more big black drum- Orlando area fishing report

The Report from Spotted Tail 1/16/11

Upcoming Events

On January 19 I’ll be speaking to the Tri-County Fly Fishers, the Villages, Florida. Read more here…

On February 3 I start teaching the course, “Fundamentals of Flats Fishing” at Brevard Community College. Read more here…

On February 22 I’ll be speaking to the Florida Fly Fishing Association in Cocoa.

Now for the report-

On Tuesday John Meyer joined me for a no motor zone trip. As we removed the Dagger from the chariot’s roof a low overcast moved slowly above us. At least it was fairly warm, and the wind was low.

We ran over a couple nice redfish right away. Since visibility was so poor I had John start tossing a chartreuse DOA Shrimp. On his third or fourth cast a trout nailed it. It was quickly released.

After spending some time unsuccessfully looking for tailing fish I poled an area where trout had been holding. They were still there. John caught them steadily for an hour or so, nothing spectacular but solid fish in the 18-20 inch range. He got a couple small reds as well.

We stopped for lunch. While we were eating the overcast broke up, and large patches of blue sky appeared. The sun shone, warming the water. Things were looking up.

Following our repast we found a couple large reds tailing. I don’t know if they realized we were there but for whatever reason they stopped showing. We continued on.

A short time later the unmistakable black broom of a drum tail appeared. There’s another! Another, farther away! Yeah, that’s more like it.

John was tossing live shrimp at the fish. A split shot was placed by the hook to increase the sink rate. He had a lot of shots, dozens. He had three bites, and hooked and landed two nice fish.

The fight is almost won...

Ready to come aboard...

The hero shot!

Suddenly the wind came up, 12-15 out of the north. The tails disappeared. Since it was already well into the afternoon, we let it push us back. We did not see a fish the entire way, and in spite of changing lures several times and casting the entire way back John did not get another strike. The boat was back on the roof at 4 PM.

Thursday Karl Dienst and his friend John joined me on Mosquito Lagoon. It was an exercise in futility. The water temperature was 50 degrees. Although the sun was out the air temperature was in the 40s when we launched the boat. The lagoon was cover with whitecaps from a hard and very chilly north wind. The first boat ride almost caused brain freeze.

We saw one trout in the first spot we tried. I couldn’t get into the second spot because the water was too low.

I recrossed the lagoon and fished around several of the spoil islands. At the last spot we tried we saw two redfish and two seatrout.

We tried dunking cut mullet in the canal for about 30 minutes. The baits were not molested in any way shape or form.

It was nice enough being out and the birds were spectacular. As a fishing day, well, it was a waste.

Yesterday Hyram Williams joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. The weather forecast said high of 69, north winds at 6 mph. The forecast was wrong concerning the wind speed, which was closer to 15.

My optimism for the day was based on the forecast. The water was very low, very clear, and devoid of life in many of the places we checked. Finally about noon time we actually saw some fish and even got a shot. They were only interested in running away from us.

At about 2 PM in yet another spot we found hundreds of fish, apparently all the fish in the lagoon, redfish and black drum mixed. Hyram was throwing a Johnson Minnow. I was stunned by his lack of success.

Finally he got a strike and brought a black drum of 10-12 pounds to the boat. It was the only bite he got.

We worked those fish in the wind for about 45 more minutes and only succeeded in chasing them all away. The boat was back on the trailer at about 330.

Embrace simplicity.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.