Orlando Area Fishing Report 2114
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…
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!
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.
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.
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.
hi john – like the way you make your saltwater fly leaders. just to recap so i’ve got it right, the single mono leader uses surgeon loops at either end (to connect to the fly line loop and the tippit loop), the tippit gets a bimini twist to double the line and then that doubled line end gets a surgeon’s loop to connect to the leader’s surgeon loop. correct so far? for the fly end of the tippit, what knot do you prefer … surgeon, perfection, improved clinch? thanx! rob.
i use a no name loop or a clinch knot depending on how i feel, the moon phase, and most importantly the diameter of the tippet. thick line = loop knot
for an 8wt to 10wt fly reel for bones, stripers, redfish, what do you recommend for backing? – dacron or gel/braid, test weight, length? i kinda prefer the ease and safety of dacron and have 160yds of 30# on my 10wt reel and 200yds of 20# on my 8wt reel.
for that size line i would use #30 dacron, as much as i could get on the reel without hitting the pillars with the fly line