Another Central Florida Fishing Report

Thank you for reading another central Florida fishing report. Three days found me out boating this week, with uneven results. At least the weather was nice!

The Marine Resources Council emailed me a link to their 2025 IRL Health update. The 2025 Mosquito Lagoon Health Report link is here. If you’d like the link to the entire document, please drop me a line.

Tuesday

even knowing that we’re now past the middle of February, I tried the mouth of the Econ for shad, launching the Bang-O-Craft at CS Lee Park. The rain Sunday put the river up a couple inches. I did not see any stranded Pathfinders out there.

As so often happens, I went up the river intending to fish a certain spot, and when I got there the only two people I saw on the river all day were in “my” spot. I anchored a bit upriver from them. I don’t how long they had been there, but they had caught only four shad.

I got one on a fly on my second cast. It briefly made me feel smug, but another 20 minutes of casting netted nothing. I switched to the spin rod, and 15 more minutes resulted in no bites and a short change of location. Nothing there, either. Another short change of location. One fat bluegill. Other than that, no dice.

I went up the Econ a ways, now exclusively using the spin rod. I got two warmouth and a small crappie. Moved farther up the heavily shoaling river, bumping bottom, and fallen wood, occasionally. Found a spot with some big crappie, got five or six. But no shads.

Went back to the St. Johns, went towards Puzzle Lake, fished a spot that had been good to me in years past. No one home.

Went back to the original spot. It was later in the day- maybe they woke up! Got a shad on a jig, the only bite in almost thirty minutes. Five-and-a-half hours, two shad. They might be done at CS Lee!

At the boat ramp I was prepping the boat for the road when a woman came up to me. “Did you see a Gheenoe out there?” she asked. I had not. She said, “He went out this morning, said he’d only be a couple hours. It’s been nine hours now, he’s not answering his phone, it’s not like him.” Tears. “Do you know which was he went?” I asked. She did not. I suggested she call the sheriff and FWC. I checked the internet the next morning for any news about a missing boater at Lake Harney and there wasn’t any, so I assume he showed up.

Before I go out on the water I leave my wife a note, sometimes with a map, letting her know where I’m going. If you have any respect for your partner, letting them know where to tell the search party to look is the least you can do before potentially getting lost!

Wednesday

I launched my canoe on the Econlockhatchee. The gauge was a little over two feet. The water looked decent. But that water was pretty lifeless. I carried a fly rod, but never saw a dragonfly (several damselflies, though), never saw any fish chasing bait. I exclusively threw soft plastics on the spin rod. The bite was not red hot!

The first fish was a monster 10-incher, but it did chase the skunk. The last fish was a monster 10-incher, about four hours later. In between were three or four others ranging from one-and-a-half to maybe three (perhaps I’m being generous here) pounds, and a couple missed strikes. I saw five turkeys, four hens along the river and a tom flying (just barely) across it, very cool. Saw a bald eagle on a dead branch over the river. Saw some little alligators, but Godzilla was hiding. Had a good time, enjoyed the day.

Thursday

I met Mike Conneen for some Mosquito Lagoon paddling. We launched near the old Bull Camp and went down to the south end of Max Hoeck Creek. We saw one redfish on the way down, and another one (perhaps the same one?) on the way back. Neither of us touched a fish, and while it would have been nice, neither of us cared much. Water was much dirtier than north of Haulover. And that was my fishing for the week.

Spring is here- red maple have already gone to seed, willows are leafing out and already in flower, I’m waking every morning to the sound of songbirds. And I could be up to my butt in snow if I’d just stayed in New England all those years ago.

That’s another central Florida fishing 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

Another Central Florida Fishing Report