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Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

September 29, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Upcoming Events
Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 27
Mosquito Lagoon On-The-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 28

There is a problem with my Word Press application- it will not accept photos for upload. As soon as this gets resolved I will be posting information-type blogs in addition to the weekly fishing reports. Thanks to all for your patience.

Son Alex’s photo is featured in the September issue of Florida Sportsman in my article on saltwater leaders. Check it out!

Fishing-
Monday found the Mitzi and I out along the beach in Canaveral Bight. There was a north wind and some wave action. The boat took a breaker over the bow which was the most exciting thing that happened.
Quite a few mullet were there, not much eating them. A crevalle, a ladyfish, several small bluefish, and a few missed strikes, all on live mullet, is all I got. Did not see much activity, and the main target, tarpon, was not observed. In spite of the slow fishing it was great being out there.

Tuesday Tammy Wilson and I took the Old Town up into the no motor zone. The water looked pretty good but there is very little grass. Tammy had one strike on a Seaducer. She popped it off, losing the fly.
I watched a small redfish eat my Electric Sushi, and pulled the fly out of its mouth. Those were the only two bites we had. We saw maybe a dozen reds all day, did not get many good shots obviously.
There were dozens of manatees up there. I wonder what they’re eating?

Wednesday son Alex, his friend John Napolitano, and I went to the Mosquito Lagoon, my first trip there since returning from Alaska. I was expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprised that it was much better than I had heard, not much different than how it usually is this time of year.
We did not explore the entire lagoon. Where we went the water looked OK and the grass looked very healthy. There is always a grass die-off at this time of year and that certainly is under way.
We spent the entire day looking for redfish. We found a few, even found a school of them, from which I pulled a nice one that ate a synthetic minnow fly. Alex got a small red on a piece of mullet. All poor John got was a catfish.
It was good to be out there and to find some fish.

Friday Dr. George Yarko and I went to Mosquito Lagoon. We did not find as many redfish as we had on Wednesday, hooking four and boating two 20 inch fish, all on DOA CAL jerkbaits.
We spent a little time using the DOA Deadly Combo looking for seatrout and had some small success, boating four or five. All were at the low end of the slot.

I have some concern for the heath of the fishery in the lagoons for the next few years. The seagrass is gone or dying back in a lot of places. Since the grass supports the rest of the food chain its loss has to lower the productivity of the entire ecosystem.

I am also surprised at the lack of finger mullet in the lagoons. There ought to be huge schools of them everywhere right now and they are definitely not there. Where are they?

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

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

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: , , , , , , , , ,

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

June 2, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6.2.12

You may have heard about the proposed Pebble Mine. If not, the idea is to have a huge open pit mine, the world’s biggest, in southwest Alaska. Great idea, unless you care about trout and salmon.
This link-  http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/262141/1a1f348b3c/1774503119/dd14000b65/
-contains other links and a call for action. With a pre-written letter you can express your opinion about the mine idea to the president, the head of the EPA, your Congressman and senators, etc.

south fork Goodnews River

Imagine this as a big open pit mine. Not much fishing would be going on any more.

Salmon used to be a common fish along both coasts of North America. Now all that’s left is a tiny remnant. Please help preserve that for posterity.

Fishing this week, ah yes. A lady named Beryl came to town early in the week and dumped on us for a couple of days. I was going to go fishing on Wednesday but a minor domestic problem prevented anything more than a trip to the Econ.

In last week’s report I asked about bass flies. While no responses came in, I have been doing some research and tied up a few flies based on that. I went to the Econ hoping to test them.

Beryl came to town. The Econ was up considerably, almost not fishable for a wading angler, especially one with a fly rod. But I found a couple of places where it was feasible.

I actually got two bites. On the second I watched the bass take the fly. I missed them both.

Two bites may not sound like much, but I’ve never gotten a bass to hit a fly there. So progress is being made. I know I’ll never figure it out, because it is fishing. But when I get a handle on it a full report will be filed. It may take a while- it’s rained some more.

Tom Van Horn picked me up at 5 AM Thursday morning. We loaded two kayaks into the bed of his truck and headed to the Banana River Lagoon. He had gotten some glowing reports and we were optimistic about our chances.

A light breeze from the southwest greeted us at the launch. The sun was just clearing the trees as we paddled to the first spot. I had tied on a Floozy popper, since the water there was up, and not terribly clean at that first place.

Second cast- Wham! Twenty-four inch trout. Good way to start the day. Fourth cast- Wham! Twenty-three inch trout. It tore the Floozy apart. Another was tied on, but it was the last one in the box.

I quickly lost track of how many casts were made or bites were had, but it was smoking hot for a while. Then it cooled down. It always does. Not to worry, we went somewhere else.

Seatrout-on-fly, banana river lagoon

The trout tore the Floozy apart.

Tom was tossing a surface plug and had three nice trout before I could get organized. The Floozy soon started popping though and the fish were all over it. They soon tore it apart.

seatrout, banana river lagoon

After Tom lost this plug he used a Bait Buster. The fish didn't care.

I switched to a Hot Head. The trout like it just fine.

Hot Head flies

The Hot Heads worked well, too.

The strikes were jolting. The tippet was too light. Only two Hot Heads were in the fly bag and I lost both of them. I had one Electric Sushi and lost that too.

In the meantime Tom had lost his plug and had switched to a DOA Bait Buster. The fish didn’t seem to mind.

I stopped fishing and made up a 15 pound tippet. That stopped the bleeding.

The bite slowed as the sun climbed. Since the wind was light and visibility was excellent we went looking for big redfish. Sadly, we did not find any at all.

We did find some slot reds. Using a black Clouser Minnow I got five or six, as well as some more trout.

The boats were back in the truck at 2:30. It was a hell of a day.

In general, the trout bite in the lagoons right now is as good as I have ever seen it for a sustained period. It’s been smoking hot for several months and shows no sign of slowing. And the fish are running a large average size, 20 inches or so. Get out and enjoy it- it’s sure to slow down!

That is this week’s 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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

A Full Week: Banana River-St. Johns River-Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 5, 2012 by · 3 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 2.5.12

Quote of the Week Dept.  “The difference between a job and a career is the difference between 40 and 60 hours a week.” – Robert Frost

Upcoming Events Dept-

-The Old Florida Outdoor Festival, February 10, 11, and 12th. I will be there in the Coastal Angler Magazine booth, Saturday from 10-2, Sunday from 12-2. Please come visit! I’d love to see you!

-Merritt Island NWR Show and Tell Seminars- March 3 and 4. Read More Here… 

Non-Fishing Item Dept.- We live on an awesome planet, the nicest by far in this part of the galaxy. Our personal star makes that whole life thing go. In un-fishing related news, check out the amazing photos of our very own personal star here…

Fishing, ah yes!

It was a spectacular week, with plenty of fishing. On a windy Sunday (1/29) Scott Stroop and Joe Mercer, from Savannah, joined me for a day’s fishing. The Mosquito Lagoon was the venue. We went first to the spot where all the tailers had been a few days earlier. They weren’t there!

While poling, we ran over a school of redfish sitting in a white hole in the same vicinity. Scott got one on a spoon. Joe quickly follwed by nailing one on the fly rod, using a wool crab. This is good. We haven’t been out long and already have two fish.

The school had blown out though. We looked in a few other spots and saw nary a fin. Back to the first spot.

We saw a couple more fish but nothing targetable. My anglers had to drive back to Savannah (pretty athletic, down and back in one day) so we bailed a little early.

Monday fly fisher Josh Carleback, a resident of Brooklyn, met me at River Breeze. We launched the Mitzi and ran about two minutes. Five minutes later we were on a school of a couple hundred redfish.

We sat on them all day long, chasing them into the wind, which was blowing 15 out of the north. Eight hours of that wore my butt out, I’ll tell you that. But Josh got 10 or 12 slot reds on a wool crab, making all the effort worth it. He had a heck of a day.

Tuesday, in spite of the 15 mph east wind, I went to the no motor zone of the Banana River Lagoon. I thought I could find the big fish that have done such significant damage to my fly rod collection the last two trips.

I passed up a good number of slot reds, so determined was I to get to the big fish spot. Funny thing about big fish spots. They change. They move. They disappear. So I get to the big fish spot and I see exactly one black drum, while running it over with the kayak. I waded around for at least an hour hoping for a shot with no luck.

Our fish don’t like the wind. I know that.

Figured I’d go back to the slotties. On the way I ran over a few seatrout. They looked decent sized so I anchored and hopped out. Tied on an Electric Sushi. Second cast- THUMP. It felt like a real fish, and turned out to be a trout nearly two feet long.

Knowing it could be wishful thinking I changed the Sushi for a Gurgler. Thank you Jack Gartside! First cast, the toilet flushed, another beautiful trout.

Before I gave up I had gotten a dozen or so. The smallest was a solid 20 inches. It was a fun afternoon. And, I picked up two slot reds on the way back. Not bad for a windy day. Not every trip will to produce a 20 pound fish.

Thursday afternoon son Alex and I went to the St. Johns River. We took the Mitzi this time. It proved to be a good idea.

shad fishing St. Johns River

This handsome scene repeated itself many times.

The bite wasn’t real strong but it was steady. Alex had just visited Bitters’s Bait and Tackle, and bought a bunch of little crappie jigs. We started off tossing shad flies, but I wondered how a 1/32nd ounce crappie jig with a mini-twisty tail would work.

American Shad head shot

It's not a fly but the fish didn't care.

It was hard to throw on the four-weight but the fish seemed to like it. We both caught shad. Ended up with 10 or 12 between us. Alex got a chunky largemouth and a couple of crappie. I got a fat bull bluegill. It was quite a lovely afternoon.

largemouth bass ST. Johns River

It wasn't big, but it was obese.

Friday Dr. George Yarko and his brother John joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. Conditions were yucky, cloudy and windy. I had some mullet but we stopped and picked up a coupls dozen shrimp, something I rarely do. It was a good call.

There were three boats where I wanted to start, so we went to the next spot. Didn’t see anything for a while. Then, we ran over a couple reds. I immediately staked out the boat. Into a white hole we cast a mullet chunk out on one line and a shrimp on the other. Less than 100 seconds passed when the shrimp line went off. Twenty seven inch red, right at the top of the slot.

redfish, Mosquito Lagoon

The Brothers Yarko with the first (and biggest) of quite a few reds.

It turned out that spot was finished. The next didn’t produce, either. But the last spot produced about eight more reds and a 16 inch (yummy) flounder.

Spotted (redfish) Tail

This fish had some serious spotting. The other side was similar. Spotted Tail!

I filleted three slot reds and that flounder. All three reds had shrimp in their stomachs. The big one also had one of those damn Gulp synthetic bait things. I don’t understand why people use those things, they are not good for the fish.

Last but not least, on Saturday I met Ken Muhbich, a fly fisher from North Carolina, at Parrish Park. I started the day by slamming two finger tips in the car door. WOW that hurt. My fingernail is all black. I bet I lose it.

Cruising down Haulover a fisherman was fighting a big fish. We stopped to watch. His red weighed at least 20 pounds.

big Mosquito Lagoon redfish haulover canal

Someone was having a real good morning.

At our first stop we only saw a few fish, had just one shot. Did not convert. Second spot had more fish but they were hard to see and we didn’t get a single good shot. Third spot had exactly three fish. Ken couldn’t see the easy one and I hardly saw the other two. No luck there.

I decided to visit the place where Josh had done such a good job kicking redfish butt on Monday. On the way there- WHAM! Ken and I went flying. Fortunately we both stayed in the boat.

crab trap wrapped around an outboard's lower unit.

What did I do to deserve this? We're lucky no one was hurt.

I had to get in the water and cut wire for 30 minutes before we could get going again.

We get to the spot and of course there are boats around. But none of them are in the right place. We sneak in there and to my disbelief and delight some of the school is still there. They were very spooky but Ken did manage to fool one with a Homer Rhodes Shrimp Fly, all grizzly. It turned out to be the only bite of the day.

Redfish on Fly

This cooperative redfish rid of us a skunk.

And that, friends, is this week’s Banana River Lagoon, St. Johns River, and Mosquito Lagoon fishing report! Thank you for reading!

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: Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Ten Favorite Redfish Flies

November 15, 2011 by ·

If you were dropped off anywhere in redfish range, carrying a selection of the 10 fly patterns listed below, you could catch redfish if you could locate them. These are my ten favorite redfish flies.

“Imitator” Flies
These roughly resemble stuff fish actually eat.

A Clouser Minnow selection.

1. The Clouser Deep Minnow. Since redfish often prefer to feed down on the bottom it’s an excellent fly for them. You’ll need a variety of different colors. If you think in terms of light, dark, neutral, and contrasting colors you’ll be fine.

You need a variety of sizes and weights. At the small end a size 4 (I’m thinking about going to #6 this winter) with bead chain or micro lead eyes is good. At the large end a size 1/0 with 1/36th ounce lead eyes will sink like an anvil for those rare occasions when you need a fairly large, fast sinking fly.

Some of your flies must have weedguards. My own preference these days is for a double mono prong.

A bendback made with bucktail on top, and with synthetics below. Both work.

2. Bendbacks. When the water is only a few inches deep, and the fish are behaving like a zebra around a pride of hungry lions, you need something that hits the water delicately. Enter the bendback.

A variety of sizes and colors is needed. I carry bendbacks as small as number 4 and as large as 3/0 (we get big reds where I fish). These are excellent patterns to wing with synthetics.

Do not to bend the hook shank too much, a common error when making these flies. The shank should only be bent five degrees or so.

From top to bottom, a Deceiver, Electric Sushi, and a Polar Fiber Minnow.

3. “Minnow” patterns from natural or synthetic fibers. The best known natural fiber minnow is Lefty’s Deceiver, although Joe Brooks’s Blonde series works as well. But synthetics are really the material of choice for these flies.

Examples of this type of fly include those shown above. Carry them in sizes from tiny to huge.

A gaggle of Merkins.

4. Crabs. Redfish love crabs, and they eat all kinds- swimming crabs, mud crabs, fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, and more. You need a few faux crabs in your fly box.

My own favorite redfish crab pattern is the Merkin in size four. As a rule redfish crabs don’t need to be terribly realistic, only suggestive, and most should sink like they mean it.

A Seaducer, above, and a Slider, below. They’re very similar flies.

5. Shrimp Flies. Shrimp flies are something like crab flies in that there are lots of patterns. I use two. One was developed by Homer Rhodes in the 1930’s and was called the Homer Rhodes Shrimp Fly. Most folks nowadays call it a Seaducer. The other is a Slider, my take on Tim Borski’s well-known pattern.

The bunny leech or bunny booger, a deadly fly.

6. The Bunny Leech. Although this simple tie looks like nothing in particular, it has dynamite action when in the water and suggests a wide variety of redfish foods. I usually tie these in only sizes 2, always with 1/50th ounce lead eyes. My favorite colors is black.

This mullet imitation is made with sheep’s wool.

7. Woolhead Mullet. These are time consuming to make and difficult to cast. Why carry them? When the fish are keying on mullet nothing else will do.

You can tie these in any size you like, as mullet do get large. When this fly gets large, though, casting it becomes nightmarish. I carry these in sizes 2 and 1, in gray and in white.

“Attractor” Flies
Sometimes the water is deep. Sometimes it’s dirty. Sometimes there are clouds, or wind. And sometimes you have a combination of these factors, factors that prevent you from sight fishing. So you need some flies that call the fish to them by one means or another. We call these attractor patterns.

Rattle Rousers, weighted and not.

8. Rattle Rouser. These are bucktail streamers tied hook point up on a long shank hook. They can be unweighted or tied with lead eyes, as you prefer. It’s a good idea to carry some both ways. Tied underneath the hook is an epoxy coated, braided Mylar tube, inside of which a plastic or glass worm rattle is inserted.

As you strip the fly the rattle makes an audible clicking sound, which attracts the attention of the fish. When you need it there is no substitute.

Jim Dupre’s Spoonfly.

9. Dupre Spoonfly. These look like miniature Johnson Minnows, and work much the same way. A curved Mylar sheet coated with epoxy, Dupre’s invention casts easily, hits the water lightly, tends to not twist your line, and is extremely effective. I’m not sure if the fish find it by vibration, flash, or both, but they certainly do find it.

My version of Gartside’s Gurgler.

10. Gurglers. Surface flies are usually not the best choice for redfish. However, as an attractor pattern when sight fishing conditions are poor they can be outstanding. The strikes are so exciting that a few less seems like a small price to pay.

These ten flies will produce redfish for you no matter where you may find yourself, no matter what the conditions may be. As an added incentive to carrying these flies, they will also work on a variety of other fish, including snook, tarpon, seatrout and weakfish, striped bass, bluefish, and more. Whether you tie your own or purchase them ready to use, these flies will put fish on your line anywhere, anytime. Try them and see.

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Tips, Flies and Fly Tying, opinion · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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