Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report
Upcoming Events-
-Titusville Surf Fishing Workshop, Wednesday, March 6, 6-8 pm. There are several other surf workshops coming up along the Space Coast in the next two months. For more information please email Rodney Smith irlcoast@gmail.com
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, MINWR, March 2; On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, March 3
What a week!
Sunday morning found me at Parrish Park holding a conversation with my potential fishermen as to whether to go out or not. Picture it- sun shining, no clouds, temperature of 39 degrees, wind howling along at 20-25, Indian River Lagoon covered in whitecaps- how could they fail to go?
They wisely decided not to, and I lost the day’s work.
Monday fly fisher Chris McGoldrick joined me on a still chilly but enormously nicer day for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. Chris is a middle school social studies teacher in Brooklyn. I hoped he would have a good day. Having taught middle school myself I know he deserved one.
He had lots of shots, at both trout and redfish. Only a single one resulted in a bite. The fly did not stick very long. Sadly, he did not get a fish.
Mr. McGoldrick enjoyed himself in spite of the visit of this critter…
…the dreaded skonk!!
On the way home something happened to the engine of the chariot. The “check engine” light has been on for a couple years now, but in addition to the running rough and loss of power it started flashing off and on. At least the van got me home.
Monday night I rented a Chevy Silverado to take out my Tuesday party.
Tuesday Bill and Mike Crochunas, father and son, joined me for a six hour Mosquito Lagoon trip. The fish were all over the first spot, by the hundreds. In an hour of trying we could not get close enough to any of them to reach them with a cast. Leaving fish to find fish is never a good plan but that’s what we did.
We didn’t find a whole lot else, and what we did find was not much more cooperative.
Mike ended up with a couple of decent trout he got on a DOA CAL jerk bait. The reds all finned their noses at us. That was it for the day.
Sometimes I think I should just switch to bait fishing, you know, get a party barge with a big cooler, etc.
A couple of trout like this was all we had to show for our efforts.
Wednesday morning found me at the service department of David Maus Toyota. The ignition coil on the number six cylinder had failed. For only $520 I got a new spark plug, ignition cable, and ignition coil installed on that one cylinder, which took most of the day.
Not as much fun as being out in a boat.
Thursday’s trip didn’t start until 930, at fly fishing client’s Harold Brown’s request.
We got to fishing spot number one. Schools of fish are moving all over the place. We get close enough to see, and cast to, some of them. They were black drum. They completely ignored the fly several times, and swam away rapidly after seeing us. An hour of that and I was ready for something else.
Spot number two had no fish.
I barely got the boat in to spot number three. At first we didn’t see much but then we started seeing big trout, good numbers of them. Harold had at least a half dozen take the fly. The hook never stuck any of them.
A rat red attacked the fly with gusto. We released him as a reward.
We fished those fish for about four hours and never got one of those beautiful trout, or anything besides that one red. In the meantime the water had dropped a couple inches.
Because we started late it was now into the latter stages of daylight. The boat would not float out the way I got in. I had to remove my pants, put on the wading booties, and slog through the mud for 150 feet to get it out of there. We did get out, though.
Friday I was part of a four boat charter, along with Chris Myers, Tom Van Horn, and Drew Cavanaugh. I had three guys in my boat, Mike, Derek, and Alan. I remembered why I charge an extra hundred dollars for that third passenger. At least I only got hooked once. I did have to re-rig a couple times after cutting out the tangles.
We got on a school of big reds first thing. We had some good chances. The fish did not cooperate. Not only that. they quickly vacated the area. Can’t imagine why.
Spot numbers two and three had nothing.
At spot four we got a few small trout and ladyfish. By now the wind was a solid 15, with lots of clouds. Sight fishing was out of the question.
In desperation I anchored along the whale tail and soaked bait. We were rewarded with a 22 inch trout and a fat little catfish, our last fish of the day.
So I saw a lot of fish this week, but did not catch very many of them.
We didn’t catch anything like this this week.
More repairs to the chariot on today’s agenda.
And that is this week’s exciting version of the Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report.
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 2013. All rights are reserved.
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I haven’t been fortunate enough to get out in the flats the last couple weeks. A good friend who has been out often reported that the water has been extremely clear in the northern end of the Mosquito Lagoon and artificial just haven’t been getting bites for him. As soon as he switched to mullet chunks or live shrimp both trout and reds were biting well.
Bait and a party barge. that’s going to be my new approach
Fortunately, the lagoon is too shallow for that. I’m just saying that there are times when live bait might be a consideration if not getting skunked is important. A CAL shad tail was effective this weekend.
sorry if i came across as grouchy. i have been known to use bait, on several occasions actually