Three Lagoons Report
Thank you for reading this Three Lagoons Report. Your reporter traveled to, and fished by kayak and fly rod, all the east central Florida lagoons. The things I do to keep you informed….
Oh, and this week coming is that Christmas thing you may have heard about. Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Winter Solstice. Christians celebrate Christmas. Pagans celebrate the solstice. Smart people double up! Don’t get too carried away with all the celebrating! I like to fish on the solstice, too bad it falls on Sunday.
Anyway, the fishing-
Tuesday
Weather, partly cloudy with an east wind, found me kayaking on the Indian River Lagoon. I looked for three hours and saw a single fish, which resulted in a half-butt shot that did not convert. An orphaned seatrout took the fly sometime later to chase the skunk.
After that scintillating three hours I loaded the boat and drove it to a different location on the IRL. Spotted a fish right away, no shot. The next one was a half-hour later, happy fish, back out of the water, right up on the shoreline. It crushed the fly. It came unbuttoned a minute later.
Twenty minutes later another shoreline fish was spotted. This one chased the fly down from almost six feet away (wasn’t my best cast). I photographed and released it. Got another one blind-casting with the spin rod, and got a very nice trout (+/- 22″) dragging the shad behind the boat as I paddled back to the car. Saw several reds along the shore on the way back and pooched on all of them. Additionally, the sky sprinkled and tinkled on me, something to do with the overcast.
Wednesday
With almost solid cloud cover with an east wind, found me kayaking on the Banana River Lagoon. If the water in the IRL was bogus brown, the water in the BRL was soupy green, very hard to see into, especially with the clouds. Still had a good number of shots at reds, converting three of them, two on fly, one on spin. Got another one dragging the shad while paddling.
Saw some black drum (no giants), mostly by running them over. Had shots at a couple tailers, using a black bunny leech. Never thought they saw the fly, or ignored it if they did. At any rate, did not touch one.
Friday
Mixed clouds and sunshine all day with a solid west wind, beautiful day, found me and the fly pole on Mosquito Lagoon. I launched the boat and almost immediately found a shoreline fish. I made what I thought was a good cast. He treated me with as much scorn as those hot co-eds used to.
The shoreline fish were neither thick nor cooperative. I went to a couple trout spots, got some trout, a pinfish, three puffers, and a rat red, all on fly. Time was passing and the decision was made to try one more spot. On the way I ran slam over a big black drum school.
After putting the boat on the closest dry land, I waded over to them. It took a while, and a fly change to a crab pattern, but I finally got one.
I went back to try for another and hit one on the next cast!
I went back for the hat trick- Elvis had left the building. It was fun while it lasted.
On the way back to the ramp I found a few more shoreline fish. They all laughed at me but one nice one, which took the slider and towed me around for a bit. Didn’t photograph him- does the world need another photo of me with a redfish?
Saw one more and tried to photograph him instead of casting to him. Pretty much the same result. You can see why spotting and casting to these fish might be a problem, though.
That’s the Three Lagoons Report. Thanks for reading!
And once again- Happy Holidays!
Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go walking! Stay active!
John Kumiski
https://spottedtail.com
All content in this blog, including writing and photos, ©John Kumiski 2025. All rights are reserved.