Fishing from a Kayak on the Mosquito Lagoon in Florida

Hey there, y'all. I am a very lucky lady to be living so close to the Mosquito Lagoon. I live in Mims, which is a small town located near Titusville, Florida. The fishing is excellent here all year round. You can even catch blue crab, dig for clams or go hunting for oysters! In order to fully enjoy the experience you must have a flats boat or a kayak. My preference is a kayak. Even if you don't fish, kayaking is the way to go in the Mosquito Lagoon. There is something about being that close to the water and nature that you just can't beat.

The Mosquito Lagoon is part of the Indian River Lagoon system and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It goes all the way from Ponce de Leon Inlet to the north end of Merritt Island. One of the really fantastic things about it is that it runs right next to the Canaveral National Seashore in Cape Canaveral which is where the Kennedy Space Center is located. You can actually see the Vehicle Assembly Building (the VAB) and the launch pads while sitting in your boat or kayak. There are even places you can see it from shore. Most of the time when we have guests who are not from here we take them to the Kennedy Space center and to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The Wildlife Refuge is where we do most of our fishing. The trails and wildlife drives are open from sunrise to sunset. You wouldn't want to fish there any other time anyway. They don't call it MOSQUITO lagoon for nothing! The waterways, trails and wildlife drives are also closed during shuttle launches for security reasons. Check out the National Wildlife Refuge website at http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/ for details about road closures and rules.

My husband, two boys and I mostly fish the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for Redfish, Sea Trout, Black Drum and Snook. There are seasons and limits on all of them so please, if you are going to fish in Florida, please find out the current regulations before keeping any fish. During the fall we sometimes fish for Tarpon as well because they get huge and it's fun to catch them on a kayak and get a free ride! We never keep them, they are catch and release only.

For bait, we use live shrimp. Don't laugh but, we all have lingerie bags tied to a two foot string and then tied to our kayak to keep our shrimp in. In case you don't know what a lingerie bag is, they are used to wash undergarments in the washing machine. You can find them in the laundry isle of most stores. Get the one with the smallest holes you can find. It's the best live well ever! There are also plenty of little islands to pull over and cast for bait mullet if you are good at casting. I do that a lot because I enjoy the feeling of having my own little island for a while and it also gives me a chance to explore and stretch my legs a while. My husband and the boys mostly stay in their kayaks until lunch and then they will join me on an island to eat. I also like to find an island because it gives me a chance to dig for clams for a while. I love clams and they are pretty easy to find there.

When it's an "R" month (October, November, etc) I like to go to Turtle Mound because it is the best place I have found to get oysters. Oysters can only be safely eaten in the "R" months here. I take my pocket knife, hot sauce and crackers with me on my kayak and pluck those jewels and eat them right then and there. The clamming is also very good at Turtle Mound. I'm so busy clamming and hunting for oysters that I don't have much time to fish. My husband and the boys do very well there fishing for trout. Turtle Mound is located at the north end of the Mosquito Lagoon and is part of the Canaveral National Seashore. It is the largest shell midden on the mainland in the US. It's about 50 feet tall and consist of oyster shells and refuse left over from the prehistoric Timucuan Indians between 800 and 1400 AD. You can read all about Turtle Mound at the Volusia County website at http://volusiahistory.com/turtle.htm .

OK, y'all, I hope I have convinced you to grab a kayak and do some paddling and fishing. I promise you won't regret it one bit. Even if you don't catch any fish, you will still have a wonderful day. Now get out there and go fishing!