Mosquito Lagoon Snook Redfish and Drum Fishing Report 9-4-2023

Spent Labor Day on Mosquito Lagoon and MAN did my labor pay off! Giant snook, redfish and black drum all showed up in numbers, plus I achieved a lagoon personal best only to best it again only a couple hours later! What a day!

[@dafishmantn]

Those are the days that make us get up early and make the drive to be there at sunrise. Congrats on an excellent day!! In the last month I’ve seen more extra large snook than I’ve ever seen before and caught my first Tarpon, all in the lagoon. I was there this morning and fighting the wind but all things considered I had a good day but not to compare to yours. Look forward to one day crossing paths with you, either there or Monroe. Keep after them and thanks for another good video.

[@bobwalters6543]

Hammer Time!

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Thanks!

[@tylerk538]

Dope, so glad to see theres some size down there now I swear i've only been catching 19 inchers

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Yeah, it's great, especially on shallow flats like that. There have been big snook along the deeper ICW and channels for years, but I never see them up where I like to fish.

[@duncansmith536]

Love watching your videos.

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Thank you Duncan!

[@yakrunnerz4135]

awesome man! Glad to see you snatching some nice fish in the lagoon. GET IT!!!! 🤙🤙🔥🔥

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Thanks! It's great to see the grass returning now that manatees aren't eating it all, which in turn seems to be bringing the fish back.

[@NoleYakin]

Sweet snook, Haven't been out to the lagoon in since the beginning of summer I'm definitely missing it. Thanks for the video

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Thank you! I'm still anxious for the cooler winter months myself, but it's nice that the water still has usable clarity this late in the season.

[@SpFishing777]

So good❤

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Appreciate that!

[@willalias8640]

Hey, Jeff. Great video. I'm going out from Indian Mound on Friday around noon with my dad, as well as probably saturday and sunday mornings. Any advice?

[@JeffHammerFishing]

@willalias8640 Give me some more information on your plans. Are you in a boat, kayak, SUP or something else. I'm assuming you aren't wading given where that fish camp is. What sort of range do you have and how familiar are you with the lagoon? Do you plan to use artificial or real bait? Also, I'll have another video up in a day or two, which will show how drastically things changed out there in just a few days, so watch for that too.

[@jpearson1725]

Wow, probably the biggest snook I have seen in the lagoon in a long long time! Great job Jeff!

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Thank you! Yes, except for some I've seen caught by others out of the deep channels and docks, these were some of the biggest I've ever encountered on the shallow flats. I saw a couple other large ones too, that I didn't get hook in.

[@MikeMcGovern-nj3rm]

Very nice, congrats. Interesting water conditions, where I’m fishing the water is crystal clear and so much floating grass topwater is impossible. Thanks again for the report.

[@JeffHammerFishing]

The water can be clear or silty from one island to the next, but the floating grass is everywhere now, almost like a few years ago. I've found that if I move to the leeward side on the lagoon, there's usually less floating grass than the windward side.

[@mikemcgovern8719]

I’m hoping with the prevailing east wind it will send most of it to the west side of the lagoon. East wind was hard to come by most of the summer, usually west/SW. @@JeffHammerFishing

[@JeffHammerFishing]

Was out there today. East side was clogged with clumps of floating grass, to the point that topwater was all but impossible. Went to the West side and it was clearer and saw more fish too. Take note, I didn't say "caught more fish". Ended up running up to the northern part of the lagoon and the conditions and bite were much better there.

[@jonshort21]

Hell of a day!

[@JeffHammerFishing]

I thought so too! Thank you!

[@Waldo183]

If you don't mind sharing what ramp are you launching from? Looks much nicer than beacon 42 where I typically leave from.

[@JeffHammerFishing]

I usually mention the ramp I'm going to during the intros, so if you watch regularly you'll get that information, but this particular video was a little different since I wanted to avoid the holiday crowds. I never mentioned it was Riverbreeze Park, since I didn't film the intro until I was on the water.

[@Waldo183]

Oh I've never launched from there. It looks way better, thank you!

[@cabbagenathan7757]

I’m pretty sure I recognize that area, I also have seen some really nice snook a little further north around the islands that stick out near the edge of the pole and troll. Haven’t been down there in a while because I have been doing too good further north.

[@JeffHammerFishing]

I'm sure you do. I never make too much of an effort to hide my location, although I don't advertise it either. I generally try to keep moving to different areas every couple of trips too. The lagoon is large enough with enough great areas that it doesn't concern me. There's always somewhere else that's probably better.

[@terrymoore5058]

better fishin than we had in the winter hope grass lives

[@JeffHammerFishing]

I still like winter better, but this was close and certainly a ton of fun!

[@mikemcgovern8719]

I’ll confess to cheating with this story. I have a friend coming in from out of town. He can’t really cast due wrist issues. He really would like to catch a red in the ML. I told him we could try cut bait, which I haven’t used in more than 10 years. I caught a lady fish last week and decided to do a test run. Caught 4 reds and lost 2 in less than an hour. I left before I used all the lady fish, just feeling to guilty but I think I can get him to catch one. Lol.

[@JeffHammerFishing]

There's nothing wrong with using bait, it's just not something I'm generally interested in doing anymore. Twenty-plus years ago, I used live and cut bait a lot, but it's just not very challenging.

[@mikemcgovern8719]

I don’t like to use it either, no challenge , someone told me once that fresh cut ladyfish for redfish is like giving candy to a baby. @@JeffHammerFishing

[@JeffHammerFishing]

That is true. Cut ladyfish being known as redfish candy is something I heard decades ago.