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The TC Orlando Fishing Report

May 14, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

The TC Orlando Fishing Report

orlando fishing report

Timothy Courville, MD, Fly Fisher.

Who, or what, is TC? It could have been TC Howard, long time friend and rod repair guru, but not this week. TC is Timothy Courville, MD, a fine fly caster. He fished with me for three days this week, with some very mixed results. Since I only fished those three days, he’s featured in the TC Orlando Fishing Report.

Monday found us on the Indian River Lagoon. Nice day, not too many clouds, kind of a stiff wind from the southeast. There were quite a few fish around, and Timothy got the job done. The morning started off with a few breaking ladyfish. Bang! One in the boat. Then we saw a phenomenon all too rare in the IRL, breaking redfish. Bam! One in the boat.

orlando fishing report

Bam! One in the boat!

Then we got to sight cast to some real nice seatrout. Tim got several. Crevalle jacks started busting mullet. Slam! Another species down. Most fish were caught on synthetic minnow patterns. All in all it was a productive day.

orlando fishing report

This was a beautiful, fat fish, the best of the day.

Tuesday I wanted to try the ocean, so we launched at Port Canaveral. It was a little too rough. We ran the beach to Cape Canaveral, found one school of pogies, got a couple bluefish with a spin rod, could not turn a bite on fly. We pulled the boat at nine AM and went back to the Indian River Lagoon. We must have educated the fish the previous day because we could not buy a strike, in spite of seeing some very nice fish. We tried a couple other spots. At the last spot, late in the afternoon, Timothy got our first fish of the day, a modest redfish that took a synthetic minnow. To my surprise we found some snook and to my bigger surprise they were quite aggressive. The synthetic minnow fooled three. At this point it was 5 PM and time to wrap it up. So it had been a frustrating day but at least it ended on a high point.

Wednesday we went to the Banana River Lagoon. It had been so good last week, but the bottom had fallen out. We paddled and poled for miles. It was hard to find fish and when we did they said no to everything we tried. We did not get a bite and the skunking could not have been more thorough.

Not to beat the puffer name thing to death, but I got one more response to the puffer question. This is the last one I will share unless I get the brilliant one that I couldn’t come up with. Anthony L. wrote, “I was thinking ‘Party Balloon’ could be a cool name for pufferfish, it’s hard to say party balloon and think negatively! Is it sexy?… I’m not sure, but it sounds fun!” Thank you for the idea, sir!

And that is this week’s TC Orlando Fishing Report from Spotted Tail.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

 

John Kumiski

www.spottedtail.com

http://www.spottedtail.com/blog

www.johnkumiski.com

www.rentafishingbuddy.com

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jkumiski

 

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2015. All rights are reserved.

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The Ode to Little Tunny Port Canaveral Fishing Report

September 19, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

The Ode to Little Tunny Port Canaveral Fishing Report

That’s right, you heard right. The secret word for tonight is mudshark little tunny! This is the Ode to Little Tunny Port Canaveral Fishing Report!

First though, the bumper sticker of the week–

DSCN0817

Next, upcoming events-

-October 11th-18th Third Annual SPACE COAST SURF FISHING TOURNAMENT. Learn more by going to this link… 

-October 25, Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. Learn more or register at this link…

-October 26 Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. Learn more or register at this link… 

I got out on the Atlantic out of Port Canaveral three times this week and two of those days the tunny were going off like I’ve never seen anywhere- not off Jupiter, not off Cape Lookout, just insane numbers of tunny going off on little anchovy-looking fishies. The birds loved it.

port canaveral fishing report

Tunny going of outside of Port Canaveral.

 

port canaveral fishing report

There were LOTS of them!

 

port canaveral fishing report

This is such exciting fishing!

OK, so what are tunny?

Properly called Euthynnus alletteratus, tunny are the most common tuna in the Atlantic Ocean. Occurring in large schools and weighing up to 36 pounds (the current IGFA all-tackle record), it is the smallest member of the tuna family, and is one of the finest small game-fish in the Atlantic.

It’s commonly called a false albacore or, here in Florida, bonito. It is sought-after as a sport fish due to its line-stripping 20+ mph runs and hard fighting ability when hooked.

They are absolutely fantastic on a light fly rod and tons of fun with a light spin rod. There were lots of them off Brevard County beaches this week.

On Tuesday son Alex and I put in a half day, launching at the wonderful new boat ramp at Port Canaveral. The wind was light out of the west. The tunny were going CRAZY, diving birds everywhere over large schools of breaking fish. We got a bunch on craft fur minnows and DOA CAL jigs, doubling up several times. Even got a selfie of us fighting fish.

port canaveral fishing report

Alex and I doubled up, he on fly, me on spin.

We finally tore ourselves away to look for other targets. We found a large school of Spanish mackerel doing their best little tunny imitation and got several of those. They weren’t too exciting after the tunny.

Then we found some tarpon rolling. We doubled up, using live menhaden. When Alex’s fish made its first jump, at least 15 sharks came flying out of the water, all through the school of menhaden, one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen while on the water.

We could not get a bait through the sharks to the tarpon after that.

We hit a couple more tunny on the way back, and had the boat on the trailer at 1 PM.

On Wednesday my good friend Tom Van Horn joined me on the Spotted Tail, again launching at the Port. Tom had never caught a tunny on fly and wanted to get one. The fish were just as crazy as the previous day. The wind was still west but blowing with more gusto, waves slopping over the gunwales as we chased fish around. We hooked a bunch of tunny. Although we lost a bunch of flies (craft fur minnows, some tied like Clousers), the mission was accomplished.

port canaveral fishing report

Tom hooked up to a tunny. His fly rod had never had such a workout.

 

port canaveral fishing report

I made him boat his own fish so I could get this photo.

 

port canaveral fishing report

The first of several fish Tom got.

We went to where the tarpon had been the previous day. They were still there. I hooked and broke off two, then the sharks ate everything we threw out there.

We both had errands to run in the afternoon, so again were off the water at 1 PM.

Thursday morning I had my annual physical, and was not intending to fish. When I got home though, Mr. Damien Kostick had called and wanted an afternoon half-day charter. Hey, the fish are off the Port, why not?

At 11:30 we launched the Mitzi. The wind was out of the east. It was light at first but it kept increasing in velocity. It got real sloppy out there.

The tunny had apparently vacated the premises. Crap.

We went to where all the tarpon and sharks had been the past couple days. Gone. Double crap.

We ran south all the way to Satellite Beach. We saw a single tarpon free-jump. We spotted a free-swimming tripletail. Damien got one cast at it. Then it spooked and dove. Other than that and the menhaden there were no signs of fish of any kind.

Heading north again, we spotted birds working to the east. We headed out to sea. The tunny were working out there, although nothing like the previous two days.

There were enough that by being patient and working it hard we got a half dozen or so. By now it was rough enough that the waves were washing over the deck pretty freely.

port canaveral fishing report

Damien with one of his tunny.

We went back towards the beach, still hoping to see some tarpon roll. We looked well up into Canaveral Bight and saw nothing at all. The boat was on the trailer at about 530 PM.

And that is this week’s Ode to Little Tunny 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon

December 26, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

A Guest Blog by Rodney Smith

Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon

 

Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon

James Smith with some fine Indian River Lagoon crab claws.

My oldest son, James, has been getting on me to write a blog entitled “Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Coast.” As much as I write, you’d think it would be an easy task, but at the end of the day, I felt like the task of writing a blog was about as exciting as being flogged with a soft-shell blue crab. Useless!

But then again, James reminded me why I should be communicating more frequently with other folks who also love and cherish the Indian River Lagoon coast. So, to restart my blog I have a question for you:

Why do you love the IRL coast in winter?

Please answer at irlcoast@gmail.com . If I get feedback on this question I’ll know some of you out there are reading this blog, and this will help me judge my course, blog-wise, moving into a new year!

Funny what a difference a month can make. It’s been the opposite of what you would typically consider standard conditions; in mid-November water temperatures along the entire Indian River Lagoon coast were in the mid-sixties in the north-central inshore ocean waters, well below normal. It looked like we were in for a long winter, but the weather flipped between Thanksgiving and Christmas and ocean temperatures rose nearly ten degrees.

The mild late fall weather guided thick schools of Atlantic menhaden toward the beaches along the north-central IRL coast. This, along with a steady stream of late season mullet still lingering near ocean inlets, attracted a smorgasbord of gamefish.

Because of the mild weather, tripletail, cobia, king mackerel and shark could be caught not far from where the Atlantic Ocean met the beaches. Tarpon by the hundreds flocked to Sebastian Inlet, snook packed the Ft. Pierce area and flounder and red and black drum roamed the beaches and inlets. Large schools of pompano, pushed south by the early cold and dirty water surged north, creating plenty of happy anglers from Sebastian to Hobe Sound.

Yes, December can be a fickle weather month along the Indian River Lagoon coast; tropical one day, winter-like the next. But as I found from going back to my twenty years of journals on the outdoor history of the IRL coast, much of the time the fishing and catching are above par this time of year.

If you’re interested in learning more about what to expect each month of the year along Florida’s IRL coast, check out my book Enjoying Life on the Indian River Lagoon Coast.  It touches on a wide range of topics, from shrimping and crabbing, to fishing for snook, tarpon, pompano, spotted seatrout and a large number of ocean pelagics. This book is jam-packed with useful information concerning the IRL coast for every month of the year.

Visit rodneysmithmedia.bigcartel.com for more information, or to order.

Rodney Smith is a writer and author, and currently director of Anglers for Conservation. He lives with his family in Satellite Beach.

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