazing accomplishment).

The month of August brought the usual fishing thrills along with a great personal loss within the Native Sons Fishing family. My dear mother had a sudden stroke and passed away three later early in the month. Much of my month has been spent assisting my family, particularly my dad, in adjusting to live without mother. However, this is a forum for fishing reports and we have several great summaries to pass along.

This trip was a very special one. The fishing trip was Joe’s (surprise!) birthday gift from his wife, Jo-Ann. Jo-Ann had set the fishing trip up and kept it a secret until the night before, at dinner, when she surprised her husband. Visiting the Orlando area, the New York residents, joined me for a day of fishing to celebrate Joe’s birthday. Due to the really stormy weather we experienced this week, we were forced to fishing for only a couple of hours in the morning. We fished schools of redfish in very shallow waters in the Banana River. Sight-fishing the schools of reds, and the single redfish in sandspots, Joe and his daughter managed 4 nice redfish and a big mangrove snapper. This father/daughter duo was very fun to fish with, and I look forward to fishing with them in the future. (Submitted by Capt. Peter)

Jason Harris was down in the area on vacation, visiting Daytona Beach with his family. The plan for the day was to target snook and tarpon, and then go fish for bull sharks. We fished the “Cocoa area”*, under blue skies and calm, clear waters. I really enjoyed fishing with this great family, as they were a lot of fun and really enjoyed being out there fishing. We caught jacks and snook during the morning, including Jason’s 34 incher. We then moved into the shark waters, and deployed the chum for the bull sharks. Suzette’s pole was the first to get hit, and she skillfully brought a nice bull shark to the boat for a pic (btw it was Suzette’s goal for the trip to catch a shark). We caught a couple of bull sharks before the end of the beautiful day. (Submitted by Capt. Peter)

Old friends, Lee and Angie Harp from Wichita Kansas, along with Dr. Ray, his brother Gene from Phoenix City, Alabama and his Chris from Orlando joined me for a two day, late summer charter. We fished the Indian River from Melbourne Beach to Sebastian in bright sun. drenching downpours, snow, sleet and hail. The hardy quintet caught redfish, trout, jack Crevalle and tarpon and ate ice cold watermelon and fresh pineapple at rustic Treasure Coast Marina while waiting for breaks in the rain storms.

Good friend Joe Schneider along with Dave and 10 year-old Chase from Dallas/Ft. Worth were my client for another late summer half-day adventure in the Sebastian Inlet area. The trio caught a super slam of seven different species – five trout to 22 inches, one 26 inch redfish, bluefish, jack Crevalle, ladyfish, gaff-top sailcat, and a bull shark. Part of our chater was spent wade fishing from the boat. Capt. Roland, who had loaned me his boat for the week, assisted on the charter.

Finally, Capt. Peter guided a party off-shore in search of late summer cobia. The following picture is Phillip Scott holding one of their tasty trophies from the day.

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.