Skiffing the Lee Goon
I pulled out the skiff on Sunday and picked up Dr. H before dawn to get to Mosquito Lagoon at 6:45. The water was so shallow that I could not get the boat into the water at Beach 5, even with the front tire of the truck in the water! Instead we drove back north and put in at the county boat ramp, waiving off my plan to fish George’s Bar. Just south of the ramp we found a spot in the lee of the wind coming from the east. I lost one jig with artificial shrimp to a feisty animal, a decent sized redfish judging from the fight, maybe a ray. A little later I caught a 16-inch red and quickly returned it to the water. As things slowed down we decided to take shotgun to the west side of the intracoastal to see how the waves were stacking up. There was moderate chop with 1-2 foot rollers and the fishing was no fun there, so we worked our way back to the East Channel and drifted along there, casting towards the shore with no luck. Lessons of the day include finding the northern end of the east channel for the fist time and learning the last southern bend in the channel of shotgun. This should help me keep the skeg of the Yamaha out of the sand next time out. Also, we decided that launching a canoe or kayak at the Canaveral Visitor’s Center would put us less than half a mile from some wonderful wade fishing in the central flats.
