Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

March 16, 2013 by john kumiski · 2 Comments

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to paddle a canoe through the everglades? Read about some of my misadventures here- johnkumiski.com/the-everglades. I’m looking for feedback and have a couple of free books for the best comments.

The fishing this week won’t go down as memorable.

Monday I took a kayak trip out of River Breeze. The was a major water event- when I got to the boat ramp the water was up nearly a foot. That never bodes well for kayak fishing.

It was overcast with some breze from the south. I saw eight redfish and had one cast at one that had already detected me.

Redfish are spooking off kayaks now, something that never used to happen. They’re getting even more spooky, even harder to catch.

Tuesday I went for a walk in the rain along the Florida Trail with my new Nikon Coolpix waterproof camera. I learned it only takes 12 pictures without a memory card. It worked well, even better once the card got here.

A Florida Trail mudbridge.

Same mud bridge, ant’s eye view

Thursday Dave Zupek and his friend Ron joined me for a day’s fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. The forecast high was 64. The actual high was 59. The wind was north at 20. We saw only six or seven fish all day, had only one bite. We missed it.

Dave asked me why I didn’t have any photos of days like that on my website. I’m putting some in this report.

Dave Zupek, enjoying a hot day with hot fishing- not.

Dave and Ron, out of the wind.

It was pretty darned cold out there.

Your trusty reporter, enjoying the weather.

Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for a day’s fishing, also on Mosquito Lagoon. We launched the skiff at River Breeze. Steam came off the water like it always does when it’s cold out.

We found some fish, not a load, but enough we should have caught some. They would not allow us to get into casting range.

We had maybe four decent shots all morning. George got one red, out of the slot, the only bite we had.

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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Orlando Area Fishing Report

March 9, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Upcoming Events–
Not in the Immediate Future Dept.- Rodney Smith and I are planning on paddling an Old Town canoe through the Indian River Lagoon from New Smyrna Beach to Jupiter (the city, not the planet, although THAT would be a heck of a trip), beginning December 2. More details will be forthcoming in future posts. We’re looking for individuals or groups who’d like to partner with us. Contact him or me for more information.

Yes, we’ll get all that gear into a canoe.

—–

Son Maxx is on Spring Break from school. Monday he was able to squeeze enough time that we could go fishing. We took the Old Town out of River Breeze. It was cold, with significant breeze. The water was low and clear. The fish were plentiful but very spooky. There were reasonable numbers of tailers, lovely to see.

Maxx, preparing to release a nice redfish.

We managed six redfish, all in the slot, all on slider flies. Maxx couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a redfish on fly. It was an awesome day with my son.

This fish took a slider.

Tuesday I went riding my bicycle in the Big Little Econ State Forest. Fortunately there were no crashes. I love doing that, it’s great exercise and great fun.

Wednesday son Alex and I got up early and drove to Jensen Beach. We met Marcia Foosaner and Mark Nichols a little after 9 AM, just as a cold front came through.

We did not catch any fish at the first or second spots, although I did lose much of my lure to a blowfish. Fortunately Mark had some more.

We again all went wading at the third spot. I got a few slot trout and a couple dozen small crevalle, using DOA Shrimp and CAL jigs. Mark did best, getting what I got but also getting three nice pompano.

It was wonderful getting out and fishing with both my son and old friends. Thanks to everyone involved.

Thursday Simms Outdoor Products held the first High Tide Guide Gathering at River Palms. Great event. Alex and I met a bunch of new people. I saw a lot of old friends. We spent some money, learned new things, and had a fine time. Thanks to Simms, Costa, Yeti, and Hell’s Bay for putting it all together.

Friday Tammy Wilson joined me for some scouting on the Indian River Lagoon. It was hugely disappointing.

The VAB flat across from Titusville used to have lush grass growth. It wouldn’t always hold fish, but you always knew they’d be back. Now it’s all bare sand, with blobs of algae rolling around here and there.

There’s nothing there to hold fish.

Grass feeds and shelters crabs, shrimp, worms, minnows, those things that redfish and seatrout eat. Without grass, no food. Without food, no fish. Those of us who fish around the Space Center should all be very, very concerned.

There’s no grass in the Banana River Lagoon. There’s no grass in much of the Indian River Lagoon. Is Mosquito Lagoon next?

I took Tammy to a spot usually good for a couple fish and we got three between us, two reds on a slider and a small trout on a spoonfly.

I won’t be going back to that section of the Indian River any time soon.

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.

Trip Planning

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Banana River, DOA Lures, Indian River Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing report, redfish, seatrout fishing

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

March 4, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

This fish was NOT caught by me this week.

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

Blog posts this week: Trip Planning

Sunday afternoon I went to the St. Johns River on a shad hunt. In a little more than two hours only two bites were had. Both were missed, and nary a fish came aboard. Rain chased me off the river.

Monday Steve Timmons joined me on the Mosquito Lagoon. The fish are continuing in their spooky ways and we only got a few trout.

Tuesday I was supposed to fish Sue Cocking. I called her Monday night and told her not to drive up. As it turned out it was a good call- the weather Tuesday was awful, windy and rainy.

Windy Wednesday fly fisher Eric Malmbourg joined me on Mosquito Lagoon. There were fish on Tiger Shoal that wouldn’t eat, in spite of a few excellent shots. The fish were gone from a couple other spots. At the end of the trip we found some reds on the south side of an island, where they were out of the wind. Again Eric had a few good shots but no bites. He ended up with one dink trout for our efforts.

On Friday the weather was marginal but I took the kayak out of River Breeze to see if it was still possible to catch a redfish on a fly. In spite of the overcast I found a school of fish in a big white hole and even wading I could hardly get near them. In three hours I did get two on a slider.

The clouds cleared, the sun came out, and I found some nice fish tailing. Although they were also pretty spooky I managed to get two more, much nicer fish. The bigger one was pushing ten pounds. After I got those two, though, all the other stopped tailing and apparently disappeared.

It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. I did not want to leave.

On Saturday I had seven folks for the Show and Tell Seminar. It was cold and windy but otherwise it went well. Wendy Radwan emailed me, “I wanted to thank you so much for your time and efforts for the seminar yesterday. You could see that I took copious amounts of notes, and I’m excited to read your book and to try out some sites along the dikes.” Thank you, Wendy!

On Sunday I had four folks for two on-the-water show and tell sessions. Oh yeah, it was Alaska weather, cold and windy. At least it wasn’t raining! We circumnavigated the Mosquito Lagoon once in the morning and again with a different crew in the afternoon. We didn’t see a fish either time, except when coming back into Haulover Canal at the end of the day we watched a nice black drum get caught..

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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Indian River Lagoon, kayak fishing, mosquito lagoon fishing report, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, orlando fishing report, redfish

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 23, 2013 by john kumiski · 4 Comments

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-

-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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: DOA Lures, florida fishing, fly fishing, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing charter, orlando fishing report, seatrout fishing

Orlando Area Fishing Report

February 9, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area 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

Blog Posts This Week:

–Canoeing in Maine
–Oppose the MINWR Launch Site
–Trash Fishing

The Super Bowl was last Sunday. My favorite columnist, Gregg Easterbrook, published his last column of this football season on Tuesday. He finished with these sentiments:

“As usual, I recommend you employ the offseason to engage in spiritual growth. Take long walks. Perform volunteer work. Exercise more and eat less. Drink less soda, more tea: green tea is soothing, oolong tea may lower blood pressure. Attend worship services of any faith, bearing in mind Pascal’s wager. Study philosophy and secular ethics: We spend too much time on economics and science, not enough on ethics. Read a book a month. Seriously, you can’t get through a book a month? And real books: history, literary novels. Appreciate the grandeur of nature. Meditate, express gratitude, serve others. Tell the people around you that you love them. Who knows if you will get another chance?”

Amen to all that. I would add, “Go fishing. Enjoy the outdoors.” I will look forward to TMQ returning in September.

MINWR Launch Complex Update– rather than clutter up this report with all the correspondence flying back and forth, please visit this link for the latest updates. At this link I have a letter you can copy.

The Turtle– Reader Mark Smith won the book with this very complete response:
“The diagnostic for the loggerhead is the presence of two claws on the front flipper. The front flipper closest to your chest appears to have just one claw. The flipper closest to the photog MAY have a second distal to the obvious one. My source book says the second claw is sometimes difficult to see.

“Since we can’t count the plates on the dorsal surface, the only other diagnostic feature is the relative size of the head. This requires just an educated guess at this point since we don’t have a known loggerhead/green to compare against.

“If you look at distribution and range, greens and loggerheads overlap in Fla, although the Lhead is much more common.

“I guessed Lhead because its more abundant/common and also it’s head just appears to be bulky, and not as sleek as a green.”

Thank you Mark, nice work. I hope you enjoy the book!

Fishing!

My friend Ricky called. He got me all chummed up about tarpon fishing. Shoot, it’s only February. I just tied a half-dozen flies. Seeing pictures like this didn’t help, either…

A school of tarpon on a Gulf coast flat…

Father Rick Voor and his friend Scott were on my mind on Monday and Tuesday. I went back to the same areas where they had gotten skunked last week. I kicked fish butt this week.

Monday my three-weight broke when I got a little heavy-handed on a redfish. It was the fifth or sixth fish of the day, all solid five and six pound fish. The fly was an old favorite, the grizzly seaducer, size 4.

Tuesday, not having learned my lesson, the other three-weight accompanied me. It accounted for at least 20 fish before I decided I was being a greedy pig and quit fishing. A couple of nice trout took a minnow pattern and I photographed myself with one with very moderate success.

The model ain’t pretty but the fish is nice.

Some home projects occupied me Wednesday and Thursday. Friday the weather was gorgeous if a bit windy. I launched the Mitzi by the Jolly Gator and went upriver looking for shad. Oh yes, we found them with some help from Mark Benson. They were rolling and boiling all over the river. In addition to a couple dozen shad, a couple bluegills and a suicidal largemouth fell for my flies. It was an awesome afternoon- the best shad fishing I have seen in several years.

Saturday found me and 30 or so other folks picking up trash around the Haulover Canal. A lot of litter was picked up. If you were fortunate enough to visit that place at noon you could have seen it litter free, a rare thing indeed. Kudos to all the volunteers.

In the afternoon the Mitzi again plied the waters of the St. Johns River. This time Tammy Wilson joined me. We went to the same spot as yesterday. Although not quite as good it was still good.
Tammy tossed a fly while I threw a spin rod. The way the wind was blowing it was safer that way. Creme makes these two lures that shad and other denizens of the river like bluegills and crappie are wild about. One is the Spoiler Shad, 1.5 inches long. The other is the Litl Fishie, same size. See them here…

The Spoiler Shad, with an American shad.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short. Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

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All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2013. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report ·

Orlando Area Fishing Report

February 2, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-

– Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Clean-Up, February 9, 2013. Contact Nancy Corona, 321-861-0668 or nancy_corona@fws.gov

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, MINWR, March 2; On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, March 3

If the state of Florida has its way the Merritt Island NWR cleanup may be completely unneccessary.

ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT!!!! DANGER! DANGER!

Reader Michael Adornetto writes, “I was wondering if you could make mention of the proposed Shiloh launch complex in your next fishing report. I fear that this launch complex will keep us from protecting the refuge and our beloved fishery of the Mosquito and north Indian River Lagoons. We need to get the word out to make people aware.

“Space Florida and Lieutenant Governor Carroll are trying to get NASA to give the State control of 150 acres where the Shiloh citrus area is north of Haulover on the west side of State Road 3 by north Indian River Lagoon. They want to build a commercial launch site outside of NASA so they don’t have the red tape and regulations of working with NASA.”

If you bird, fish, hunt, or paddle the lagoons I probably don’t need to explain the negative impact this would have on your recreation.

Links for more information:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130130/SPACE/130130024/Space-Florida-continues-push-land-state-run-launch-complex-KSC

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130102/NEWS01/301020021/Florida-pursues-studies-new-commercial-launch-complex

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/09/24/space-florida-seeks-to-run-shuttle-landing-facility-build-commercial-launch-complex/

Obviously, a massive publicity and letter writing campaign needs to start immediately so we can keep this complex on either the NASA property or Canaveral Air Force Station.

If you think a new space complex on what is now national wildlife refuge property is a bad idea, send a short email to let your state senator and state representative know. You can find them at these links:

http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov

Next week I will have a letter you can copy.

Blog Post this week: Life is Short

Fishing!

Monday Father Rick Voor and his friend Scott joined me for some kayak fishing out of River Breeze. My last trip there had been good so I was optimistic. The fish quickly crushed that optimism by not being there. We worked hard for over five hours. We got two rat reds and a micro-flounder between us.

Near the end of the trip we spotted what I at first thought was a couple of tailing fish. Casting to “them” proved fruitless. And, they started not looking like fish.

Investigation revealed a small sea turtle in distress. How much distress? Enough we could pick it up by hand. I called Layne Hamilton, Rob Leonard, and Jane Whaley to get advice as how to proceed. I didn’t get any of them. Rick and Scott tried a few calls too. We left the turtle there, probably to die, very sad.

Father Rick’s turtle. The first person to correctly identify the species will win a free copy of Rodney Smith’s book Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon.

Wednesday I went bike riding in Little Big Econ State Forest. Yeah, that’s a kick! Great thing to do when it’s too windy to fish.

Friday afternoon Alex and I went to the St. Johns for some shad action. It was a beautiful day and the fish were biting good enough that we had a couple of doubles, ending up with a dozen or so shad in less than three hours. Strangely, no other species of fish were caught.

One of many shad we caught.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area Saltwater 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Indian River Lagoon, kayak fishing, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, NASA, orlando fishing report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

January 26, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-
– Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Clean-Up, February 9, 2013. Contact Nancy Corona, 321-861-0668 or nancy_corona@fws.gov
-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

Blog Posts this Week-
–UV Skinz- A Review

Tuesday’s out-of-the-box thinking led to some excellent fishing.

I left the house at close to three o’clock in the afternoon, heading to River Breeze, armed with a kayak and a three-weight. After paddling to the fishing spot I was happily surprised to see redfish tailing all over the place. It was cold and windy- I was not expecting this.

The first two clumps of tailers refused the fly, which led to a change. Three fish were boated and released before sunset, an outstanding evening’s outing.

Wednesday morning found me in the same spot with the same tackle. The tailers were gone. At a different spot a trout chased several mullet to the surface. Some blind casting with a minnow imitation led to two missed strikes, and the capture of two nice trout. The bigger of the two was at least two feet long. A redfish fell for the fake, too.

On the way back to River Breeze I found some more tailing redfish, and managed a nice one on a little shrimpy looking fly. It was a beautiful if chilly morning. The fish were just icing on the cake.

Thursday I launched at KARS Park as the sun came up. It was a gorgeous morning. There was no one else there, which made me think I wouldn’t find any fish. I paddled quite a distance, and loaded the kayak back onto the chariot at 1 PM, not having seen a single fish. Won’t be going back there for a while.

Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. We went to where all those fish were last week, didn’t see any. When I started up again the steering cable went. We drifted most of the way back to Haulover, casting DOA Shrimp. We got a load of trout, mostly shorts. I cleaned two fish for Mary Jo, who was glad to get them.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area Saltwater 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Banana River, DOA Lures, kayak fishing, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mosquito Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing, orlando fishing report, Orlando Florida, redfish

Orlando Area Fishing Report

January 19, 2013 by john kumiski · 2 Comments

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-

–Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 23-28, 2013

– Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Clean-Up, February 9, 2013. Contact Nancy Corona, 321-861-0668 or nancy_corona@fws.gov

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, MINWR, March 2; On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, March 3

Bumper Sticker of the Week:

We did some fishing this week, folks.

On Monday Tom and Joyce Moore, Green Mountain state folks, joined me for a day’s fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. Tom got a nice redfish on a jerkbait right out of the gate. Then we had to work, as the fish seemingly disappeared. We got several trout and another redfish on DOA Shrimp.

Tom Moore got this fish on his second or third cast.

Fish Story of the Week:

Tom was using a DOA Deadly Combo when he had a powerful strike. The fish took off and the leader parted. We could see the bright orange float as the fish swam off with it. Inexplicably, the fish turned around and came back towards us.

Tom tried to hook the line between the fish and the float, but the DOA Shrimp was a poor choice of baits for that particular task. I climbed down off the poling tower and tied on a Sting Silver and snagged the rig on the second cast. Joyce reeled the fish in, a beautiful 26 inch seatrout. We got our Deadly Combo rig back, photographed and released the fish.

The star of our fish story of the week, displayed by Joyce Moore.

On Tuesday Cincinattian Steve Horgan joined me for the first of four days of fly fishing. Steve describes himself as a “multi-species fisherman”, which means he is interested in catching as many different species on fly as he possible can. So that was our goal for the week.

Tuesday found us on the Mosquito Lagoon. In the morning the weather was perfect, very few clouds, very little wind. The redfish were thick, lots of schools, but very spooky. There were quite a few boats about. We stalked schools of both tailing and cruising redfish for about five hours. We did not get one. Steve had only one bite during that time. A three or four pound black drum took the crab fly. Steve had his first specie of his trip.

Mr. Horgan’s first ever black drum.

Early in the afternoon it got windy and cloudy. We fished in several spots trying to get a redfish and/or a seatrout. We failed to do so. It was a frustrating day, after seeing so many hundreds of fish.

Wednesday morning Steve and I drove down to Sebastian River and launched the boat. Tarpon were rolling 100 yards from the boat ramp. Like Sebastian River tarpon usually do, they laughed at everything we tried. We gave up.

I idled down to the ICW and ran through Sebastian Inlet, hoping it would be calm enough for us to look around out there. It was definitely not. We tried floating the flats inside the inlet. There was no grass, no bait, and no activity. We saw nothing and did not get any bites so we headed back into Sebastian River.

I poled while Steve banged the shoreline with a streamer. He ended up with seven snook, three mangrove snapper, and a couple of ladyfish, all new species for him. We went back to where the tarpon were and tried various things for another hour plus but did not get a bite. I was hoping we’d get a crevalle and maybe a redfish, but neither of those happened, either.

Seven snook sounds great. At least they weren’t all quite this small, although they were all lovely.

It was nice being there, but in my opinion not worth the drive as far as catching fish went.

Thursday we went to Mosquito Lagoon. We found a school of redfish. They were not showing themselves very well. We played cat and mouse with them for a couple of hours. Steve had some good shots but the fish didn’t bite. As the wind got harder I lost the fish, so went and looked in a couple other places. I saw very little.

We pulled the boat and went to the Indian River. By now it was blowing about 20 mph. There were no groups of fish and Steve had trouble seeing the singles I found. We’d blow right past them without a shot. We ended up completely skunked, wet from the rain and wind. It was a really tough day.

Friday found us at the St. Johns River. The temperature was in the high 40s when I launched the boat, with a 15 mph wind, which increased in force as the day went on. Fishing was s-l-o-w. Steve did get a nice shad on a bucktail streamer.

Mr. Horgan’s shad, another first.

I got a couple little ones on a wooly booger. He got a few bluegills. I got a small crappie and a small channel cat. It rained intermittently. We worked hard all week and really didn’t have a lot to show for it.

Steve did get five new species, but we failed to get either a trout or a redfish for him. Thank you for your patience, Steve- it was wonderful fishing with you.

My fisherman for Saturday postponed his trip because of the wind and clouds.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Black drum, DOA Lures, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, mosquito lagoon fishing seminar, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing report, redfish, seatrout fishing, Sebastian Inlet, tarpon fishing

Orlando Fishing Report

January 6, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Orlando Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-
-Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 23-28, 2013
-Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Clean-Up, February 9, 2013. Contact Nancy Corona, 321-861-0668 or nancy_corona@fws.gov
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, MINWR, March 2; Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, March 3

Blog posts this week: Seven Must Have Lures for Winter Fishing in Florida’s Lagoons

New Website Department- http://johnkumiski.com -photography and a more literary writing sampler than I typically post here, even a few poems! Please check it out and tell me what you think. Thanks!

The coffee this morning is especially delicious.

On Tuesday Dr. Ken Unger, from Calgary, did some Mosquito Lagoon fly fishing with me from the Mitzi. Although the sky was overcast for much of the day, until about 1 PM the lagoon was slick calm. There were a lot of fish around, just lying around. I would have expected tailing everywhere but no, they wouldn’t do that. We ran over a lot of fish.

Ken did get a few reds on a crab pattern. We tried for trout. They had moved from some spots and were protected by copious amounts of floating grass in others. He got a few good strikes but none were converted.

Dr. Ken with a decent red.

It was a little frustrating but we had a good time and we did get some fish. Here’s what Ken said: “Wanted to thank you for the good day yesterday. Enjoyed the company. Learned a little which is something I always want to do in a new area. Caught some fish. A good start to the new year. I will be back. Thanks again.”

On Thursday morning I braved the fog, launching the kayak at KARS at about 730. I dared not get more than 150 feet from shore. There was no wind. I didn’t have a compass, or for you modern types, a GPS either. The sun hid behind the clouds. If I couldn’t see shore I would be utterly lost. It was very cool but very spooky at the same time.

Paddling steadily north I ran over the occasional trout. The object was to find big reds or black drum. Stopping at one place I cast a streamer for trout for a while but did not get bit. The quest continued.

The fog burned off around noon.

I went most of the way to the NASA causeway.

I did not find what I was looking for.

On the way back I saw a tail, as it turns out the only one found. I stalked the fish. It was a big black drum. It ignored my fly and swam off. I would not see another.

The final score was one shot, no bites, four fish seen- pretty disappointing. More searching needs to be done. It’s the right time of year.

Speaking of the right time of year, shad are being caught in the St. Johns River. I do not have any details. I wanted to go Friday but that 60 degrees and raining put me off. Too much like Alaska.

There are some shad in the St. Johns River!

Yesterday son Maxx and I went running along the Florida Trail, most of the way to Orlando Wetlands Park. Beautiful day, nice woods. Hamstring is kind of tight today, though.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area Saltwater 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: Banana River, Black drum, florida fishing, Florida Trail, fly fishing, kayak fishing, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, orlando fishing report

Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

December 24, 2012 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Merry Christmas to All, and a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year to Everyone!

Upcoming Events-

–Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 23-28, 2013

– Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Clean-Up, February 9, 2013. Contact Nancy Corona, 321-861-0668 or nancy_corona@fws.gov

My bride had knee surgery. I spent most of this week taking care of her, as she can’t get around very well. She’s doing fine, thanks, and we expect a complete recovery.

Only three days were spent on the water this week but many other things got done.
-My website got hacked and crashed. It needed a complete re-build. That took some time.
-As long as I was at it I built a new website for my sister, the glass artist. See it at http://www.cherylkumiski.com

Blog Posts this week:

-A Christmas Gift to You

On Wednesday Tammy Wilson met me at Parrish Park. We spent four hours looking around the Mosquito Lagoon for fish. We did not see many, perhaps because we started late.

Tammy got a trout and a redfish, both out of the slot, while blind-casting with an olive colored bunny leech.

I got two smallish trout blind-casting with a DOA Shrimp.

A cold front came through Thursday night. The water level dropped six or seven inches, and the water temperature dropped by 10 degrees, between sunset Thursday and sunrise on Saturday. At that point I met Jason and Jonathan Brege, my fishermen for the next two days.

It was 38 degrees at the boat ramp and the flag was almost straight out. The Indian River Lagoon was covered with whitecaps. They wanted to go anyway so we launched the boat at Titusville Marina. That first boat ride was almost like the brain freeze you get when you eat ice cream too fast.

We fished in every dredge hole and canal I know. We came up with a grand total of three trout to 23 inches, all caught on jigs. Late in the day we found a bunch of fish, mostly trout but a few reds too, up on a flat. We could not get them to eat anything and didn’t get a bite there.

Sunday dawned much more placidly. With the winds forecast to be light and variable we went to Mosquito Lagoon with the intent of fly fishing. The first spot, which had been holding fish, was nearly barren. Playing a hunch I went to the spoil islands. Good call.

Both Jason and Jonathan got their first ever seatrout and redfish on fly. An imitation crab and a minnow pattern did the damage. They took turns fly fishing, so the “off” guy tossed a jerkbait, which also accounted for several trout.

The trout were running large…
Jonathan with a fine trout.

The trout were running large, between 20 and 25 inches. The best redfish was 26. We got enough of each that I lost track (three or four is enough for that to happen, though).

Brother Jason with trout on fly.

The weather was spectacular, the fish were cooperative, my fishermen were great guys, it was a fantastic weekend. Happy Christmas to me!

The brothers with a fat Mosquito Lagoon redfish.

And that is this week’s exciting version of the Orlando Area and 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: adventure fishing, florida fishing, fly fishing, Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, orlando fishing charter, orlando fishing report, redfish, seatrout fishing, Space Coast

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Area Fishing Report

Orlando Fishing Report

Orlando Fishing Report

Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

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