Two Days on Mosquito Lagoon Report

Two Days on Mosquito Lagoon Report, and the last TAF Update

Thank you for reading this Two Days on Mosquito Lagoon Report, and the last TAF Update. I fished Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday we had the tree work done, in order to maintain the domestic tranquility. Thanksgiving we ate excessively, like good Americans! The Assistance Fund got some more donations, and the fund-raiser is over!

There will not be a report next week. Sorry.

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please. And speaking of photos- these are from my files, since I didn’t carry a camera this week, again.

A huge THANK YOU to all TAF donors, by name and in no particular order-

-Laura Rice
-Ed Perry
-Dean Altenhofen
-Anonymous
-Walt Sheppard
-Earl Gillespie
-Ken Shannon
-Emily Nelson
-Kelly Holz
-Curtis Duffield
-Michelle Wilm
-Anonymous
-Marcia Foosaner
-Nicholas Colantonio
-Stephen Truscott
-Stephen Butrym
-Jorge Hidalgo
-John Harrison
-Henrique DePaiva
-Anonymous
-Anonymous
-Lisa Pello
-Anonymous
-Lynda Wehmeyer
-James Roberts
-Ralph Tedesco
-Cheryl Kumiski
-Lars Lutton
-Lori Markoff
-Thomas Van Horn
-Jim Tedesco
-Roger Cook

This is quite a list, a bunch of generous, selfless people. We have raised $3,828,00 over 33 donations, 77 percent of my goal, and thank you, thank you, thank you again! Great job!

I didn’t reach my $5000 goal with the fundraiser, but I’d never done a fundraiser and didn’t really think I could reach it. I aimed high! The late advertising executive Leo Burnett had a famous quote- “If you reach for the stars, you might not make it, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” Thanks to all the donors for keeping me out of the mud.

Fishing

Monday

Went kayaking on Mosquito Lagoon. In the morning it was chilly. I wore my old beater waders. They leaked, badly. I’m experimenting by coating them with Flex-Seal. If it doesn’t work, in the trash they go!

My first fish was a mangrove snapper, a rather unusual catch from Mosquito Lagoon. It, and the several fish that followed, took a grizzly Seaducer. What were those fish, you ask? I will tell you! Two crevalle jacks, (rather small), two spotted seatrout (decent ones, high slot), a snook (dinker) and a puffer. All at the first spot! I’m out less than an hour and already have five species, all on fly.

Several more trout and two more puffers took that fly. The last puffer was more than it could take, and it now lives in the dead fly bag.

On my spin rod I had the amputated DOA Shrimp you may have read about in the last report. That bait fooled several more trout, a reasonably-sized snook (22″ or so), two redfish, and a ladyfish, I wanted a black drum for some kind of bizarre ultimate slam, but never saw one. Another puffer pretty much finished the amputated DOA Shrimp. Boat was loaded around 1500.

The baits of choice on Monday. Pretty motley, but the fish didn’t care.

The weather was fantastic, lots of fish were caught, an altogether wonderful day.

Wanted to fish Tuesday, but, the tree crew. Awesome weather, again.

This guy was VERY athletic.

Wednesday

Caleb Vogl joined me, same place on Mosquito Lagoon. Again, the weather was fantastic. I didn’t wear waders because the Flex-Seal experiment had not concluded.

The first fish I saw was a tailing red. When I cast to it, my backcast wrapped around Caleb’s rod. Why he was in my back pocket was unclear. I may have been a little grouchy about it. He got me untangled eventually, and to my amazement the fish was still there! I laid a cast on him, he ate, and was released a few minutes later. It was the only fish I got on fly, mostly because I didn’t use the fly rod again.

The spin rod had a DOA Bait Buster tied onto the leader. My next fish was a fat trout that ate it. After that I switched to a DOA Shrimp. That lure should go into the lure hall of fame. It fooled a dozen or so trout that all hovered around 20 inches, a 22 inch snook, and 15 or so jacks. At the one spot they were camped at, they were thick enough I got one on almost every cast until the novelty of “a fish on every cast” wore off. And the puffers mangled it, of course. Boat was loaded about 1430.

That’s the Two Days on Mosquito Lagoon Report. As always, thanks for reading!

Again, no report next week!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go for a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

Two Days on Mosquito Lagoon Report