Category: Boating

Boating in salt water and fresh water near central, east coast of Florida.

Photos From a Boat Trip to Mosquito Lagoon

Photos taken while boating and beach-combing in Mosquito Lagoon on the east coast of Florida.

We seldom take our boat down to Mosquito Lagoon even though that is suppose to be the place to fish. Our boat is a flats boat which means it is meant to traverse shallow water. It handles waves okay, but not large waves or choppy water.

Mosquito Lagoon – the wide open part – is about a 20 minute trip by boat for us and if there is wind kicking up waves once we get there, it is not a comfortable ride. If we happen to hit beautiful, glassy water, we can keep going south to the cut through at Haulover Canal. That takes us through to the other side of the lagoon.

This is where we went the day I took these photos.

Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon Haulover Canal bridge
Bridge at Haulover Canal

The Lagoon is a place for fishermen. It is not a place to go to beach-comb. There are islands along that area, heading south, which are pretty nice and can be used for camping. But, we rode way down that way once only to find that all the islands were inhabited by people.

Mosquito Lagoon is a huge area that looks more like a giant lake. I’d like to explore it more, but when we are far from home, and if the weather changes, we could get in trouble.

We’ve tried using the boat ramps on Merritt Island, but they are not the greatest. And the ramp at Haulover Canal is small and crowded.

Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon tulip snail
Live tulip
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
Crown conch
Mosquito Lagoon
Handful of shells
Mosquito Lagoon sea life
crown conch

When I am out walking a beach or shallow water area, I am mostly searching for seashells and sea life to photograph for this blog. Sometimes I end up with many more photos than I will use.

Here I am sharing some photos that may have been overlooked from the trip.

One thing about this (rather creepy) area where I walked was the fact that there were many, many dead horseshoe crabs. They were scattered over the beach sand and all throughout the water. Later I read that raccoons will eat them, although this page about horseshoe crabs does not mention raccoons as predators. It does mention alligators. This water can have gators (I found a skull), which adds to the creepiness.

Horseshoe crabs leave behind an exoskeleton when they molt. If they get turned upside down they may die. Grab them by the big part of the shell, not the tail, and turn them over. They are harmless.

Mosquito Lagoon
Dead horseshoe crabs
Mosquito Lagoon
Horseshoe crab
Mosquito Lagoon
Dead horseshoe crabs
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon

I walked along this shallow water area and around the corner where the water got creepy. The brown became darker until it was nearly black. I did not venture neat that water.

Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon dark creepy water
Mosquito Lagoon

I found a lot of living sea snails and no hermit crabs. My son did some fishing but caught nothing. We will make the trip back one day.

Getty Images has this pretty cool aerial video of part of Mosquito Lagoon.

More stories from the blog

The Indian River – Fishing and Manatees

In October some friends came to visit and we went fishing on the Indian River. The water was exceptionally clear that day and we could easily see manatees near the boat.

We all enjoyed the beautiful weather and the fishing was pretty good.

manatee just beneath the water
manatee swimming in the river
fishing off the boat
fishing from the boat

Where is the Indian River?

I often write about being out on the Indian River. So, where is the Indian River? It is part of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) that runs up the eastern side of Florida. In my (central east coast Florida) area it is named the Indian River. A bit further south, part of the river branches out by Merritt Island and the Space Center and that part is named the Banana River. Here is a good map of the area.

The river is salt water, or brackish, which is a mix of salt and fresh. We only live about two miles from the local boat ramps. This is the main area we go when we travel by boat. Our part of the Indian River is actually designated as “north” and is part of the Mosquito Lagoon area. The Indian River is also referred to as a lagoon: Indian River Lagoon.

The area is known for it’s abundance of fish and sea life specifically bottlenose dolphin and manatees. We see lots of dolphin while boating, but only see manatee when the water is warm.

This area of the river can be a nursery for fish until they grow and migrate offshore. Whenever we fish in the river, our catches are usually small in size, and are released back into the water. However, some fish hang out in the river once they have become large. We’ve caught good size Redfish, Jack Crevalle, and trout. The Snapper is usually very small as they move offshore to grow large. Offshore fisherman catch some really nice snapper. An old friend of ours runs a fishing charter business out of Jupiter if you like offshore fishing.

The only parts of the river and lagoon that are deep are the dredged parts which allow for large boats to travel it like a highway. This can make for some very big waves at times! Well, big if you are in a small boat like ours.

Yacht on the ICW
two yachts
Yachts on the main channel

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Early Boating Day to Beat the Thunderheads

We’ve been getting rain like a monsoon lately but finally we got in an early day of boating to beat the thunderheads. We were on the water by ten in the morning, which is early for us. My son is not an early riser. With the chance of rain nearly always possible, we hoped to get a few hours in.

After riding around for a bit my son dropped me at an island beach while he went across the river to fish.

island view
The Island

Today the place was deserted. It was a Thursday so not surprising. I walked the beach looking for treasure in the form of seashells but found nothing – except for the one broken and partially buried shell right in front of the boat landing.

broken knobbed whelk treasure buried in the sand
Broken knobbed whelk shell

Most people would probably pass on collecting this shell, but I rarely find shells this size, even if they are broken. I’ve never found a live knobbed whelk snail. In fact, knobbed whelk shells in any form are a rare find here.

This marine snail makes a beautiful shell, and I found a stunning specimen a while ago just off this very island, in roughly the same place. It contained a big hermit crab, but I got some photos before putting it back into the water. That shell was tan in color with a shiny exterior. It is still one of my favorite finds.

The knobbed whelk is a hefty shell so this one had done a lot of rolling around in the water to break it up or possibly it was broken by a boat. Boats often pull up to this island. There was absolutely no place for a hermit crab to hide inside. I brought it home and cleaned it up.

  • broken knobbed whelk seashells
  • broken big knobbed whelk shell
  • brown water at the island beach

The tide was going out but the water was very murky and brown. It was not at all inviting. The beach held no other treasures so I texted my son and he came back to pick me up and we moved on.

Encrusted Horse Conch

We headed into a little bay area that has a lot of shallow spots. I was looking for a place to get out and dip into the 83 degree water to cool off a bit. We pulled up to this little beach area.

Little beach
Little beach where I found the horse conch shell

I hopped off the boat here only to see a nice size, yet juvenile, horse conch shell moving along the bottom. I t had a hermit crab inside, but I got some photos of this beauty. The sand was very soft and sucked at my feet, so not a good place to take a dip. We moved on into Oyster Bay.

  • juvenile horse conch seashell
  • horse conch medium size
  • horse conch seashell medium size
  • horse conch shell on the beach
  • horse conch seashell

Into the Bay

Heading a little further into the backwaters there is a big shallow area. Here the water was only a foot or two deep. We were able to get out and float while keeping hold of the boat so it didn’t drift away. As I mentioned the water was pretty brown and I mostly worry about stingrays.

shallow area where we got out to swim

I think this area of the lagoon is called Oyster Bay because it is very shallow with lots of oyster beds. Oyster shells are very sharp and can harm boats. It’s also easy to get a fishing line caught on the shells, so we don’t go in here much. I did find a huge, living horse conch in this area one time.

We’d been keeping an eye on the sky all day because the line of clouds over land and over the ocean could build and move in our direction.

Keeping an Eye on The Clouds

  • Clouds and rainstorm south
    Rain storm to South
  • Line of clouds building over the ocean
    Ocean Clouds to East
  • clouds gathering and building over the Indian River
    Clouds to West over land
  • Thunderhead building while out boating
    Taking a dip
  • Storm building over land
    Heading to the boat ramp

We made it in before the storm reached us, but you never know. Florida storms can have lots of lightning so we don’t take any chances. We had a good four hours out on the water, which was nice.