Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

February 28, 2014 by john kumiski · 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Third Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure Report

December 22, 2013 by john kumiski · 1 Comment

Third Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure Report

A Merry Christmas to All!!!

Blog Posts this Week:
Demand Clean Water Now!

In our last installment our Paddle Adventurers were at River Palms Cottages.

The remaining Paddle Adventurers ended up spending two nights at River Palms. The second day there we gave a talk at the Florida Oceanographic Institute on Hutchison Island. Ellie kindly gave us a $100 gift card for a local restaurant, so we got to eat once again.

Son Maxx and his darlin’ Sydney showed up to join the adventure that night. So did Nate Lemars, a friend of Rodney’s. Maxx came in a vehicle. Nate had been chasing us in a kayak for three days.

Stretching before paddling.

Sunrise was spectacular. A departing sportfisherman serenaded us for a while with Eminem at ear-shattering volume. Then we packed up and departed ourselves.

Mike Conneen watches as the sun rises at River Palms.

Eminem goes out to sea in this sportfisherman.

Our goal was modest- Long Island, near the St. Lucie Inlet. It was an easy paddle. Rodney and I spotted a couple of fish on Marcia’s flat. We stopped and fished it but nothing bit our offerings, so we continued to the island.

Long Island was one of the nicer spoil islands that we camped on, so much so that we spent two nights there (unused weather days). There was some seagrass on the ocean side of it where there were a few fish. Rodney got a seatrout, Nate got a legal-sized snook on the last day of the season. Most of us got a few jack crevalle, although they were all small.

The peas grew around out campsite.

The next morning Nate got a nice flounder. Then we had some visitors (other than the rats).

First were Marcia Foosaner and her friend Ros. They gave us presents including a pair of pompano jigs (never did catch a pompano, though) and a pompano. They couldn’t stay long and were too soon gone. Thanks to them for being so gracious.

Sydney with a sea star.

Jim Moir, Disney Conservationist of the Year, was next. He did not bring gifts but invited us to camp in his yard. As it turned out we did, too.

Rodney takes a turn at the stove.

Dinner that evening was a fish-lover’s extravaganza- pan-fried flounder and snook, baked trout and pompano. Delicious and bastante!

Dinner- delicious and plentiful.

Everyone was happy, feeding the beast.

After dinner we got the fire cranking. Mim and Sydney went to work with the palmetto fronds, making a fire visible from space. Yes, I’m exaggerating.

The ladies were pyromaniacs. Who knew?

In the morning Mark Nichols and Ed Zyak came in. They had coffee and doughnuts- how to be popular when visiting campers!

Coffee and doughnuts will make friends quick when offered to campers.

Mark invited me to go fishing with them, and I jumped at the offer. We stopped at a flat near the inlet and got out to wade. Almost immediately I spied a cruising fish and tossed a faux shrimp at it- BANG! A twenty-four inch snook was my reward. Other than a few small jacks it was all we got, but the wading was very pleasant and it’s always enjoyable being around Mark and Ed. Many thanks to both of them.

When I got back to camp everyone was gone to Jim Moir’s house but Rodney. The paddle was short and easy, an outgoing tide and north wind pushing us along. Then we got to the house. I had missed Maxx and Sydney, who had already left for home.

It’s on top of a cliff. Two telephone poles with a pulley system are used to move the boats up to the top. I wanted a photo of the operation but all able-bodied men were involved in moving boats and gear, so no time for photos.

The house was gorgeous. The fact it had hot showers and flush toilets made it that much more appealing. We shared our dinner with the Moirs and they shared theirs with us, quite lovely. Our most heartfelt thanks to them for their hospitality.

It was cold that night. For the first time on the trip I got inside of my sleeping bag.

An early start greeted us the next morning. We had a long paddle, a tide to beat, a program to give at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, and had to find a place to camp. We slid the boats down the “ramp” with the help of the pulley, loaded up, and headed out.

We paddled south through the Narrows. Aptly named, in spots it was barely wide enough for the Old Town. I thought we should see fish and wildlife there but it was very sparse.

We came back out to the ICW. A north wind pushed us along nicely. We came to the Hobe Sound refuge and beached our craft. Mike volunteered to stay with the boats while we did our talk.

A dredging operation along the ICW.

In the middle of the talk a woman stuck her head into the room and said, “You guys have a place to stay tonight at the Jupiter Pointe Marina.” She came in a woman but left as an angel. What great news that was! As it turned out Mike was not only watching the boats, he was looking for a place for all of us to sleep.

A little after 3 PM we left the refuge, with three and a half miles to paddle to reach the Marina. We got there about 30 minutes before sunset. What a place! A beach for the boats, a big grassy area for us, a bar and restaurant, flush toilets, running water, picnic tables, firewood- they really did us right! All the Paddle Adventurers send Jupiter Pointe Marina their deepest appreciation.

Jupiter Pointe Marina by moonlight.

In the morning we took our time. It was our last day and we did not have far to go, so no need to hurry. That last paddle took us past some plush properties to the north of Jupiter Inlet, and Rodney even caught a crevalle jack. We came to Jupiter Light and the light keeper came down to yell at us- “You can’t stay there, you have to go on the other side of the fence!” What a jerk. We just left.

Jupiter Light was nice, the keeper, not so much.

We got to the River Center on the Loxahatchee River, at Burt Reynolds Park. It was kind of a weird feeling. We were done paddling! What an anticlimax! Jim, Mim’s friend, showed up with some sparkling cider and champagne for us and we all had a toast. We took a few photos. Rodney and I had a presentation to give at the River Center, so we headed off to do that.

Photos were taken.

When we were done our friends were still waiting for us so everyone could say goodbye. I don’t know if there were any tears but there were plenty of hugs. Then we all loaded our gear into vehicles and got in. That was that.

That wasn’t that, though. I have the most wonderful new friends, new brothers as Bones would say. I had been blown away all along the lagoon by the kindness and generosity of strangers. I have new hope that the people who had been so kind, so generous, so concerned, can all get organized and fight to preserve, to restore this fabulous place we call the Indian River Lagoon.

The core group. We grew on each other.

It would be a tragedy to do anything less. Demand Clean Water Now!

My most sincere thanks to everyone who paddled with us, especially the core paddlers- Nick, Mike, Bones, and Rodney.

That is this week’s exciting version of the Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Fishing Stories, Paddle Fishing Florida, Photo Essays · Tagged: adventure fishing, DOA Lures, florida fishing, Indian River Lagoon

Second IRL Paddle Adventure Report

December 14, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Second IRL Paddle Adventure Report

Gray sky, howling wind. The whitecaps were breaking over the gunwales of the canoe. The shoreline was only inching closer. The “adventure” part of the IRL Paddle Adventure made its presence felt in an all-too-real way.

The IRL Paddle Adventurers left Samson’s Island after a pleasant two night stay. A pair of great horned owls serenaded us to sleep each evening while we were there. We observed that they were a mating pair. Apparently the actual act of mating occurs very quickly in great horned owls, taking approximately three seconds in this particular case.

These owls serenaded us.

I thought I might find owl pellets at the base of the tree they were in. What I found was an active beehive. I left the area as quickly as possible.

The Trip to Lagoon House was uneventful. There was not a lot of camping space there and several of us were literally at the water’s edge, But the Lagoon-Palooza was well attended and MRC garnered several new members. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank everyone who came out to see us.

On the next day’s paddle we stopped at Honest John’s Fish Camp and ate our lunch. Honest John’s represents the finest of what’s left of old Florida- funky, laid-back, gracious, a cool place. We chatted with Elliot, who worked there, and Barbara Arthur, a wonderful lady, one of the owners. She has several IGFA world record seatrout to her credit, quite the woman.

Honest John’s Fish Camp

Our next stop was Long Point Park, near Sebastian Inlet. The park graciously donated two campsites to us for our stay. It was sad getting there in a way because that’s where Dee Kaminsky was leaving us. Mike Conneen’s brother Matt came by with two pots of vegetarian chili with all the fixin’s and fed the lot of us, the sort of kindness that has made this trip so outstanding. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank Matt Conneen for his delicious contribution.

The storks hoped for handouts that never came.

On the bright side of this particular stop, Karen of Karen’s Kayaks joined us for the overnight and the next day’s paddle and Brian the kayak fisherman joined us for three days.

Brian brought a cheering section.

A half-dozen wood storks hung around waiting for handouts. Since we had hardly caught any fish (a recurring theme on this trip) we had nothing for them. Feeding the wildlife is never a good idea anyway.

We paddled through miles of stinky water the next day. The seagrass has been replaced by a red alga that collects in depressions on the bottom where it rots. The rotting algae stinks. It was like that for miles.

This stuff collects and rots, raising quite the stink.

We thought we would catch some fish in the vicinity of Sebastian Inlet but no one did. Nearing Wabasso Rodney managed to get a slam- redfish, two snook, seatrout, and a crevalle thrown in for good measure. All the fish combined maybe would weigh two pounds.

The larger of Rodney’s two snook.

Our best redfish of the trip- so far.

Evening found us at the Environmental Learning Center at Wabasso, the nicest of this type of facility that I’ve seen. They allowed us to camp there, take showers, and wash our nasty clothes. Then, Lou and Laurie of Chive in Vero Beach came out with a portable kitchen and cooked us an amazing dinner- steak, shrimp, three-beans and rice, condiments, sauces, truly amazing stuff. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank Lou and Laurie for their delicious contribution.

I got confused navigating the next morning and missed the route I wanted to take. Because of that error we got to meet Dr. Grant Gilmore, who had come out to see us. We stopped and conversed about IRL fisheries and their protection. Apparently the county wants to put in a boat ramp at the location of the best seatrout spawning habitat remaining in the south end of the Indian River Lagoon. Dr. Gilmore does not think this is a good idea, and I agree with him.

Dr. Grant Gilmore makes a point.

Just north of the north causeway in Vero Beach the most amazing thing happened- we began seeing seagrass again. With the seagrass came all kinds of bait, too. Crabs, no. Large fish, no. Rays, no. But there was still grass there, and we’ve seen it more or less all the way to Jensen Beach.

Rodney’s son James and two of his friends joined us on the south side of Vero beach. They camped with us that night on the best spoil island of the trip. There was a pocket of deep water on the north side of it and we caught jacks and ladyfish there, most of us catching at least a few. I even broke out the fly rod and caught a ladyfish.

James was happy to see us too.

Sunset was spectacular, a gorgeous, calm evening.

James photographs the sunset.

Dusk at Home Sweet Home.

Morning broke gray and windy, a solid 15 from the north. Mim, a kayaker from Sebastian, joined us for the duration of the trip.

Mim truly is epic.

Rodney and I tied our canoe to Nick’s and we put up sails. We made great time to Fort Pierce and without thinking it through too well kept right on going. We stopped at a speck of dirt south of the causeway. Suddenly the wind doubled in intensity, pushing up big, ugly whitecaps. We had to leave- our speck would be underwater at high tide. So we made for the nearest shore. It was a tense, scary ride but fortunately everyone made it safely.

But now we had to find a place to stop.

The entire shoreline there is mangroves behind which are mosquito impoundments. There is no place to stop, much less camp. We got to Little Mud Creek just before sundown and that’s where we spent the night, wind howling, surf crashing.

There were miles of mangrove shorelines south of Fort Pierce.

We got going as early as possible the next morning. Our destination was Jensen Beach.

Both Caribbean Shores and River Palms Cottages offered us donated lodging. We ended up at River Palms, from where I type this. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank both facilities for their generous donation. My only regret is we couldn’t manage to stay at both places.

Mim bought all the Paddle Adventurers dinner last night. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely her for her generous donation!

Speaking of donations, you can still sponsor a paddler and donate to the MRC Education fund at this link…

We are scheduled to give a presentation at the Florida Oceanographic Institute in an hour. Tomorrow we recommence our adventure.

Life is short- go fishing.

Life is great and I love my work!

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 Lagoon Paddle Adventure launches Dec. 1
Paddlers heading out on 19 day Indian River Lagoon adventure

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Fishing Stories, Photo Essays, travel blog · Tagged: adventure fishing, fishing story, florida fishing, Indian River Lagoon

First IRL Paddle Adventure Report

December 7, 2013 by john kumiski · 1 Comment

First IRL Paddle Adventure Report

We had too much stuff. I looked at the mountain of gear and looked at the Old Town, wondering how it could all fit. Somehow it did. Looked ugly, load felt high, but we were off and headed to Jupiter. Like the sound of that, feels like we were off on a space exploration. In a way I suppose we were.

We had too much stuff. We made it work.

Thirteen boats launched from JB’s Fish camp that morning. Some were only with us for the day. Others were going to Titusville or beyond, or all the way to Jupiter.

We looked for redfish from JB’s to ICW Marker 13, didn’t see much. The weather was gray, misty. We couldn’t see the east shore of Mosquito Lagoon. But such breeze as there was pushed us along beautifully. It was an easy first day’s paddle, the way you’d plan it if you had control over such things as the wind speed or direction. Perfect.

A crown conch on black mangrove roots along the way.

Black mangrove seeds along a Mosquito Lagoon shoreline.

This is how hard we were looking for redfish.

The second night we camped on a spoil island west of Haulover Canal. Dee had gotten a redfish and Jay was cooking it up. One fish wouldn’t go far feeding ten. Jim Dyce was wading around the island casting a gold spoon. He said, “I have a big fish. I don’t know what it is.” It was another redfish. That fish was on people’s plates about 20 minutes later, hot and delicious.

Jim Dyce got lucky, and we got dinner.

The fillets on the fire.

Another wonderful paddle (we’ve been blessed with the weather so far) put us on the spoil island just north of Parrish Park. We had a party to go to at Dixie Crossroads, time to bathe! It’s amazing how stinky you can get in only three days.

Exploring a spoil pile along the Indian River Lagoon.

Capt. Mark Wright came out and picked us up, a very nice thing for him to do. He brought us to Parrish Park and also gave a ride to the restaurant. About 30 people were there to celebrate with us and feast on some of the seafood that Dixie Crossroads is famous for. Personally I concentrated on the oysters and shrimp, merely sampling the blue crabs and clams. After three days of paddling it was extremely delicious, and very kind of Lauralee to do for us. Thanks from all the paddlers to Dixie Crossroads for such a fantastic fete.

People are having fun. Mike, coneening around.

The kayakers expressed surprise at how fast Rodney and I travel. we can exceed the speed of any of them. We have an Old Town Penobscot, a well-designed canoe. We have Bending Branches paddles, a bent shaft model for the bow and a straight shaft for the stern. Rodney is like internal combustion in the bow. We get a good rythym and the miles fly by.

Nick is not making the speed Rodney and I are. With weather like this that’s not important.

Wednesday morning the mayor of Titusville came out to paddle with us for a while. While it was nice chatting, we had a long way to go. We decided to hit it while the weather was with us. As it turned out it was with us all the way, God smiling on fools and paddlers, apparently.

Mr. Mayor, out for a spin.

We found a school of black drum south of the NASA Causeway. The one we had for dinner took a smoke colored DOA Shrimp.

Pasta, pasta, pasta! Dinner while camping!

While paddling Thursday a flight of white pelicans flew over us. I had a brief glimpse of God. Take Him where you find Him…

The white pelicans are trying to earn a living on the lagoon.

Spoonbills roosting on a spoil island, Indian River Lagoon.

The water has been high the entire way. We have not seen a blade of seagrass south of Rinker Canal. Fish have been scarce. While we are paddling more than fishing, we’re certainly looking for fish all along the way. We have not seen many.

Fish have been scarce, but we have gotten a few puffers.

But we are having a marvelous time, partly because the weather has been perfect, partly because everyone in the group has been awesome. Bones Benton said this is the coolest thing he’s ever done. Mr. Benton has done some way cool things, too.

Nick paddles the stars and stripes along the Indian River Lagoon.

We haven’t needed so much as a band-aid, either.

A tree snail in a red mangrove tree.

We’d like to thank Vince and Jim and the Mayor and the Crabman and everyone else who has paddled with us. We’d like to also thank those folks who have said, “Hey, we read about you in the newspaper!” And of course Laurie needs a huge thank you for the incredible cookies!

This is the worst weather we’ve had to deal with- a single passing shower.

Saturday December 7 we’ll be at the Indian River Festival at Pelican Beach Park in Satellite Beach. Sunday we’ll be at Lagoon-Palooza at the Lagoon House in Melbourne. Please come out and see us.

That’s the First IRL Paddle Adventure Report. I will do the second as soon as I am able.

Life is short- go fishing.

Life is great and I love my work!

John Kumiski

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

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Paddlers heading out on 19 day Indian River Lagoon adventure
Packing for a Florida Canoe Trip- The Fly Box

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Paddle Fishing Florida, Photo Essays, travel blog · Tagged: adventure fishing, Banana River, Black drum, DOA Lures, Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon, Paddle, redfish

How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip- The Tackle Box

October 19, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip- The Tackle Box

The path of the Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure takes it the length of the most biologically diverse estuary in North America, the Indian River Lagoon system. This blog discusses How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip- The Tackle Box. The Fly Box will be covered in a separate blog.

We will find many species of fish. I want to keep track of how many different kinds we can catch. Redfish, snook, seatrout, snapper, moonfish, jacks, it’s a long list. Since it’s a paddle trip, you don’t have room to bring a ton of tackle. I hope the list below is an exercise in minimalism.

The spin rod I’m bringing will be a two piece, 6.5 foot light action rod with a Shimano Spheros 3000. On the reel will be Power Pro 10 or 15 pound braid. Most of the time there will be a section of twenty pound fluorocarbon on the business end.

A small box of lures is joining me. In the box are the following:

-three 1/8th ounce weedless jigheads and 10 matching soft plastic tails;

-three shallow running DOA Bait Busters;

-one dozen three inch DOA Shrimp, assorted colors;

-two Chug Bugs with single hooks;

-two five-inch Rebel jointed swimming plugs (couldn’t find a link for these) with single hooks*;

-two 1/4 ounce Johnson Minnows;

-about one dozen DOA CAL jigheads, 1/16th to 1/4 ounce;

-a 12-pack of Woodies Rattlers plastic worm rattles;

-a bag of 00 size split shots and a few DOA pinch weights.

*We drag a Rebel behind the boat as we paddle. If you stop paddling the plug floats instead of snagging on the bottom. I don’t know how it will work in the lagoon but it used to work well in the Everglades.

In a one gallon Ziplock bag are:

-one package each of 3/0 and 5/0 Daiichi D65Z hooks for jerk baits;

-a package of 5/0 Daiichi D84Z circle hooks just in case;

-a quart-size Ziplock with a handful of DOA CAL 5.5 inch jerkbaits;

-a quart-size Ziplock with a handful of DOA CAL AirHeads and the DOA longneck hook designed for these baits;

-a quart-size Ziplock with a handful of DOA CAL three inch shad tails;

-a quart-size Ziplock with a handful of DOA CAL four-inch jekbaits.

And we simply MUST accessorize, dahlink:

-a Dr. Slick line nipper on a cord around my neck;

-a pair of Dr. Slick bullet head pliers in a holster on my belt;

-an orange grabby glove (couldn’t find a link for these) for lipping tarpon;

-one each Seaguar fluorocarbon leader wheels in 20 and 30 pound test.

That’s my tackle kit, and I’m sticking to it.

And that is the end of Packing for a Florida Canoe Trip- The Tackle Box blog.

As always please share any questions, comments, and suggestions.

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2013. All rights are reserved.

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How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip
Bait and Tackle for St. Augustine Fishing
Meeting held over Indian River Lagoon restoratio
n

Filed Under: Fishing Product News and Reviews, Fishing Reports, Fishing Tips, opinion, Paddle Fishing Florida · Tagged: adventure fishing, DOA Lures, fishing tips, florida fishing, florida fishing tips, Indian River Lagoon, kayak fishing

How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip

October 15, 2013 by john kumiski · 1 Comment

How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip

With our big paddle on the Indian River Paddle Adventure coming up I thought I would share how to pack for a Florida canoe trip. There are many ways that will work. Here are a few of them.

First of all, on a long trip there’s no ice. Don’t bring anything that requires refrigeration. For example, hard cheeses hold up better than do soft ones, although if it’s hot the hard ones don’t hold up too well, either. Instead of butter, bring margarine. Instead of a stick, get it in a tub. For milk you have a choice between boxed and powdered. Eggs, both raw and boiled, go in an egg carrier. Hopefully you get the idea.

Raccoons want your food and water, so you have to pack it such that their desires are frustrated. Food not in cans or bottles goes into a hard plastic cooler . The raccoons can open one of these so you must bring enough cord that you can tie it shut.

Cans and bottles can go in a crate if cooler space is at a premium.

Store breakfast, lunch, and snack items in a five gallon plastic bucket with a snap-on lid. I got mine at doughnut shops but the square ones kitty litter comes in look like they would be even better. You will need several of these. They double as camp seats, too. Use a marker to write the contents on the lid. This will make life in the canoe less confusing.

Raccoons will chew through the water bottles that bottled water comes in. You need something more durable, something on this idea…

Food going into the cooler will need to be repackaged in plastic ziplock bags. A bag of pita bread is already perfectly packaged. A box of pasta or crackers is not. At your house the pasta or crackers come out of the box and go into a bag. This way you’re not carrying trash with you, the pasta or crackers are protected from moisture, and the bag will come in handy for something else once the pasta or crackers get eaten. Do this with all your food, and stow it in the cooler (except for lunches and snacks, already mentioned). Bring extra ziplock bags!

The garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes, hard squashes, and any fresh fruit also go in the cooler.

My cook kit is in another crate like the one already mentioned.

Your clothes go in a plastic bucket like the one already mentioned. Carry a large plastic trash bag for dirty clothes. Sneak a few clothespins in your stuff someplace.

Your pillow, sleeping bag, and bulky warm clothes have to go in a waterproof bag. Carry straps are handy.

The sleeping mats, tent, tarps, extra cord, that kind of stuff goes in a big duffel bag . It’s nice if it’s waterproof.

Personal items can be carried in small waterproof bags.

This system of How to Pack for a Florida Canoe Trip may not be the best or most elegant but it has served me well over many canoe trips. If you have comments, questions, or other suggestions please let us know about them!

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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Short Story (true detailed experience)

Filed Under: Fishing Tips, Paddle Fishing Florida, travel blog · Tagged: adventure fishing, canoe camping, canoe expedition, canoeing story, kayak fishing

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, Port Canaveral Fishing Report

October 5, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, Port Canaveral Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-

Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 26
Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, October 27
First Coast Fly Fishers meeting, November 4
Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure starts December 1. Paddle the length of the lagoon!

Four days were spent on the water this week, even had a charter.

Sunday Tom Yoshida and his wife Babette joined me for some fly fishing on the Indian River Lagoon. I would have preferred the beach but the northeast wind and three to four foot seas made me think better of that idea. First we looked on the south side of NASA causeway. The water was clean(!) but other than mullet we saw no fish.

We checked the new power plant. There were baby tarpon rolling there. We tried all kinds of flies for an hour without anything to show but a couple of small ladyfish, and then gave up. We got to watch a lot of dolphins working, though.

I ran north of the railroad trestle. It was a complete waste of time. The water was nasty looking and we did not see anything.

Our last stop was north of the NASA causeway. There were a few redfish there, although it was hard to see them until they were a rod length away. Those ten foot casts are hard to make with a fly rod. There were quite a few alligators there. Using my pushpole I poked the tail of one that was lying on the bottom. He surprised me by whipping around and trying to bite the pole, which I barely got out of the way. Oh, my Stiffy!

We did not get a good shot and ended the day with only the small ladies to show.

Monday Scott Radloff and I went to Port Canaveral. There were loads of mullet there. We anchored at the north jetty and got snook, redfish, crevalle, bluefish, and snapper. Once the bite slowed we went looking up towards the Cape. There were breaking fish all over Canaveral Bight. All of them turned out to be big ladyfish. Even at that, I love breaking fish. On a Chug Bug they were a blast.

There were loads of mullet in the surf

We were hoping to find tarpon but did not, although I got a 60 pound blacktip shark on a light spin rod.

All in all it was a pretty entertaining day.

Wednesday I went back to the port by myself. The seas were at the limits of the Mitzi’s ability to cope, so I did not clear the jetties. As it turned out I just caught some mullet for future reference, then went home and took care of other business.

Friday Dr. George Yarko and I went back to the port. We anchored at the north jetty, where we got a snook, a seatrout, and a crevalle, and missed a couple of strikes. Then the bite died.

There was a shrimp boat off of Cocoa Beach. We ran down to investigate. Sadly, there was absolutely nothing in the way of fish behind it, to my surprise and dismay. Since we were already out a couple miles, and since we had been seeing Sargassum, we went looking for weeds, for breaking fish, for bait, for whatever. We found nothing until we came back close to the beach north of Cape Canaveral.

There were acres of breaking fish.

The Spanish macks were nice ones, and there were jacks and bluefish too. I broke out the fly rod while George threw DOA CAL jigs. We went through lots of baits, but it was pretty much a fish every cast. Both bluefish and Spanish mackerel are entirely capable of severing 40 pound fluorocarbon leader. They did just that repeatedly. Lure manufacturers must love those species!

Spanish mackerel, port canaveral florida

The Spanish mackerel were nice-sized ones.

It got too easy, so we headed down the beach, back towards the port. We found more breaking fish, this time with ladyfish thrown into the mix. We lost a bunch more lures and flies.

It got too easy, so we headed down the beach. I spotted some redfish and George got one over 30 inches on a live mullet, the best fish of the day.

This redfish was over 30 inches.

I spotted some snook and we doubled up. They were short and we released them, but it was awesome being able to sight fish them.

A snook double along the beach. The weather was spectacular, too!

We got jacks and bluefish until we decided to hang it up at about 2:30. It had been an awesome day.

That is this week’s exciting version of the Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report and Port Canaveral 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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: adventure fishing, DOA Lures, florida fishing, Indian River Lagoon, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing, orlando fishing charter, orlando fishing report, Port Canaveral, redfish

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

September 22, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

What a week! A Harvest moon and the autumnal equinox, too! Both have an effect on the fishing.

A moon like this affects the fishing for better or worse.

Upcoming Events-

Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 26

Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar, October 27

Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure starts December 1. Paddle the length of the lagoon!

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report– On Tuesday son Alex and I went to the Mosquito Lagoon, getting a late start because I had to see the hygienist first. While it was a beautiful day (the weather has been awesome) as far as catching fish went we might as well have stayed home. We saw maybe ten redfish, all a rod’s length away, and did not get a shot.

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report– Thursday Scott Radloff and I went to the Indian River Lagoon. After a short boat ride we saw diving birds. Breaking fish, one of fall’s pleasures. Ladyfish, bluefish, and gafftopsail catfish were in the mix. Nothing too thrilling there but it was certainly a fun way to kick off the day.

The new power station in Port St. John is up and running now. There are lots of ladyfish there. Didn’t see anything else.

Went for a ride and ended up poling miles of shoreline. There were enough slot reds to keep it interesting. The fish were spooky and it was a long time before we convinced one to bite. We ended up getting four on DOA CAL shad tails rigged weedless on a worm hook. One was a gorgeous thirteen spot fish.

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report– Friday I went to the Banana River Lagoon, breaking out the kayak to do so. I hadn’t been in a kayak in months and it was great to be paddling again. I learned (again!) that stupid stuff can happen to you at any time.

Two hours or so of paddling were under my belt before I saw anything other than lots of mullet. Excited for having seen a redfish, I anchored the boat and got out to wade. The wind was blowing a little too hard to fish effectively from the boat.

The fish were not thick, but they were good sized. I had several poor shots and two good ones. None of the fish took the fly, which got changed a few times.

Working my way back to the kayak, I tied the painter to myself and kept wading, towing the boat behind me. Shots at fish continued coming sporadically, and I finally fooled one with a small grizzly Seaducer. I photographed myself with the fish. I should have noticed at that point that my paddle was gone but it did not register.

The lone biter of the entire affair.

After wading another hour or so without any more bites the clouds got thick enough I couldn’t see any more. The atmosphere was telling me it was time to bag it. I ate lunch, reeled in the fly line, and went to paddle back. Now I noticed the paddle was gone.

Crap. I had three or four miles to go. At least the wind was out of the north-northeast.

Human hands make lousy kayak paddles.

The wind blew the boat along at about one mile an hour, putting me back at the chariot about 4 PM. Fortunately the weather was still beautiful, and other than losing a nice Aqua Bound paddle it had been a wonderful day with a nice redfish on fly as a bonus.

I think I will tether my paddle while wading from now on, though.

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, Again– Saturday fly fisher DJ Montigny joined me for a 3/4 day. He had never caught a fish in saltwater before, so we went to the power plant and knocked that right out. Two regrets- the ladyfish were dinks, and there were no tarpon there.

After 30 minutes DJ had had enough of the little ladyfish. We went looking for redfish. It took us most of an hour but we found big ones, enough to keep us entertained for the rest of the day.

We couldn’t find a fly they would bite.

They were exhibiting strange behavior, swimming quite rapidly most of the time, but circling through the same area repeatedly. We found and lost a sizeable school. Other than that they were in small groups, from pairs to a half dozen. We saw a lot of fish in the 20-30 pound range.

DJ had some great shots and by all rights should have had three or four bites. We also saw a big school of crevalle and in an almost-unheard-of situation did not get a bite from them either.

If it hadn’t been for those dink ladies we would have gone fishless.

I think the full moon boogered up the fish this week. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That is this week’s exciting version of the Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report, and 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 2013. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Fishing Stories, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report, Paddle Fishing Florida · Tagged: adventure fishing, Banana River, DOA Lures, florida fishing, Indian River Lagoon, kayak fishing, Mosquito Lagoon, mosquito lagoon fishing report, Mosquito Lagoon redfish, Orlando Area Fishing Report, orlando fishing, orlando fishing charter, orlando fishing report, redfish

Fishing Report, Goodnews River

September 5, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Fishing Report, Goodnews River

To all my readers, my apologies for not posting for a month. My old Macintosh stopped communicating with the server at Goodnews and I could not get online.

If you have sent me an email since early August chances are it’s been deleted. I had almost 800 to deal with and many fell through huge cracks in my attention span. If it was important, please send me another.

This is the report from 8/13, the last one I wrote:

Unfortunately no crazy stories came out of Goodnews River Lodge this week. We must have a house full of normal guests! It has rained every day, however.

The river is high and discolored, and still rising.

The silver salmon and dolly varden are coming in like crazy, though. The dollies are still in their favorite spots. The silvers search for clean, quiet water. Finding them can require searching, but they eat well when discovered.

Gary Vasquez and Linda Martuch laid a hurt on a couple dozen silver salmon, using poppers while fishing with me the other day.

Ray-Ray and Mike tuned up dozens of dollies way up the main stem of the Goodnews on a variety of flies. The bigest was 24 inches. I thought we had a real big dolly when Mike jumped a nice fish using a gurgler. It turned out to be a silver salmon though. Ray also got a nice rainbow trout on a dolly lama fly. Both of them got fairly hooked sockeye salmon, nice red ones, too.

Generally, I take men out fishing here. This week I had the good fortune to have two lovely young women as my anglers.

The girls, sisters, were novice fly fishers. We worked on casting some, then proceeded to fish. Their casting skills weren’t great (they would have a rough time on Mosquito Lagoon) but this is Alaska. They caught some silver salmon. While they did not want to export any, we had a bleeder. We kept it for camp.

Rachel wanted to learn how to filet the fish, so I gave her a lesson. For a first one she did a fine job.

Rachel fillets her first fish. Apparently she’s enjoying it.

As it turns out Michelle is a student at Tufts University, about five miles from the house where I grew up. We talked about Medford, about Boston.

Sister Michelle takes a break from Tufts U.

We went fishing for dollies after lunch. The fish, as usual, were cooperative. The girls caught a bunch by using gurglers.

For one of us at least it was a delightful day, a welcome change of pace from grumpy old men (sorry, guys). Thank you, Rachel and Michelle.

Since then, silver season was again incredible. I had the pleasure of fishing so many fine people, I was blessed in that way. As the season neared its end the feeling became decidedly autumnal- shorter days, the willow leaves turning gold and falling everywhere, the silver salmon turning red, the constant honking of migrating geese. Bears made their appearance, finally. Some of our guides went hunting. The ptarmigan and ducks were delicious. A native gave one of us a big chunk of moose meat. My last night I camp I had a moose steak, quite the toothsome piece of protein, I must say.

Here’s a short photo essay that hopefully puts some of the season in perspective-

Capt. Souza with a 23 inch rainbow trout.

Leili is happy with this dolly varden.

Don Kane caught this nice dolly with a bead.

Maio, again with a dolly.

Brittany adds another silver salmon to a load already caught.

Joe Levin tosses a salmon carcass.

Full circle, with Jessi and Ross.

One’s readers can show up anywhere. We were out fishing one day and some rafters floated by. One of them yelled to us, “Are you the guide Kumiski?” “Yes I am,” I called back. “I read your blog!” he said. Needless to say my head swelled like a beach ball. Susan should have been there to keep me humble. She does that well.

It was with both relief and melancholy that I left Goodnews this morning. God willing I will be back next year.

And that is the last Goodnews River Fishing Report of this season. Back to central Florida waters reports next week, assuming the Mitzi will start.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short. Get out and live!

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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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Goodnews River- Alaska Fishing Report, Photo Essays · Tagged: adventure fishing, Alaska fishing report, Dolly varden fishing, fishing photography, Goodnews River, salmon fishing

Goodnews River Fishing Report

August 5, 2013 by john kumiski · Leave a Comment

Another Goodnews River Fishing Report

Silver Salmon Coming on Strong; Technical Difficulties

First, the technical dificulties, of which there are two. The power inverter on the generator here at Goodnews River Lodge crapped out this week. We only have power for essentials, of which our router is not. So this report may be posted late, or not at all.

Also, my i-photo program has been acting strangely, not accepting new photos. So if the report does get posted it may be photo-less. We’ll see how it progresses today.

Silver salmon! I got my first of the season the other night on the six-weight and was stunned once again at what hot fish they are. More and more enter the river every day. Several boats have already had 20-plus fish days. Effective flies include any weighted flies containing the colors of pink, orange, purple, and/or chartreuse, usually on a size 2 or 1 hook. Effective hardware include the ever -effective Pixie spoon, 1/2 ounce, the Mepps Flying C spinner, or my own favorite, a 1/2 ounce DOA CAL jighead with a pink, chartreuse, or nite-glow soft plastic twisty tail.

This silver was the first salmon PG had ever caught.

Jess got her first silver salmon on the fly.

Dollies are coming up the river by the thousands, but not with the size reported last week. These fish are much smaller. Still, with a four-weight and a gurgler you can have an afternoon’s worth of very genteel fishing and catch 30 or 40 fish.

The chum salmon are almost spawned out already and dead fish are everywhere. Dave Kane got five rainbow trout in less than two hours on a flesh fly while fishing the Middle Fork with me this past week. On one hand it seems a bit strange to use a fly that imitates a free-drifting piece of dead salmon. On the other hand trout and big dollies eat the heck out of them. I guess I’ll keep tying them on.

Dave used a flesh fly to fool this nice rainbow trout.

No weird fishing stuff happened this week, although Clint and Garrett McCoy both got red sockeye salmon on flies yesterday, both fairly hooked. Good going, gentlemen!

Garrett fights a sockeye salmon.

Garrett, with the fish. Nice color!

And that is this week’s Goodnews River 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.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Goodnews River- Alaska Fishing Report · Tagged: adventure fishing, Alaska fishing, Alaska fishing report, DOA Lures, Dolly varden fishing, fly fishing, Goodnews River, salmon fishing

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