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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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Orlando Area Fishing Report

September 24, 2012 by · 3 Comments

Happy Birthday, Alex Kumiski!

 

After doing some telephone research, Monday morning found Scott Radloff and I launching the Mitzi at Kennedy Point Park in Titusville. The goal was to do some scouting and hopefully find some redfish and seatrout in the Indian River Lagoon.

We poled and ran quite a distance from the Rinker Canal to Parrish Park. Having been in Alaska all summer and having heard about the algae bloom in the lagoons I was not expecting much. This was a good thing. We didn’t find much.

The water clarity was better at the south end  of where we looked. It wasn’t very good anywhere. The closer we got to shore the dirtier the water got.

We did not see many fish. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. We got three reds between us, mine on a DOA Shrimp, Scott’s on a Gulp. The largest was 22 inches. I tossed a Chug Bug all morning and did not get a single response.

The boat ran well and it was wonderful to be on home waters again.

Tuesday Tammy Wilson and I tried a similar routine on the Banana River Lagoon, launching at Kelly Park. The water was at least as clean as the cleaner places we saw in the Indian River Lagoon. However, there was very little seagrass. Most of the bottom was bare.

I wanted to run down toward Pineda Causeway but the whitecaps made me re-think that strategy. We did not see many fish. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. I got one red on a mullet chunk from under a dock, a skinny 21 inch fish. We beat the rain back to the dock, pulling the boat at about 1:30.

Thursday I went up the road to the Econ, just to check it out. It is running quite high, higher than I would want to wade in.

With this as my background I had a fly charter on Friday with Jim Coraci. He had never caught a redfish before and desperately wanted to do so.

We launched at Parrish Park at 7 AM, running and poling as far south as the NASA Causeway. We only saw a few fish, and had zero shots. Plenty of boats, though!

We turned around and ran north of Parrish Park. We found a few reds working along a shoreline up there. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. However, Jim managed to get three bites on a Merkin crab, and landed two redfish. One was a beautiful fish with 12 spots. The other was tailing with a partner.

Lovely to see tailing fish, even if, again, they were only about 21 or 22 inches long. Better small fish than no fish!

I will be doing more exploration in the upcoming week. It’s the end of September- there ought to be mind-boggling numbers of mullet everywhere in those lagoons. There definitely were not, so I need to look along the beach.

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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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  • Mysterious Indian River Algae Bloom May Be Decreasing
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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

August 12, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Silvers and Dollies and Pinks, Oh My!

The silver salmon run is picking up steam here on the Goodnews River. Boats whose captains pick the right spots are logging 25 and 30 fish days. The less fortunate souls have to hunt for two here, three there, none at this other place. One good thing about silvers is that if they are there they bite immediately. You don’t need to waste time fishing where they ain’t.

silver salmon goodnews river

Orlando’s Don Boardman with a fine silver salmon.

Fly casters generally use floating lines and weighted streamers in cerise, orange, chartreuse, blue, black, or some combination of those colors. When the run gets near the peak, gurglers and poppers will work, exciting fishing, but we’re not quite there yet.

Spin fishers usually use either Pixie spoons or Mepps Flying C spinners, although of course other lures will work. My favorite go-to lure, when I absolutely want to catch some fish, is a 3/8th ounce leadhead jig equipped with a soft plastic curly tail. I prefer those jigheads made by DOA because of the stout hook and the eye-catching eyes, but other heads work too. I also like the DOA CAL tails. They hold up fairly well to the toothy attacks of the silvers, and the elicit those attacks with startling regularity.

silver salmon on jig

Jigs are deadly on silver salmon.

Buzz Livingston borrowed one jighead and a couple of tails from me and boated 18 silvers in two hours while out with Kevin Rogers. Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

A staggering number of pink salmon are in the river. We don’t usually target pinks, but catch loads while fishing for both silvers and dollies. They annoy a few anglers when they’re fishing for silvers but I appreciate the bent rods. They are usually a hoot when caught while fishing for dollies because they give an excellent account of themselves on a six-weight or smaller. They are handsome little fish. I really like them.

Likewise dollies are everywhere. Some are getting their spawning colors, which are breathtaking. When you get a four or five pound fish with the spectacular colors of a spawning dolly you understand why you come to Alaska to fish. While streamers and beads are more effective, I still prefer to fish them with a gurgler. The visual aspect of the follows, misses, and occasional hooked fish are all part of fun of using the floating flies. Besides, how many dollies do you need to catch?

Dolly varden in spawning colors.

Mike got this beautiful Dolly in Barnum Creek.

Dead and dying chum and pink salmon are seen everywhere. Flesh flies will be effective on trout and dollies. We’re getting to the time of year when the river will start to stink badly at every bend.

Dead salmon are everywhere.

Long Fish Story of the Week-
Bob and Gennie Johnson, part of a four-couples group, were out fishing with me. Bob had some money riding on the big fish of the day.
I was working with Gennie, who was happily catching dollies. Bob had walked about 200 yards downstream, where he was casting a streamer fly for silver salmon.

Bob bellowed up to us, “Big Fish!” Fine, I thought, just beach it on the gravel bar. He clearly had some other idea though, because he kept yelling at us. So Gennie and I interrupted her fishing, trudged back upstream to the boat ,and got in. I pulled the anchor and proceeded to row downstream.

The water got shallow and the boat grounded, necessitating disembarking and pushing until it began floating again.

In the meantime not only had Bob beached the fish, he had unhooked it and gone back to fishing. He neglected to kill the fish, which did not wish to suffocate on the gravel bar. It flopped its way back into the water.

When Bob noticed his fish was escaping he took immediate action, throwing his fly outfit (Abel reel, Loomis rod) into the river so he could run down the fish. He was successful in this.

About this time we finally arrived on the scene. Bob was almost panicked because he could not find his rod and reel. Hell, the current is strong and the outfit could have been half a mile downstream already. Fortunately he was using a floating line, which he finally spotted. Rod and reel recovered, we got a photo of the fish.

All’s well that ends well!

silver salmon goodnews river

Bob got the fish, and even found his fishing rod.

And that is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska 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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Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

June 15, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Jensen Beach Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6.16.12

On Sunday, friend and neighbor Tom Van Horn and I made a trek to Jensen Beach to stay at River Palms, to do some fishing on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday Doug Pike and I went out with Capt. Squeeky Kelly. Fishing with Doug was awesome. He was once editor of Tide magazine. He was one of my favorite magazine editors when I was writing a lot, so it was a pleasure getting to spend the day with him. And Squeeky is quite the character. We spent a lot of time laughing at stupid stuff.

We got about 20 trout to about 22 inches or so, not particularly hot fishing. Most of the damage was done with a DOA Bait Buster, shallow running version.

seatrout on DOA

Capt. Squeeky holds the best fish of the day, caught on a DOA Bait Buster.

Several of the other boats had a similar problem as far as getting fish. Although tough fishing-wise, it was still a great day, wonderful weather, fantastic company.

On Tuesday Willy Le and I went out with Capt. Marcia Foosaner, one of my oldest friends from that part of the world. Usually when I fish with Marcia I watch her catch fish. She typically schools me pretty well.

It was another fairly tough morning. We went wading, all three of us tossing the three inch DOA Shrimp in various hues. I hooked a nice snook, which cut me off. A smallish crevalle and small flounder followed. Marcia hooked, then lost, a redfish. Willy and I each got a mangrove snpper. Then I hooked another snook, a five pound fish that I caught. We photographed and released it.

Snook taken on a DOA Shrimp

WIlly Le holds a snook fooled by a DOA Shrimp.

I hooked another snook and got cut off again. Then Willy hooked and lost the fish of the day, a solid snook which tossed the hook during a head shake.

All too soon it was time to head back to River Palms, to head home. Tom dropped me off at about 4 PM. The two days had flown by.

Wednesday morning found me at the chiropractor. My back has been a mess.

Thursday’s trip fell through. Quality time was spent with my bride.

Friday Susan and I celebrated out 32nd wedding anniversary. I got to do some honey-dos.

And that, short though it may be, is this week’s Indian 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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Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

June 9, 2012 by · 2 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6.9.12

On Sunday, friend and neighbor Karl Dienst joined me for a quick strike. We launched at Kennedy Point at 6 AM. We got to the fishing spot and no one else was there! Amazing.

The fish were not as thick as they were. We did not see a redfish. Karl got several nice trout on a white plastic worm, the kind you use for largemouth bass. I got a few on the Bait Buster. We also got a few nice ladyfish. Still looking for tarpon, still haven’t seen any.

Seatrout on DOA Bait Buster

The Bait Buster is a great lure for any mullet-eating fish.

The boat was on the trailer at 10AM.

Monday I went solo, launching at Marina Park. Got a couple trout and ladyfish on a Chug Bug, but it was slow. Saw one pod of redfish that would not let me near them. Switched to a Bait Buster and got a couple more trout.

I ran around much of Turnbull Basin and didn’t see much. On an ominous note, the nasty water we had last summer is showing itself again- found one large spot of dirty water on the west side south of the safety zone, and a big chunk of filthy water around Duckroost Cove.

After going to another spot I went wading, got four slot redfish on a black Clouser Minnow, quite satisfying.

Monday afternoon Sue and I brought son Alex to the airport, sending him off to Goodnews. It’s that time of year.

Tuesday morning Scott Radloff and I launched the Mitzi at Lee Wenner Park. It was overcast and windy, coming out of the west.

Scott got a small red on a Gulp on this third cast.

We got a nice trout on a DOA Shrimp in the next hour. It was too slow and visibility was not that great, so we put the boat on the trailer and went to Kelly Park, launching into the Banana River Lagoon.

I had gotten good reports about the BRL but we fished until 2 PM and got one trout that Scott convinced to take a Chug Bug. Not a lot of seagrass there any more.

Wednesday fly caster Darrin Prestangen met me at Marina Park. It was overcast and windy, terrible fly fishing conditions. Darrin, used to blind-casting in the streams of Colorado, blind-cast all morning. We did not get a fish. We did get rained on. We did see another boat pull in a 30 pound class redfish on the northwest side of the railroad trestle.

In the afternoon we went to where I had gotten the four reds a few days earlier. It was still very hard to see, but Darrin managed to sight-fish his first ever redfish (a small one) and a 20 inch seatrout, both on sliders.
The boat was on the trailer at 3 PM.

seatrout, indian river lagoon

Darrin's first saltwater fish was this nice trout.

Thursday I did honey-dos. The weather was awful. It was a good day to stay home.

Friday Darrin joined me again, his last hurrah for this trip. We launched at Parrish Park. It was overcast but the wind was light.

We saw one tailing fish at the first spot, at which we did not get a shot. It did not tail very long.

We found a small school of fish at the second spot. We found them by running them over. There was a stampede.

We ran over several singles too. There were fish there but between the clouds and the dark bottom we could not see them at all.

We went back to the place where Darrin had caught his two fish the previous trip.

In a stunning turn of events there were more fish there than the previous day. Darrin got two reds and a fine black mullet on the estaz crabby thing fly. The fly goes into commercial production tomorrow! The reds at this spot run small, but at least we could sight fish.

mullet on fly

Mullet, on fly!

 

mullet on fly close up

The fly goes on sale tomorrow!

 

We went to another, similar spot and there were even more reds. Again, they were small, about 20 inch fish, but he got four more on a Son of Clouser. There were many refusals and blown shots. In spite of the clouds fishing was actually quite good. If the fish had been bigger I would have said it was excellent. At any rate we had a great time.

redfish, son of clouser

This red (and several others) fell for the Son of Clouser.

redfish, indian river lagoon

Although the fish ran small, at least we could sight fish.

redfish tail featuring spots

The double spotted tail...

The boat was on the trailer at 3 PM.

And that is this week’s Indian River Lagoon 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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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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Indian River Lagoon and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

May 25, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5.26.12

Sunday found fly fisherman Bill Schell (from Washington state) and I floating around in the Mitzi on the Mosquito Lagoon. The sky was unmarred by any clouds at all- pretty rare for this time of year.

Bill could cast. For fly guides that’s usually the kiss of death. As a general rule, good caster = no fish. And so it seemed at the first spot, that I had just scouted three days earlier. Absolutely nothing there.

Hit spot #2 on a whim. There were some big trout there and Bill had one hit his sexyfly, but it came unbuttoned. No more bites, off the the next place.

Remarkably enough, the next place had quite a few fish, both nice trout and reds. And Bill managed to get one of each. Not great, but so many more than none. Then the east wind came up and although we kept fishing, the fishing had ended.

 

mosquito lagoon redfish on fly

Bill's first Mosquito Lagoon redfish.

Monday found fly fisherman Bill Schell and I floating around in the Mitzi on the Mosquito Lagoon. Wind was light out of the south, just perfect. Again, no clouds. Someone must be living right.

We went straight to the third spot from Sunday. He had to blind cast at first since the sun was too low to penetrate the water. It’s not like the fish cooperated by tailing or anything.

He hooked and lost a trout, then caught a redfish and another trout by casting blindly with a PolarFibre Minnow.

Mosquito Lagoon seatrout on fly

Bill got a couple of trout like this one.

Pass number two we tried a slider. Again, one trout, one redfish by blind casting. We were starting to be able to see but all the shots were in close and none worked.

Pass number three we could see well. Casts to redfish made with the slider were studiously ignored. Out came a crab pattern. The first fish he threw it to took it, as did the second. Then a couple refusals happened before a last fish took it.

Mosquito Lagoon redfish on a crab fly

The crab fly produced Bill's best fish- and at the end, how it should be.

Again, the east wind ended it for us, but it had been a good morning.

 

Wednesday I went to the Econlockhatchee for a couple of hours. A weird thing happened. I saw quite a few bass and became interested in trying to catch one. They ignored my bluegill bug, and would inspect but not eat the streamers I tried. If anyone has any good patterns for catching bass in the Econ, would you please share one with me?

Sunfishing was slow- only got a few modest redbellies.

 

Thursday Scott Radloff and I went to the Indian River Lagoon. Unlike me, Scott is a Gulp fan. He got a redfish on one within five minutes of my shutting the motor off. He would get another a few minutes later.

I hooked and lost three nice trout on a Chug Bug.

We saw a lot of both trout and redfish that wouldn’t look at our offerings. Literally. They would see them and either turn around or make a wide circle around them.

We saw a lot of fish but ended up catching one nice trout, two slot reds, and a couple of ladyfish.

 

John Riggle joined me on Friday. We again fished in the Indian River Lagoon. The weather was spectacular, with a very light breeze from the north.

John started the morning tossing a Chug Bug. A slot redfish was his first victim, followed by trout after trout. The constant bites on the surface plug were wonderful to see.

 

spotted seatrout, indian river lagoon

One of many trout caught by John Riggle on Friday.

I was able to set the skiff on an easy drift, parallel to the shoreline, and fish a little myself. Tossing a DOA Bait Buster I got a slot red and several trout too.

We caught at least a dozen trout. The smallest was 17 inches, the largest 23. Five or six reds were caught too. There were a lot of missed strikes.

Once the wind cranked up, about 10 AM, the bite slowed way down. The boat was on the trailer about noontime.

 

That is this week’s Indian River Lagoon and Mosquito 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.

 

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

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

May 18, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5.19.12

Upcoming Event- Inaugural Space Coast International Surf Fishing Tournament, Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27. For more information click here http://internationalsurffishingtournament.com/

Sad News- Vic Dunaway passed away on Thursday. Vic was the original editor at Florida Sportsman magazine and guided that publication to a pre-eminent position among American fishing magazines. Vic bought the first article I ever wrote, a piece about fishing at Lostman’s Key in Everglades National park, for which I will ever be grateful to him.

His daughter Mari writes, “His wishes were that there be no funeral. He just wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. If you wish to honor his memory, please send a contribution to the Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, P. O. Box 568886, Orlando, FL 32856. As I’m sure you know, the preservation of Florida’s coastal waters was important to him.”

I’m sure the next issue of Florida Sportsman will run a glowing tribute to him, which will be well deserved. Florida sportsmen will miss him, and should honor his legacy.

To all you discoers, Donna Summers also passed on Thursday. She worked hard for the money!

Fish of the Week- still the Spotted Seatrout!

My boat trailer is an aluminum frame EZ Loader. Aluminum or not, it had some galvanized parts and leaf springs, all of which were getting very rusty. Whoever said, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” obviously never had a boat trailer.

Tuesday I brought the trailer to EZ Loader in Port St. Lucie for some refurbishing action. After I dropped it off, I drove to Jensen Beach and met Mark Nichols for some fishing action down the south end of the IRL.

We went wade fishing. Fishing was good. Steady action from slot trout with the occasional crevalle and bluefish thrown in kept us entertained. The lure of choice, as might be expected, was a three inch DOA Shrimp.
Seatrout caught on a DOA Shrimp
It was great to see Mark and spend some time with him. The fish were a gift from God.

DOA Lures' Mark Nichols

Wednesday I went to the Mosquito Lagoon to do some scouting. I had a fly charter on Thursday and wanted to show the guy some fish.

I started at the south end of Tiger Shoal, using the trolling motor to save some time. I went almost all the way to the north entrance with a couple of small trout to show for it. All the reds and big trout that had been up there were gone. So sad.

I looked in quite a few other places. The best I found was moderate numbers of single reds in shallow water, which I did not fish. There was a lot of barren territory.

When I get a new fly rod I do not take the plastic off the handle until that rod catches a “real” fish. I have had a new Temple Fork rod for at least a month that still had the plastic on the handle, which was beginning to irk me. I stopped at a bar on the way back to the boat ramp and got three trout there on a black and purple streamer, the first of which was 24 inches long.

The plastic is finally off the handle.

Thursday Shaun Waterman, a fly fisher from Ontario, joined me for a day’s fishing. He’d never fished in saltwater before. It wasn’t windy at all, but it was very gray. As I headed to the spot I found the fish on Wednesday I was praying they would be tailing.

Of course they weren’t. We did see the occasional tail, but it would be up, down, and no more. In addition to the clouds, the water where we were fishing was kind of dirty.
We ran over quite a few but never got any kind of real shot. We just couldn’t see. I had him try blind casting with a spoon fly for a while but that didn’t work either.

After a couple frustrating hours I decided to see if we could find anything better. We didn’t.

After a while I brought Shaun to the bar where I had caught the trout the day before. There were two people wading there. I gave them wide berth and we started fishing the bar about halfway up, blind casting the streamer to the edge of the dropoff.

We ran over a couple nice fish but no bites.

In a brief interlude with sunlight I thought I saw a fish on the inside of the bar. I wasn’t sure what it was because it was motionless, and facing right at us, but I pointed it out to Shaun. He dropped the fly about a foot in front of it and what turned out to actually be a fish zoomed up and immediately ate.

It was a redfish about 20 inches long. Not huge to be sure but Shaun’s first saltwater fish on fly. Congratulations, sir!

It was the only bite we got. We went back to near where we started. The fish had started tailing, not hard, but enough to keep us busy. Shaun had one great cast I thought sure would work but the fish never responded to it. Then the east wind came up and we never saw another fish.

It rained hard Thursday night and my roof started leaking. No more fishing until that problem is fixed.

That is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon 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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Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

April 21, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4.21.12

Cheryl, the official sister of Spotted Tail, was visiting from New Hampshire until Thursday of the week just past. While it was great seeing her, she cut into my fishing time.

On Monday she and I floated the Econ (read the blog post here). The redbellies are bedding. Although I didn’t hit it hard I had a ball catching them, using a three weight and a foam spider.

Got a late start Thursday, wanted to scout the Indian River. Went to the dredge hole on the northeast side of NASA Causeway and worked the flat to Morse Creek. Saw some nice trout and a few redfish, but not nearly enough to make me want to go back.

Friday’s scouting was out of River Breeze. Searched shorelines for nearly four hours. Got two reds and two trout on a jerk worm, all slot fish. Did not find any concentrations of fish, strictly one here, one way over there. Saw some slot reds and some serious trout. My best fish was a 25 inch red, although I was more concerned with finding some than catching them.

seatrout on jerkbait

Back to business next week.

And that is this week’s Indian River and Mosquito 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, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report, Uncategorized · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral Fishing Report

April 7, 2012 by · 3 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4.7.12

Fishing team of the week:

Upcoming Events/Volunteers Needed
In celebration of Earth Day 2012, Anglers for Conservation are coordinating a series of Hook Kids on Fishing programs throughout the week of April 14-22. Volunteers are needed. This is the perfect opportunity to work within the fishing community while having a very rewarding experience. All volunteers’ will received a free Anglers for Conservation fishing hat! Contact Rodney Smith at 321-750-3374 or rodney@anglersforconservation.org.

Monday required a trip to the lab. The Coast Guard wanted some body fluids for drug testing. Yuk.

Tuesday return angler Austin Warmus and his father Paul joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. The weather was awesome, bright and sunny with very little wind. It took a little while but we found quite a few tailing reds. They were very spooky. Every time they would hook one all the other would flee, pushing wakes as they changed locations. Also every time they hooked one it came unbuttoned, every time but one. Austin put one in the boat that was about 25 inches long.

mosquito lagoon redfish
We also spent some time trout fishing and got several on DOA Shrimp, but nothing of consequence.

Wednesday son Alex, Scott Radloff, and I launched at Port Canaveral. We were thinking big. We ran south of Cocoa Beach pier and netted some menhaden, then went looking for big fish, going out as far as three miles.

We did not find any. We could have done without the bait. It did not produce a single bite.

What we did find north of Cape Canaveral was an almost mullet-run-like number of ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, and bluefish. I used a DOA CAL jig with a shad tail. The other guys used Gotchyas. If not for the treble hooks I would say the Gotchyas made more sense for those toothy critters than did soft plastics.

I broiled some Spanish mackerel fillets for dinner Wednesday night. They were delicious.

I smoked several bluefish fillets on Thursday. They are very delicious!

Friday afternoon I went to the Econlockhatchee River for a couple hours of fly rodding for sunfish. Before I left I went on a major search mission to find my bluegill flies. I couldn’t find them. I used some orange gurglers I use for dolly varden in Alaska.
I’d like to say I slammed them but that would be an exaggeration. I got a few red-bellies and a few stumpknockers, missed a few strikes. I watched and listened as the trees rocked back and forth in a fierce wind. It was a very pleasant couple of hours.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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