As stated in my last report, it is the time of year I like to shift my focus from my typical Mosquito Lagoon saltwater hunts to the low sodium areas of the St Johns River.  I love catching fish regardless of where they live, and it is hard to beat the fun generated by the many light tackle targets available on the St Johns River near Orlando in the winter.

On four different times since my last report I’ve paid a visit to the river with great success on each occasion.  Just this last week I had the extreme pleasure to once again co-hosting an episode of the Ultimate Catch TV Show scheduled to run on the World Fishing Network in the spring with my good friend and host Captain Eric Ciocher, and again we experienced an outstanding freshwater light tackle adventure catching a multitude of species with non-stop action all day.

After the summer flooding generated by Hurricane Mathew, the river has receded within its banks bring tons of small gambisa (ditch minnows) and grass shrimp into the river which is now loaded with hungry feeding fish.  During the one day show we caught speckled perch (crappie), largemouth bass, mudfish (bowfin), bluegills, stump knockers (spotted sunfish), shell crackers and tilapia all on ultralight tackle.  Although the bite was fast and furious, not a hickory or American shad were caught. Once the shad show up on their annual spawning migration, Katie bar the door.

On another trip, I had the pleasure of fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon with my good friend and mentor Captain John Kumiski on a scouting adventure, and together we caught both redfish and spotted seatrout in several locations.  We did find the general water conditions to be dirty in most of the areas we visited, but we still managed some very respectable fish throwing DOA Deadly Combos on the deeper edges of the sandy shoals.

All in all this week, the fishing and the weather were great but the catching was even better.

As always, if you have questions or need information, please contact me.

Good luck and good fishing, merry Christmas and happy holidays,

Captain Tom Van Horn