- The only known adult Orca in the world
- IGFA event April 14th and 15th.. Jose Wejebe event
- Fishing TV show Spanish Fly host Jose Wejebe Killed in a plane cash in Everglades City, Florida April 6th 2012
- Only in Florida
- CCA Florida – Tampa Chapter Announces Twenty-Seventh Banquet, April 22, 2012
- Fly like a bird
- Biscayne Bay Estuary deep dredge threat
- A fish named “Ball Cutters”, yes it is exactly what you think!
- Rod Naming contest, Win 1 piece 12 wt Fly rods or Spinning rods, Deadline March 26th 2012
- Ladies Only fishing tournament in Sunny Florida, March 23rd 2012, Chix n Stix
Capt. Willy Le
Mosquito Lagoon Exploring
Did some exploring in the Mosquito Lagoon yesterday with buddy Capt. Justin Price. Justin and I decided to check some areas where we haven’t been in a while, and guess what? That’s where the fish were hiding! With the water in the lagoon still dirty and high, it makes for tough fishing and the fish are more scattered. We should have gin clear and low water this time of year but with the Summer conditions we are still having while we are ending December and going into the New Year, things are going to stay Summer-like until the temperatures drop.
I’ve heard a lot of “not so good” fishing reports of where the fish should usually be, instead of going to those spots, we decided to go and look around where not a lot of people check. Boats normally run past these areas to get to the “hot spots” that are normally crowded with boats pressuring the schools of fish with trolling motors. With no other boats in sight, Justin and I did some work with the fly rod on some pretty aggressive and unpressured fish, these fish happily took most of our fly offerings that we presented to them. We had a successful day of finding fish that were tailing, cruising shorelines, and were not spooky. Hopefully they will still be that way for our charters that we have lined up next week!
Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com
December Mosquito Lagoon
Winter time is a great time for sight fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. Although it does not quite feel like winter here in Florida yet, the Redfish are starting to act like it is. The water has cleaned up a lot since last month and the fish are starting to tail and mud rooting for crustaceans on the shallow flats.
This past Wednesday I fished with Adam Compton who is maintaining a skiff for his buddy that is stationed in Afghanistan. The skiff is a Maverick HPX-Micro which is very similar to my Maverick HPX-Tunnel but with slight differences. The Micro is the lightest skiff in the Maverick line with a max outboard rating of 50hp. The one we took out was powered with a Yamaha 40HP 4-Stroke, and performed extremely well. It has a soft ride running through chop, it ran in inches, and poled everywhere my Tunnel skiff can go. I was pretty impressed with what it can do, especially how light it felt while poling.
photos courtesy of www.maverickboats.com
Adam and i caught fish in skinny backwaters to windy open flats this day. All the fish caught were single tailers or mudding/tailing in groups of 6-10 fish. After catching a few on spinning gear and the fly rods, the wind picked up and we opted to fish with only spin gear. Adams soft plastic baits kept getting blown off the fish by the wind so I decided to tie on a D.O.A. Softshell Crab. This bait sinks straight to the bottom and buries in the grass like a real crab would do, it seemed to work great on the fish that had their face deep in the grass/mud and was easier to cast and control in the windier conditions. Once the D.O.A. Crab landed next to the fish, they engulfed it.
Since the fish were being so cooperative, I forced Adam to put his spin rod down and cast a fly to this fish…he said it has been about 3 years since he last caught a Redfish on fly.
The biggest fish of the day was caught using the Softshell Crab.
There are plenty of fish to catch in the Mosquito Lagoon right now, it will only get better as the water gets cleaner. Redfish will start to school in larger numbers and the Black Drum should be showing up in huge schools as well. Time to get on the vice and tie your favorite crustacean patterns!
Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
www.nativeflycharters.com
Mosquito Lagoon with da Skinny Water Culture crew
Skinny Water Culture, a fishing/street culture apparel company out of Tampa, FL. that has a creative vibe to every piece of clothing that they put out. I’ve been working with SWC for about a year or so and they have been very supportive on custom items that fit my needs. This past Saturday, Vince who is the man behind the brand and Chase who creates all of the designs for SWC met up with me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon to do some fishing and to go over some new fabrics and designs for new products in the works. The winds were howling a good 10-15mph out of the East so we were limited to where we could fish and there was a Rocket launch scheduled that morning at 10am over at NASA so the South portion of Mosquito Lagoon was restricted. We were forced to tuck behind islands to get out of the wind at a spot I like to call “Escondido” only to find tails popping up and fish crawling the shorelines all around us. Well, you probably know what happened after that….
Each fish was celebrated with a beer break to share some laughs and talk about the future of the company. Skinny Water Culture has some good things to come in the future with great new fabrics, new designs, and new products for 2012. One of my favorites is the new SWC Tech Hooded jacket. Talk about a stylish, super comfortable, and well manufactured multifunctional product for the Winter! What’s cool about these guys is that they not only design clothes for the sport, they actually have a passion for it and are really good at it! Make sure you check out their stuff at www.skinnywaterculture.com.
-Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
www.nativeflycharters.com
Tripletail fishing with Capt. Scott Lum
My good friend Capt. Scott Lum of Outcast Sportfishing Charters invited me aboard his 23′ Contender in search of the hard fighting, prehistoric looking Tripletail. Scott knows his stuff when it comes to catching these tasty fish which by the way is my favorite fish to eat. Joining us was local fisherwoman, surfer, and surfboard shaper Jessica Stern. We headed out of Port Canaveral in search of floating debris that the rough seas and high winds pushed closer to our coast. If you find anything floating offshore from a 5 gallon bucket to a small broken piece of ply wood or even a small patch of Sargassum seaweed, most likely there will be a Tripletail lying underneath it. Scott was throwing a Hogy Swimbait called the bunny, I was throwing a D.O.A. Shrimp in gold glitter, and Jessica was tossing large live shrimp. While Scott and I caught a few using artificials, Jessica caught the most fish using a live shrimp with a small pinch weight. We saw over 50 Tripletail this day catching a bunch of undersize ones and a few nice ones to take home. Maybe if the seas lay down next week, I will be targeting these fish on a fly rod to see how they respond to some new patterns that I’ve been tying.
Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
www.nativeflycharters.com
Fish Eat Fish World
As soon as I thought the water was actually going to clean up enough for some good sight fishing in Mosquito lagoon and the Northern Indian River, we get another week of high winds that has been turning up the water and making it difficult to see fish again. What do you do when that happens? You go to where you think you know where the fish are and just blind cast like crazy while praying to the fish gods for a bite! It seemed to work for Danny Francis on this breezy day in the Mosquito Lagoon.
On Saturday I hopped on Eddie Oliveras’s skiff to do some exploring in some areas of the Indian River that we haven’t fished in years. Same story, the water was high and dirty but at least the winds were a little calmer for us this day. We poled along a flat that I used to catch some big Trout and started blind casting. Eddie was first to hook up with what we thought was a Redfish because of how hard he was pulling but once the fish was shaking it’s head out of the water, we saw huge fangs and a yellow mouth….Big Sea Trout!
Eddie and I switched positions after releasing the fish.(which by the way is out of season all thru November & December in the South Region.) Since the water was so dirty, I wanted to try something out with my lure. I was throwing a D.O.A. Cal in New Penny color rigged weedless, I then slide a glass bead and a 1/16oz. tungsten bullet weight on that I got from my bass fishing buddy. I tie about a 1 inch loop knot and slip the bead and the weight below the knot which cannot slip back up because the tag makes for a stopper. That rig creates a little rattle along with a brilliant sparkle from the diamond cut glass bead. It seemed to work better this day versus fishing with just a hook and plastic.
After catching some nice size trout, we left them still biting and decided to go find some Redfish. After a short run, we made a stop at a cove where I’ve had good luck with Redfish during higher water. Immediately after pushing up to the spot, we see multiple fish crashing bait on the shoreline. I make the cast with the same D.O.A. Cal/rattle set up and instantly hook up to a Redfish! This was a fat fish and we figured out why after getting it to the boat.
The fish had about a 12″ Mullet lodged into it’s throat and still managed to try and eat my lure!
I have found some big trout in the past with the same thing, but the trout were not so lucky to live thru it. I figured I would pull the mullet out of the redfish’s mouth so it can swim and eat like normal again, the fish was not harmed and swam away healthy!
While in the same area, Eddie gets himself a Redfish on spinning gear as well. We then pulled out the fly rods and poled along the sandy shoreline. You can barely make out a fish in the murky water but it was possible. I get my fish on fly, then shortly after Eddie gets a nice one on fly.
We ended the great day of fishing at Ms. Apples Crab Shack along the Indian River Lagoon for some cold ones and spicy steamed blue crabs! Inshore fishing is getting better and better each day, and it will only get even better as the water gradually clears up.
Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
www.nativeflycharters.com
Micro Skiff = Micro Tarpon
My buddy Dominic has been working on this little Micro Skiff for a couple years now. When he first bought it, I thought in my head “what a piece of junk!”. This skiff was just a bare 1974 14ft fiberglass hull with a 4.5ft beam and it was beat up to death, but Dominic had big plans for it that I didn’t see.
It took a while but now the micro skiff is close to completion. With Dominic’s brother being a local surfboard shaper, and also growing up with local skiff builders, Dominic has been around fiberglass enough to know what he’s doing. I was impressed when I came over one day and he had his “piece of junk” all sanded down and decks cut to a perfect fit of how he wanted it. Shortly afterwards, he has laid in all the decks, glassed, and sanded ready to be coated. To me, it still looked like a piece, but once the deck was all sprayed by a former boat builder, I couldn’t believe my eyes! All it needs is a poling platform and a couple more minor accessories to be fully complete, but right now it’s good enough to take out for a fishing/poling/running test, just slap on the 15HP Nissan tiller motor and we are good to go.
All I can say about this micro skiff is that it is bad to the bone! It feels like you are on a surfboard doing whatever maneuvers you want it to do. We spent most of the morning just doing S-turns and 360′s in the middle of the Indian River Lagoon, giggling like little school girls. Top speed with the 2 of us was around 23-24mph with a 15HP.
After the running test, we went back in the way back country, through neighborhood canals with dogs barking at us, and through some VERY tight bushy places, to get to a little spot that holds juvenile tarpon. Equipped with flyrods, we took turns on the bow and poling the skiff. This skiff fished very well considering how small it is, it’s not as tippy as I thought it would be and it poled effortlessly, maybe a little too easy to pole.
After jumping a few mini tarpon, we decided to go back out to the open river and do some more S-turns and 360′s just for kicks….I wonder what the people driving over the causeway were thinking. This little micro skiff definitely impressed me with how well it fished, and how soft of a ride it has. At the end of the day, it kinda makes me wanna go out and get a “piece of junk”, build it from scratch, then go shred the river when it’s all done.
-Capt. Willy Le
www.NativeFlyCharters.com
Windy Redfish
Here’s a clip of my Redfish to add to Honsons write up while he was up here visiting the Mosquito Lagoon…
Crown Royal fishing photo contest winner
Crown Royal put on a fishing photo contest a couple months back and the winners won a full day fishing trip with Native Fly Charters, a new rod and reel combo, Crown Royal swag, and a tackle bag loaded with goodies inside. One of the winners was Tre from Stuart, FL. Tre was allowed to invite a guest with him and of course he wanted to share the great moment with his dad Russ. Also joining us was Crown Royals Pro Bass Angler Steve “Boogie” Brown. With 3 anglers plus myself, we took the 22ft Pathfinder and opted to fish the North Indian River. The water still remains high and dirty like it has been for the last month. Sightfishing has been tough for the most part so a lot of blind casting was done today. The Sea Trout bite still remains good around drop offs and grass flats in the 3-5ft depths. D.O.A shrimp under a popping cork seems to still work the best while the water is dirty. This method landed some nice Trout up to 26″! Some Tarpon were found in deep canals but did not want to play and a nice Redfish was put in the boat while flipping deep into the mangroves. It was great to see a father and son enjoying a day on the water with no worries…..just some good ol’ fishing!
-Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
nativeflycharters.com
Jellyfish Invasion
Cocoa Beach is now being under attack of Moon Jellyfish! Ever since Hurricane Irene started pushing in the big surf on the East Coast, she also brought the Jellyfish with her. With the help of Hurricane Katia and Tropical Storm Maria, it is now getting worst. The water and waves look so inviting until you get into the water. Every time you paddle, your hand would hit one of these big slimy moon jellies, then you start to feel the zapping from all the broken tentacles from them. They feel like someone stabbing you with a hundred needles followed by an annoying itch leaving nasty welts all over your body. It hurts to have perfect waves and all you could do is stand on the beach and “mind surf” them….unless you wanna go in the water and get zapped!
-Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com
Effects of Hurricane Irene in my backyard
Since I’m on the injured list with a messed up knee, all I can do is sit on the boardwalk at my house in South Cocoa Beach and take photos of all of my neighbors and friends having fun with Irene. This is one of the best swells that I’ve seen in years and a couple miles further South in Satellite Beach was twice as big. I wish I had a bigger lens but I was shooting with my 18-200mm and it was breaking way far off the beach so photos aren’t all that great quality. Also, I’m messing around with a new (to me) editing program called Lightroom. All I gotta say is “why didn’t I use this program years ago!” It makes mass photo editing a heck of a lot faster! I’m still trying to get the hang of it, but here’s what I got.
-Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com
