Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon 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

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.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Mr. McGoldrick enjoyed himself in spite of the visit of this critter…

mosquito lagoon fishing report

…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.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

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.

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.

 

mosquito lagoon fishing report

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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Orlando Area Fishing Report

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…

Orlando area fishing report

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.

Orlando Area Fishing Report

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…

Orlando Area Fishing Report

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.

Orlando Area Fishing Report

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

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.

orlando area fishing report

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.

 

Orlando area fishing report

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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Orlando Area Fishing Report

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.

tailing redfish mosquito lagoon, orlando area fishing report

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.

mosquito lagoon seatrout, orlando area fishing report

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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Orlando Area Fishing Report

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

-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

Bumper Sticker of the Week:

orlando area fishing report

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.

Orlando area fishing report

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.

Orlando area fishing report

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.

orlando area fishing report

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.

orlando area fishing report

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.

orlando area fishing report

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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Orlando Fishing Report

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.

 

orlando area saltwater fishing report

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.

Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

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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Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

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.

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

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).

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

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!

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

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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Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

 

A moment of silence please for yet another senseless tragedy.

 

Upcoming Events

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

An Osprey preparing to dive at Kennedy Space C...

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

Only two days were spent on the water this week but many other things got done.

Blog Posts this week:

Wire Leaders for Toothy Fish

Mushrooming with Confidence- A Review

Birds of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Extraordinary Projects for Ordinary People- A Review

We’ve launched a new fishing escort service for folks who need or want a fishing partner. Please visit our new website at http://rentafishingbuddy.com . Any feedback you can send me would be appreciated.

 

Now, on to the fishing! It waren’t real good.

Monday Stan Major, his brother Tom, and his friend Emily joined me on Mosquito Lagoon for a full day. Tom wanted a redfish on fly.

It was breezy, overcast, and the water is still high . There weren’t many fish around (I don’t know where all those I found on Friday went). Tom blind cast all day and got the only two bites we had. He boated one seatrout, a decent one of 18 inches or so that took a slider. That was it for the day.

Near the end of the day we found a single tailing redfish, the first we’d seen all day. Tom made one cast and the fish disappeared. That’s how our day ended.

Saturday Richard Sykes, from the low country of South Carolina, joined me for a day’s fly fishing. We kicked off the day by chasing about a half dozen schools of spooky reds around a big flat. As quiet as the Mitzi is we could not get close to those fish. In more than two hours he never got a decent shot. Time to change gears.

We went looking for big seatrout. Apparently in South Carolina a 20 inch fish is a giant. I showed Richard some trout that were between 25 and 30 inches. If they weren’t fleeing when he threw to them, they were as soon as the fly landed. We managed to spook every redfish we saw too. In spite of some seriously nice weather he never got a bite and we were skunked in a most serious fashion.

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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Orlando Area and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Orlando Area and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Upcoming EventsSpace Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 23-28, 2013

Monday, quite a beautiful day, found me paddling the Ocean Kayak on the Banana River Lagoon in the no motor zone, hoping to find big redfish and black drum. Six hours of paddling later I had found none. There was no seagrass at all. It was hard finding the spots- without the grass there was no frame of reference.

I saw three or four redfish and maybe thirty trout in two schools. Tossing a gurgler around where the trout were seen netted two strikes, both of which were missed.

There is no reason for me to go back there for a while.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

The launch at the nmz. The “dock” is real wobbly. If you fall into that muck they’ll never find you. That’s where all the grass is- dead and stinky along the shoreline!

Thursday Tammy Wilson and I went out on the Mosquito Lagoon in the Mitzi. The weather was really nice, very little wind. Lots of clouds at first gave way to mostly sunny skies.
At the first spot there were quite a few redfish. They were quite nervous and didn’t want us near them. Tammy cast a streamer fly at some of them and got two nice fish, both seatrout. They apparently were swimming with the reds.

The fish did not hang around very long, so we went looking in some other places. As could be expected, some were barren and some were fairly fishy. We did not get another fish, though.

We were off the water by 3:00 PM.

Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. We started off boating by Braille, using the compass to find the spot in the fog, glasses all wet, unable to see. We did find it. There were fish there. We could only see them when they moved, pushing up a wake. They would not let us into casting range.

While poling out of there a redfish tailed in front of the boat. It was one of many fish that were there. Dr. George got one on a DOA CAL jerkbait, nice work on his part.

We couldn’t find any more fish at that spot so went to one other. It was good. George got four out-of-slot redfish and a 26 inch seatrout using cut bait, a solid hour of catching there.

When I went to load the pictures of the previous two days fishing into my computer I opened the camera to remove the memory card and it wasn’t in there. It was still in the card reader from the previous use. Well DUH! No photos.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

A file photo of Dr. Yarko with a nice red.

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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Orlando Saltwater Fishing Report

Orlando Saltwater Fishing Report

Upcoming Events- Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 23-28, 2013
My friend Tammy Wilson has suggested I do a photo blog of birds. I will do that this week.

Blog posts this week:
Hot Largemouth Bass Flies
Spotted Seatrout- A Pictorial
Anything Worth Doing- A Review

In this week’s exciting edition of the Orlando saltwater fishing report, not a lot of fishing went on. On Monday Cheryl, official sister of the Spotted Tail, accompanied me to the marshes of the Merritt island NWR for some paddling and birding. We wanted to see 1000 coots, some spoonbills, and some alligators. Of course I was looking for fish, too. Saw the birds and gators. No fish, though.

orlando saltwater fishing report

Spoonbills in the marsh.

 

orlando saltwater fishing report

This one’s for you.

Thursday Tammy and I went kayaking on the Indian River Lagoon. The wind was screaming out of the northeast at about 20, crappy paddling and fly fishing conditions. We ran over a couple of fish but did not get a shot. I tried blind casting for a while. Did not get a bite.

My waders leak a lot, though.

Friday Tammy and I tried kayaking again. We thought it wouldn’t be as windy. We were right but not by much. I tried the blindcasting thing again and actually got a redfish and several seatrout. The magic fly was a very ordinary chartreuse Clouser Minnow.

As of this writing the water level gauge at the Haulover Canal read just over 1.0, still too high for this time of year. I sure hope the water level drops soon.

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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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