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Orlando Area Fishing Report

April 5, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing ReportOrlando Area Fishing Report

The Mitzi is still for sale!

Blog Posts This Week– Poppers for Seatrout

It’s April and I’m thinking about tarpon. Friends on the west coast have already seen some.

On Monday I went bass fishing. I threw the same bluegill popper I threw last time I went, with much the same result- three or four bluegills and about 20 bass, mostly little ones with a couple decent specimens thrown in for variety. It was a beautiful day and a very enjoyable several hours.

orlando area fishing report

 

 

orlando area fishing report

Tuesday was Tammy Tuesday, so let me just copy her facebook post:

“Yesterday’s original plan was to fish the lagoon. Last second change had us going offshore. My faithful companion and mentor and friend John Kumiski had some issues getting across the bridge to port because of a bad accident.
“Change of plans again. He called and we decided to fish the IRL instead. So I left the port and headed to Port Saint John and we launched. Got into some jacks and trout and talked about what a beautiful day it was. As we could see the bridge from where we launched we saw traffic moving again. Next thing I know John is motoring to the ramp. Boat back on trailer and off to the port we go.

orlando area fishing report
“It was a long day of hunting for anything out there. A whole lot of nothing until a lone undersized tripletail appeared. We finally caught and released it. We looked everywhere and found nothing. Finally john decided to pull a Hail Mary and head to a spot a good bit away but likely unbothered yet for the day.

orlando area fishing report
“The lone tripletail on that structure was dinner last night. Just as we were giving up and admitting to and accepting the suck, though…. Divine intervention in the form of a huge ray leaping from the water 100 yards away.
“One rod set up and one cast made. A few minutes later there was much celebration aboard the Mitzi. We looked for that ray again hoping to pull another cobia off of it but it was not to be. So glad john never gives up! Another adventure toosday with John Kumiski in the books.”

orlando area fishing report

In spite of the beautiful weather, did not fish Wednesday.

Thursday Brad and Greg joined me as part of a two boat trip on Mosquito Lagoon. It was slick when we got there and although we saw a decent number of fish we could not get near them. In the third spot we tried Brad got a bluefish on a DOA CAL Shad. We then tried the DOA Deadly Combo out at the edge of the flat and got a few trout, small ones. At the last place we looked we found a school of big reds. In spite of having cut mullet in them numerous times over the next 45 minutes we did not get a bite. Stomachs growling at us, we gave up, ran up to Goodrich Seafood, and had quite the delicious lunch, after which we returned to the dock and pulled the boat.

Friday Scott and Ryan joined me for a half day on the Indian River Lagoon. Ryan got a rat red right away of the CAL Shad. Then we just spooked a bunch of fish. Ryan wanted to try fly fishing so I took them to the small trout spot and gave him a lesson. He was good enough to get two or three while Scott railed them with a barb-pinched-down DOA Shrimp.

We changed spots and saw some nice, spooky reds and trout. Ryan got a hit on the CAL Shad from a nice red but missed it. On the way back to the dock we saw birds diving. Breaking fish, how lucky was that? Ladyfish and bluefish, we got a few of each before the frenzy stopped. We were happy to have run into a bunch of fish to end our day.

And that is this week’s 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

March 30, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report 32914

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and at that time the hours were 984.

The weather man was so bad this week. But Miguel Cabrera made a TON of money.

Monday was overcast and windy. I worked on the book for a while, then went for a walk. Posted the neighborhood walk photos as a blog, and posted another blog on When to Use Small Lures .

neighborhood walk

trees have spirits

The forecast for Tuesday included high winds and lightning. Tammy and I were supposed to go fishing, but we called it off Monday night based on the forecast.

Never call off a fishing trip because of a forecast!

There was no wind, no lightning, and not a drop of rain fell. I went for a bike ride after working on the book a while. Then I posted a blog about the bike ride.

iris

iris

Wednesday was very windy and overcast and I had honey-dos to do. Keep that honey happy, I say.

I decided Wednesday night, based on the forecast, not to go fishing Thursday.

Never call off a fishing trip because of a forecast!

It was overcast all day but there was no wind. I took turns working on the book and kicking myself for not going. I also posted another blog, What to Do When a Big Fish Dives Under the Boat , because this happened on my last charter and the fish broke off.

I also posted a blog on the great blue heron.

great blue heron

The forecast for Friday included wind and lightning. Friday morning the sun was out so I tossed the kayak on the chariot and drove to River Breeze. There was a strong river breeze when I got there but the sun was still out. I started paddling and looking. I continued paddling and looking, and paddled and looked some more. Finally I ran over a redfish. Other than a few mullet it was, up to that point, the only animal life I saw in the water- not a ray, not a crab, nothing.

While I ate lunch a small stingray swam by. Paddling in a canal I saw a blue crab. In the last possible place for a redfish to be I saw one tailing. Was I surprised? Not too much to stop the boat and make a cast though. The cast was decent and the critical moment was but a second away when a gust of wind lifted the paddle off my lap and dropped it on the boat. The resulting thud was loud enough to scare every fish for a half mile and certainly spazzed out the one I was working on. And that was it for the day. The boat was back on the roof at 2 PM.

Saturday morning I drove to Parrish Park, windshield wipers on the entire way, watching the lightning flash. “He’ll never want to go out,” I thought. As we were discussing it 20 boats went roaring by, a tournament I didn’t know about. That settled things, and I drove home again, having lost the charter. But I didn’t cancel the trip based on a forecast.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon fishing report.

In spite of weeks like this one, 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report and Photo Essay

March 22, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report 32214

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and at that time the hours were 984.

My contact at the Circle K store in Christmas told me last week he caught a seatrout so big its photo weighed 32 pounds.

Bumper sticker of the week-

fcat sticker

On Sunday Mr. Derek Wensky, from San Francisco, found himself riding over the surface of the Indian River Lagoon in the Mitzi. He had never fished in Florida before. I can’t claim fishing was fabulous, or even hot, but he did catch a few. First came a redfish, a modest fellow that made the error of biting Derek’s DOA CAL Shad tail. After him quite a few fish laughed at our attempts. While we were eating lunch I soaked a piece of mullet. A handsome seatrout ate it. Lastly, we found a clump of black drum. Derek switched from the shad to a clear DOA Shrimp and one of those drum was fooled. Most of the fish we saw had too much sense to bite though.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Derek had never heard of black drum before this.

 

indian river lagoon fishing report

DOA Shrimp- deadly on anything.

Monday’s trip was blown out.

Tuesday’s trip was blown out.

Wednesday found me in a room at the Orlando VAMC with Dr. Tran. She said to come back next year. Can’t say the exam was anything more than cursory.

Thursday was the first day of spring! Brasileiro Kelven Lopes, a fly fishing fisheries biologist who lives in Brasilia, found himself riding over the surface of the Indian River Lagoon in the Mitzi. He was a real good angler and got a couple reds on my redfish bitters fly right out of the gate.

indian river lagoon fishing report

They don’t have redfish in Brasil. This was Kelven’s first.

Things slowed down then. We changed spots and he got a nice trout on a big black wooly bugger.

indian river lagoon fishing report

They don’t have seatrout in Brasil, either. Kelven prepares to release this one.

We found another clump of black drum that did not take anything we tried. But he got another redfish, the best of the day, on an ugly fly with a rubber hackle tail, a brown estaz body, and a rubber hackle wing.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Best fish of the day.

We went to another spot but there was nothing there so we returned to a place we had already fished. The fish were still laughing at us as we left, although we should not forget about nor discount the four quality puffers my flies cleverly fooled!

indian river lagoon fishing report

Recording the puffer for posterity.

I hadn’t used my Portuguese in a long time but it was better than his English so that’s how we communicated. Misquecindo todos todos todos!

On Friday Scott Townsend and his friend Brandon joined me for a day on the Indian River Lagoon. We were snakebit. Brandon got a redfish right away on a DOA CAL Shad. He then missed three strikes in a row, at which point the fish in that spot shut down.

indian river lagoon fishing report

A happy Brandon. Things went downhill from here.

 

indian river lagoon fishing report

The DOA CAL Shad gets yet another redfish.

We went trout fishing for a while, getting a lot of little ones on fly and on DOA Shrimp. When that got old we went looking for redfish again. We spooked several while Scott and Brandon got the hang of sight fishing. Then a big one showed up. Brandon made a perfect cast and hooked the fish, at least 20 pounds. I gave chase with the boat. I was getting ready to grab the fish when it dove under the boat, breaking the line in the process. Damn.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Brandon has a big fish on and he’s happy. Sadly it did not last.

We looked in three other spots. No fish in one, no bites in the next, one bite and a breakoff for Scott in the last, which is how our day ended.

Tip of the week- when a fly rod and a pushpole joust the fly rod always loses.

indian river lagoon fishing report

And the winner, by a landslide, is….

And that is this week’s Indian River 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

March 15, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and the hours were 984.

Blog Post This Week– How to Fish All Day Without Hurting Your Back

The week started out with a bang that had an unexpected twist. On Monday I took the three-weight out to go bluegill fishing. I only got two. But the bass were on fire, eating my little bluegill popper like great white sharks eating seals. I got twenty or so.

orlando area fishing report

They ate this bug like they were starving.

Lots of little ones, but several decent ones and a fatty that anyone would be happy to get, close to five pounds. They gave that little rod a workout, I know that. It was a wonderful day.

orlando area fishing report

This chunky guy was the fish of the trip.

 

orlando area fishing report

This is a 60s fish- psychedelic.

Tuesday I went scouting in the Indian River Lagoon for my trip on Wednesday. The weather could not have been nicer and holy cow, I found some fish!  I had written a blog a few weeks back about the Lunkerhunt Swim Bentos Bait. The packages were still unopened and I wanted to try one, so the Dace was put on a hook and showed to some prospective clients. They ate it as well as they eat anything else.

orlando area fishing report

This fish did not say no.

orlando area fishing report

This is how I rigged the bait, now beat up from catching fish.

Some said no, of course. I missed a couple of strikes, but got three 20 inch plus trout and one red on the dace. The last fish to eat it was a five pound trout- he actually ate it, was hooked in the gills, and was mostly bled out by the time he was boated.

orlando area fishing report

The suicidal fish. I was sorry it died.

Getting the hook out ruined the lure, so I switched to the old reliable DOA CAL Shad, which nailed the best fish of the day, a 28 inch red. I broke my rod getting pictures of it. I saw a bunch more fish after that but missed the only eater. It was a wonderful day.

orlando area fishing report

This is the fish that broke my Loomis rod…

orlando area fishing report

…and so is this…

 

orlando area fishing report

…and so is this. The lure is a DOA CAL Shad.

Wednesday’s trip was postponed until Friday due to the weather. I took the opportunity to visit the lab at the Orlando VAMC, always an interesting trip. The afternoon was spent doing taxes. It was not such a wonderful day.

Thursday had a high of 59 degrees with 20+mph winds. Didn’t fish.

Friday found me out on the Indian River Lagoon with fly fisher Will Zobel and his buddy from school days, Roger. The weather was a bit breezy and there were rather a lot of clouds that made sight fishing difficult. That being said, we were in fish most of the day- fussy, uncooperative fish. Some fine presentations were made. In spite of that only one small red was caught, and that on a DOA CAL Shad. It was a beautiful day, but tough and frustrating from an angling standpoint.

And that is this week’s 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Area Fishing Report

March 10, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing Report 31014

Upcoming Events-

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register. Registration closes on Thursday 3/13.

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and the hours were 984.

The computer tells you the number of total hours, as well as the number of hours in each RPM range.

The computer tells you the number of total hours, as well as the number of hours in each RPM range.

Tuesday Tammy and I went kayak fishing in the Indian River Lagoon. I ran over a few trout, so I tried blind casting with a gurgler. There was no response from any fish. We paddled up the shoreline for a couple miles. I only saw five redfish, but got good shots at two of them and caught both, using an unweighted slider. Fish were pretty scarce though.

Orlando area fishing report

A nice fly-caught red!

orlando area fishing report

The fly that did the deed. The eyes are plastic beads.

Wednesday I rode my bike to a small pond for some reconnoitering, carrying my waders in a daypack. The pond looked great. I put on the waders and boldly stepped into it. The bottom was goosh. I couldn’t go very far. But in the twenty minutes I fished I got three fat bluegills and hooked and lost a bass, all on a small popping bug.

I wanted to fish Thursday but the tornado warnings and small craft advisory deterred me. I should have gone.

I wanted to fish Friday bit the 20 mph winds deterred me. I’m glad I didn’t go.

Saturday I went out with Shane Shearer on the Mosquito Lagoon. We toured the south end of the lagoon looking for fish, again with a 20 mph wind out of the north. Tossing DOA CAL Shad we got a half dozen trout to about five pounds and four small reds.

Sunday Jerry Wang, a fly caster from California, joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. The weather was spectacular, the water crowded with boats. We actually saw a lot of fish in the morning, mostly reds. There were several schools of high speed fish racing around on a flat. When they behave like this these fish are almost impossible to catch. They did not disappoint. Other than that we saw a fish here, a fish there. The fish seemed to be more numerous in dirty water, where they were hard to se. Where the water was clean we hardly saw any. So, Jerry ended the day with a small trout and a small red, not an impressive day, catch-wise.

I was encouraged by the numbers of fish, though. Maybe things are finally picking up.

And that is this week’s 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

February 28, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report 3114

Upcoming Events-

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link for more information or to register…

-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link for more information or to register…

Blog Posts this Week-

–A New Mobile Marine Service for Central Florida

The Mitzi is still for sale!

The azaleas are blooming. Pines drop prodigious amounts of pollen. Soon the oranges will blossom. Spring is coming to central Florida.

This week illustrated why Orlando area saltwater fishing is so great for anglers, why this is such an awesome time of year.

On Sunday Miamian Tim Wright joined me for some shad fishing on the St. Johns River. We tossed and trolled 1/16th ounce crappie jigs. We got a dozen or so shad, and two stripers (or hybrids) too. All in all a good day.

orlando area fishing report

On Monday Scott Radloff and I went out of Port Canaveral hoping to fish a cobia or tripletail. We found some flotsam and there was a tripletail under it. I tossed a shrimp and a few minutes later he was mine. Then Scott got one. Then we each got another one.

orlando area saltwater fishing report

We found some floating sargassum that was devoid of fish.

We idled up to a buoy. I didn’t see anything there. Scott cast a shrimp at it. A big cobia came around from the far side of the buoy and inhaled the shrimp, not ten feet from the boat. A melee ensued. It was near ending when I netted the fish, except I couldn’t lift it over the gunwale of the Mitzi. Scott helped and the beast came aboard. It flopped around a bit, but did not beat things up the way it would had I gaffed it. All in all a really good day.

orlando area saltwater fishing report

 

orlando area saltwater fishing report

Tuesday morning I met the Tamazon. She put a bag over my head and spun me around until I puked. I had to swear in blood on a Bible on my mother’s grave to never reveal where she was taking me.

When she took the bag off my head I was sitting in a kayak, on a flat, with a flyrod in my hand. There was nothing there in the way of fish.

Then Tammy took me through a portal into another dimension. In this dimension there were tarpon rolling like crazy. I thought maybe she’d brought me to Hell for a while, since every strike led to a miss. No, it was just incompetence, because I finally caught one, on a small gurgler. Then she hooked and broke one off. Then she got one. Then I got another one. Then she got another one. Of course in between there were lots more misses and jumped-off fish. And then, in the manner of tarpon everywhere, they shut down. But it had been an amazing hour.

orlando area saltwater fishing report

When we re-entered this dimension we did some blind casting on the flat. She got two redfish. I got one. They were all small. Then two pinfish attacked my flies, hitting so hard they almost ripped the rod out of my hand. OK, that may be a fish tale. But I did get two pins on fly.

Then she put the bag back over my head and brought me back to our meeting spot.

Wednesday morning Scott Radloff and I went to the Indian River Lagoon for some scouting, hoping to find some redfish and/or trout. The loss of grass is continuing. I sure hope there’s not another algae bloom this summer. I’m not optimistic, since none of the causes have ben corrected.

We looked in several areas without seeing much. At the last spot there were actually some redfish tailing. We crossed a white hole out of which we spooked at least a dozen nice trout. I wonder if we would have spotted them had the sun been out. At any rate Scott got a red on a jerk bait, thus keeping the skunk of the Mitzi and the week’s streak alive.

orlando area saltwater fishing report

When I got home I fired up the smoker and smoked a bunch of thick cobia chunks. Yum Mee!

Thursday found me at the fly tying desk, cranking them out.

orlando area saltwater fishing report

Friday fly fisher Domenic Catanese and his friend Tai joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. The day started cold and windy. It would stay cold and only got more windy, although the water temperature rose almost three degrees through the day. There were quite a few fish at the first place we looked. They got out of Dodge as soon as they realized we were there.

For the rest of the day we would see a fish here and three there, but never in time to make a decent presentation. We did not get a bite, or even get close to a bite. We did see two boats hooked up in the Haulover Canal on the way in. One guy pulled in a big black drum. That was our fishy entertainment for the day.

And that is this week’s 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

February 22, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report 22214

Upcoming Events-
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link  for more information or to register…
-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link  for more information or to register…

Blog Posts this Week-
– Sharkwave Fly Lines Coming
– Lunkerhunt Swim Bentos Bait
– Oil Drilling Coming to the Everglades

The new issue (March 2014) of Florida Sportsman has an article about the Indian River Lagoon Odyssey, by John Kumiski! Check it out!

On to the fishing, men!

Monday the weather was gorgeous, so I strapped the kayak to the roof of the chariot and drove over to the Banana River Lagoon. I got there after nine o’clock. Six cars were already there. I avoided the other boats as much as I could.

Travelling along the shoreline I saw two small trout, two small redfish, and then a school of about 20 small reds, less than 20 inch fish. They elicited no response in me.

I went out to the second bar. There was nothing there.

I went to the third bar. Two boats were there, one on each side. I went up the middle. The water was clear, there was hardly any grass, and I saw nothing. I kept going.

On the fourth bar there was a school of black drum, not the big ones. Two tasted my black bunny leech. The larger one was 12 pounds or so.

I left them, hoping to find big fish. A group of eight big reds was swimming high in the water. I got two casts at them but they ignored me.

The paddle back was uneventful, as no fish were seen.

The grass up there is all gone, and so are most of the fish. It’s a sad thing.

Tuesday found me on a bus travelling to Tallahassee for the Clean Water Rally. Senator David Simmons, the senator from my district, was one of the speakers. Good work, sir!

I had a meeting with my district’s representative, Rep. Jason Brodeur. He told me he understands the need for clean water, would be sponsored a bill addressing clean water issues. It was good to hear, but show me the money. Stay tuned.

One of the speakers was a woman from Naples, Dr. Karen Dwyer, of the Stone Crab Alliance. Here is what she had to say: ” The Everglades oil rush is on. In addition to the 115,000 acres leased for oil exploration, Collier Resources just issued two more leases for massive seismic testing operations to identify more locations for oil drilling: 103,000 acres to Tocala, LLC and 234,500 acres to Burnett Oil, all in the Big Cypress National Preserve in the western Everglades. Everyone. March 11. Please. Pack the EPA Meeting. Take a stand for the Everglades and our water. Now is the time. No one can take your place.”

Fight for your right to clean water!

Fight for your right to clean water!

How this has escaped the state and national news media is beyond me. All fishermen should be going crazy over this- hydraulic fracturing in the Everglades? WE CAN’T LET THIS HAPPEN!!! I will be in Naples on March 11. I hope to see you there.

Wednesday Rick DePaiva, one of my dearest friends, came up to fish with me. Because he likes going there and because I got a good report from one of my subscribers we went to KARS Park and launched the canoe.

The weather was awesome.

The short version is that we went most of the way to the NASA Causeway, went out to the islands on the other side of the channel, and worked it hard. We saw maybe eight fish and had one half-baked shot that did not work. So we went fishless. Had a good time other than that, enjoying the day and Rick’s company.

black-drum-release.jpg

 This is what we wanted. It is not what we got.

            Again, most of the grass is gone. This area had such thick grass just a couple years ago, too. Bad, bad, bad Bad BAD.

And that is this week’s not so great Banana River 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing News, Fishing Reports, opinion, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , , ,

St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 15, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report 21514

Upcoming Events-

-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

I’m still trying to sell that Mitzi skiff, an awesome little boat. See the details here…

We had some decent fishing this week. I did not carry a camera for any of it.

Sunday about noontime I launched the kayak at CS Lee Park on the St. Johns River and paddled upstream, dragging a tandem rig consisting of a Spoiler Shad and a crappie jig as I went. I talked to a few other anglers along the way, all of whom complained about the lack of action.

There was a bit of a traffic jam at the mouth of the Econ so I kept going to another spot farther upstream.

No one was at my spot, where it was discovered I had forgotten the anchor. I put the boat ashore and started casting, getting two shad and a sunfish in about an hour. Not exactly hot, but better than no cheese!

A flats skiff idled up the river, then started fishing right in front of me. At first I wasn’t crazy about this but the guy kept his distance and had a kid with him. He hooked a fish and handed the rod to the youngster. Good work!

When the boat was facing me and the wind was right I could hear snippets of conversation. “That’s Charlie Chapman!” I thought. “You sound like Charlie Chapman!” I hollered.

It was Charlie Chapman, a.k.a. the Mustache Man. He put the boat ashore and we chewed the fat for a couple of very pleasant hours, until the boy, his grandson, said, “Are we going fishing or not? We’re burning daylight here!” It was real good seeing him, it had been literally years. I hope they got some fish.

St. johns river and mosquito lagoon fishing report

The Mustache Man, a number of years ago, with a fat Banana River Lagoon redfish.

I paddled back to SR 46, again dragging the tandem rig, but did not get another bite. Didn’t care.

Monday Ed Farrell-Starbuck joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon kayak-fly-redfishing. Ed had never been before and wanted to learn how to go about it. I explained to him that every trip was a search mission. Most days it works, some days it doesn’t. Groundwork layed, off we went.

We paddled a long time without seeing much. Then we found a hole full of redfish, nice fish that averaged five to six pounds. They did not want to leave, and were fairly bitey.We were both using brown flies; mine was a slider. We both got five or six, a pretty good afternoon. The fish finally turned off, so we headed back. I did not see any more fish along the way.

mosquito lagoon redfish

This fish took a slider.

Tuesday Frank Moss and his friend Bruce drove up from Tampa to do some shad fishing on the St. Johns River. Frank had an old cane fly rod and wanted to catch a shad with it. Bruce was a spin fisherman.

I put two lines out with tandem rigs to troll up to the fishing spot. The fish immediately told us we were at the fishing spot- double hookup right off the bat!

We ended up getting fifteen or twenty shad, strangely no sunfish, crappie, etc. Frank got a couple shad on the cane rod before switching to spin. It was a great afternoon, and thank you, gentlemen.

Wednesday I went scouting with the Mitzi out of River Breeze. There was a number of places I had been wanting to check. At the first I had been poling less than five minutes when I spotted maybe a half dozen reds together, relaxed. I tossed a DOA CAL shad at them and one jumped on it, a little feller of 20 inches or so. Thinking it might be a good day, I continued poling, changed spots, continued poling, etc. What I found was lots of places not to look again, seeing perhaps a dozen fish in five hours.

On a slightly more ominous note, some guy with a red Texas scooter tower boat is out there running every shoreline he can looking for fish, scaring away everything in sight. When are fishermen going to learn that running shorelines wrecks the fishing for everyone? Fish stop using the shorelines when they’re geting run over by motorboats all the time.

Friday morning Dave Caprera and his friend Jim joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fly fishing. It was a little chilly at pick-up time, in the 40s. We went to the hole that produced all the fish for me on Monday. Of course it was barren, previews of coming attractions.

We looked in a lot of spots, from JBs Fish Camp down to Tiger Shoal. We found the occasional single and one small school of about 30 fish. We had maybe four good, solid shots all day, but none of the fish felt like taking the fly, and we ended up with a bagel for the day.

The weather was about as perfect for tailing fish as it gets, but nary a one did we see. I dropped them off at about 4 PM, then headed back to River Breeze.

And that is this week’s St. Johns River 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Mosquito Lagoon Report

February 9, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Mosquito Lagoon Report 2914

Upcoming Events-
-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…
-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

Blog Posts This Week-
-Make A Home For Florida Bats
-How to Buy Fishing Sunglasses

On Monday fly fisher Dalen Mills joined me for a Mosquito Lagoon trip. As soon as I came out of Haulover Canal I was on the compass. The fog was too thick to see anything. I found a fishing spot and there were some sizable reds tailing there. The problems were, as soon as they stopped tailing they were very hard to see, and Dalen couldn’t see them at all if the tails were down. We managed to spook all of them away without getting a bite.

English: Section of Florida map showing east c...

English: Section of Florida map showing east coast from St. John’s River to Mosquito Lagoon, 1839.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once the fog cleared we went looking in other places. The seatrout left the spot that was so full of them last week, and as a matter of fact we did not see a legal trout all day.

There were no fish of any kind where we looked on Tiger Shoal, and we were there for about an hour.

We worked our way north of George’s Bar, finding a reasonable number of redfish. Dalen had some good shots at tailing fish but they all spooked off his flies. I got one small red on a DOA CAL shad and we each got a small trout and that was it for the day.

On Tuesday fly fisherman William Lynch came down from Jacksonville for some Mosquito Lagoon sight fishing. There was a little fog as we left the dock but nothing like the previous day. We went to the place Dalen and I had found the foggy fish the day before. They were not there.

We spent the day checking spot after spot. Some spots had a few tailers, some spots had no fish at all. WIlliam was unable to convince a fish to take his fly. Wind and clouds made the job difficult. At 4 PM I put the Mirage back on the trailer.

Wednesday I took son Alex to the doctor. Thursday I took him to a surgeon, who re-attached a ligament in his left wrist. He’s now in a cast, but should be as good as new in six weeks.

I wanted to fish Friday and Saturday but a steady, soaking rain talked me out of it. Even though it’s Sunday I may go today.

The water temperature at the Trident Pier as I write this is 67 degrees. The cobia show up when it hits 71. Stay tuned…

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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

Orlando Area Fishing Report

February 1, 2014 by · 4 Comments

Orlando Area Fishing Report 2114

Upcoming Events-
-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18

orlando area fishing report

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…
-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

 

What a week. I started working on an ark after the fourth day of rain, but the sun actually shone for a few minutes today.

Last Sunday Tammy Wilson and I went to the St. Johns River in the Mirage to fish for shad. There were lots of boats out there. We saw some folks we knew. They both said the same thing- the bite was good this morning, but it slowed down. Since we were already there we fished.

It wasn’t hot but it was steady. With spin tackle we got them with little crappie jigs and Creme’s Spoiler Shad, and with fly tackle on a chartreuse and silver shad fly. We probably got 15 or so in three hours, and a couple of crappie besides. Nice enough day!

orlando area fishing report

This is the fly I’ve ben using for shad.

Monday morning I drove through the rain to meet my fisherman, the Rev. Del Schomberg, a fly fisher from Oregon. He had never fished in Mosquito Lagoon and was hoping to catch a redfish.

It was raining lightly as we idled out of Haulover Canal. It started to rain harder as I ran to spot number one. Running in the rain is not my idea of fun so we stopped at an alternate spot.

It was loaded with seatrout.

Del got a couple fat slot fish by blind casting a slider before the rain stopped. At that point he said he’d still like to try for reds so we went hunting.

orlando area fishing report

This is a trout caught on a slider.

They were not where they had been.

We looked in a variety of other spots. Some had fish, some didn’t, but nowhere were they thick. All the clouds made it hard to see. The best shots we had came when I found aboput a dozen tailing fish scattered over a 100 yard stretch of flat. We did not convert.

We found a school of about 30 fish that started moving almost as soon as I spotted them- no shot.

We found a bunch of fish in potholes. Blindcasting into the holes did not work, and sight fishing to fish we could see in the holes did not work either.

We ended up with the two trout and nothing else. At least it turned into a nice day.

It rained quite hard every day the rest of the week. I kept myself busy by adding some new articles to my website, tying flies, wrapping new guides on rods, trying to organize my tackle, and that sort of thing.

orlando area fishing repot

My tying was out of my comfort zone this week.

Instructions for how to tie this fly can be found here…

I am ready to do some fishing this week, I’ll tell you that!

And that is this week’s 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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