Three Days Out
Thank you for reading this Three Days Out report. Once again, the Bang-O-Craft got used twice this week! Unfortunately, like my last report, fishing was less than stellar. And apologies are in order for blowing off last week’s report. I did not fish last week, and couldn’t see writing a report about that. So I didn’t.
Monday
Fletcher McCall joined me in the Bang-O-Craft. Since fishing in my Mosquito Lagoon spots had been spotty at best, I gave Fletcher a choice of Scottsmoor Landing or River Breeze. He picked Scottsmoor, which is where we launched.
Fletcher had indicated a preference for fly fishing. He failed to mention that he had never assembled his tackle before, or had never learned to cast. So a couple hours were spent on that. It should go without saying that he did not learn to cast in two hours, but at least the tackle is ready now.
The water was high, dirty, and apparently devoid of life. “Gross” would be a good descriptor. I poled a while, and then we ran up Turnbull Creek way past the railroad bridge. We did not see any fish busting bait, or any sign of life other than scattered mullet, with the exception of three rolling tarpon in the creek.
I submit to you that if you see three tarpon roll in high, dirty water, it’s going to be hard to get a bite. We did not get one, there or anywhere else. We tried a couple other spots and quit around mid-day.
Friday
I went solo to River Breeze. The water was high, with an incoming tide, and if not as dirty as the Indian River had been, it was still pretty dirty. I went to several favorite spots, none of which produced a nibble but one- an eleven-inch trout taken on a RipTide Weedless Jig. I did see two redfish, which, given the water condition, was quite a feat in itself. Like Monday’s excursion, I do not need to go back there for quite a while. One small trout in two days is pretty dismal fishing.
Saturday
I gave a fishing lesson to Ashley Faith and her two boys, Ashton, age 7, and Atlas, age 4. We used earthworms for bait, at a pond in Altamont Springs. The hardest part of the entire lesson was getting the boys to leave the bait in the water until the fish had a chance to find it. The bobbers finally went down several times, and in spite of missing at least half the bites, they got five or six bluegills.
The great things about taking little kids fishing is how excited they get when they get a fish, and how fast they lose interest. It’s never a long day when fishing with a four-year-old!
I’d like to commend Ashley for her good-mom-ness, learning to handle earthworms and unhook fish so she can take her sons fishing. What a good mom!!!
That’s the Three Days Out report. Thanks for reading!
Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go walking! Stay active!
John Kumiski – https://spottedtail.com
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