Saltwater Orlando Fishing Report from Spotted Tail
Can’t get enough of this sticker…
Things seem to be looking up in the fishing world. We didn’t catch a lot of fish this week, but finding them became a lot easier.
On Monday Rob Boman and David Cline joined me for a day’s fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. We saw two schools of redfish right away. They were spooky enough that we could not get a cast to either. We continued on our way.
Spot number two yielded nothing. We did not see a fish there.
At the third spot we kept blowing out fish. Dave got a redfish on a RipTide Weedless Shrimp. Went through again. No bites. Staked out the boat and tossed a couple mullet chunks out. Rob got a 16 inch trout, released it.
Tried another spot. There were a lot of fish there, both trout and reds. They did not want to eat our offerings, and we did not get a bite. Yes, we were changing lures. No, it did not seem to matter. On the way out I spotted a school of reds lying at the edge of the flat. We had several good casts to them and Dave had one nail the weedless shrimp. It was a n-n-n-nice fish, 28 inches of glorious copper-colored Scianops. We released it.
Have you ever heard that saying, “Don’t leave fish to find fish”? These fish weren’t biting so I went to another spot where I had seen fish last week. There were hardly any there. Given time to think about it, and getting close to the end of the day, I went back to the previous spot. They still weren’t biting very well, but Rob got a 20 inch red on a four inch DOA CAL jerkbait. So, it had been a slow, tough day, but we saw quite a few fish. I thought things were finally looking better as I loaded the boat.
Dave was kind enough to send me this email- “Thank you for the great day fishing. You put us on all kinds of fish and that is all a person can ever ask for. I like that you bypass all the latest doo dads and fishing gadgets/gimmicks and concentrate on hardcore fishing. I think we did pretty well considering the lockjaw that seemed to be so prevalent. Robbie and I learned a lot too.”
Thank you Dave, for the kind words.
Tuesday Patrick Phillips joined me for some fly fishing, also on Mosquito Lagoon. We brought waders with us. I parked the boat and we got out and waded for a while. I can’t say fishing was hot but we got three trout and a red between us, on a gurgler and a streamer.
The wading was not fun because the bottom was gooshy. We got back in the boat and fished from it the rest of the day. Patrick had a lot of shots from both trout and reds. They sneered at everything we tried. The last fly he tried was a crab pattern. The final cast of the day was into a school of reds. They blew out.
So once again, the fish were there, but getting a bite was a tough proposition. But we were in fish the entire time.
A gratuitous black drum photo.
Wednesday I went kayaking on the Banana River Lagoon, all by my lonesome. I do some of my best work when I’m alone. Not this day. I found several schools of huge black drum. I only tried two flies, the wool crab and the black bunny leech. I easily had 100 great shots, but got only one bite, on a brown and olive green wool crab.
I hooked the fish solidly. I could not break it out of the school. My line went slack and I pulled the now fly-less leader in. It was broken cleanly, not at a knot, a mystery break. I speculate another fish swam into it, but really don’t know what happened.
All I know is I only saw a few trout, a couple dink reds, and excepting two puffers did not get another bite. The day was magnificent, the water clean. The fish caused some frustration, but it was an awesome paddle.
Should have gone fishing Thursday, didn’t.
Friday and Saturday I had no work and the weather wasn’t nice, didn’t fish.
The St. Johns River is still very high. Saturday’s rain won’t help it drop. Reports of scattered shad catches are coming in, but I’ve heard this year we have a shad walk, not a shad run.
And that is this week’s Saltwater Orlando fishing report from Spotted Tail.
Life is great and I love my work!
Life is short- Go Fishing!
John Kumiski
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