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Orlando area saltwater fishing report

April 3, 2011 by · 3 Comments

The Orlando Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4/3/11

Upcoming Events-

On April 9 I’ll be giving free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. We’ll be tying wooly worms and wooly buggers. Come out and see us, and walk out with some new flies!

It’s April! Tarpon season is just around the corner and reports of caught keys and west coast fish have already come in. Spotted Tail will begin its month-long ode to the silver king at www.spottedtail.com/blog. Read the already posted blog about the Tarpon Box.

A free swimming tarpon gulps some air.

I’m looking for that big sardine,
the one that makes you jump and scream.
I’m looking for that big tarpon.
Just give me my prize and I’ll be gone.

From the Mailbag-

“Thanks for the great day on the water. Photos attached.” -John Stafford, Columbia, MO

Mr. Stafford's first fish of the day was fooled by a DOA CAL jerkbait.

“By the way, I read your blog this morning. You forgot the part about getting lost in the fog and your angler getting out to help push…(kidding……just a friendly jab).”
-Ron Schomer, Orlando, FL

Thanks, Ron. With friends like these, how can I go wrong?

Got rained out Monday. Tuesday’s fishermen read the forecast and postponed to next week. It turned out to be the nicest day of the week. But I stayed home and got my taxes done. 2010 was pretty dismal economically speaking.

While I was doing taxes the hummingbirds were having dogfights around the feeder. You would think that they could share, since the feeder has four stations. But two tiny birds used up a lot of energy keeping each other from feeding. When a third bird showed they both zoomed after it, then returned to their private aerial attacks.

Wednesday Sue and I went for a walk on the Florida Trail. We got and ate some tangerines. On the way back we raided one of our neighbor’s mulberry tree. The fruits are ripe and I probably ate a pound of berries. Yum! Urp. Excuse me!

The intent was to go scouting on Thursday. We awoke to lightning, thunder, and heavy rain, which continued all day. Didn’t go.

On Friday Alabamans (?) Paul Parker and Mike Baumgaudner joined me for a windy but otherwise beautiful day on the Mosquito Lagoon. We fished two separate schools of reds, getting exactly one bite on a Johnson Minnow. The fish weren’t too aggressive. The hooked fish broke off in one of those mystery breaks that you can’t figure out why it happened. In a different spot Mike got a nice slot red while blindcasting a Johnson Minnow. It was his first ever, and damn fine work. Paul got a trout that may have been in the slot on a DOA CAL, four inch.

It wasn’t a great week fishing-wise, although I did purchase four, count ’em, FOUR, new fly rods. Ooh yeah!

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

 

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Orlando area fishing report 3/19/11

March 19, 2011 by · 2 Comments

The Report from Spotted Tail 3/19/11

Upcoming Events-

On April 9 I’ll be giving fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. We’ll be tying wooly worms and wooly buggers. Come out and see us.

Don’t know how I got on his e-mailing list but I get a weekly blog from a fellow by the name of Bruce Turkel. It’s often interesting and thought provoking. This week’s was especially relevant. You can read it at this link: http://turkeltalks.com/index.php/2011/03/14/whats-even-better-than-being-lucky/

Fishing was pretty solid this week. The week had the most perfect weather I’ve seen well, maybe ever.

Monday fly caster Warren Pearson joined me for a day’s fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. We had a good time. The weather was fantastic, and we were in fish most of the day. In spite of being a weak caster Mr. Pearson got himself a couple fine reds and missed several strikes.

On Tuesday the scene was repeated with John Stafford. Mr. Stafford preferred spin tackle. On about his fourth cast of the day a 16 pound red inhaled his DOA CAL jerkbait. If I said it got better after that it would be an exaggeration. But it stayed pretty darned good and eight or nine reds and trout were released.

Wednesday luck went south though. Mike Rudy and his friend Jim joined me, again on Mosquito Lagoon. We found a big school of fish right away and couldn’t get a bite on anything, including mullet chunks. Jim hooked a fish from the second school we found, only to break it off. We found a third school and could not get a bite, and ended up with one break-off and no released fish, in spite of seeing hundreds of reds. The weather was beautiful, and we had a good time. But it was a frustrating day from a fishing standpoint.

Thursday fly fisher Jose Colon, president of New York’s Salty Flyrodders, joined me. Again the weather was awesome, and again we saw loads of fish. Again they were not biting very well. This week had the fullest full moon of the year, since the full moon coincided with the lunar perigee. I wonder if that had anything to do with the redfish behavior the past couple of days? Anyhow, Jose did get one on a brown redfish worm, and missed a couple of strikes. He had hundreds of shots. Both of us enjoyed the day tremendously.

A redfish virgin no longer. Sr. Colon and his fish.

I had Friday off. What does a fishing guide do on his day off? He goes fishing! Scott Radloff and I went out of Port Canaveral looking for tripletail and cobia. There were lots of tripletail out there, although most we saw were small. We did get a 22 inch fish on a DOA Shrimp. We spent hours looking for cobia. Finally this enormous black shape materialized briefly. I cast a home-tied jig at it and hooked up immediately. Some minutes later a 30 pound class cobia was netted by Scott. I’ll be firing up the smoker later today.

No one wants to see pictures of me, but the fish is nice!

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando area fishing report 3/11/11

March 11, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Report from Spotted Tail 3/11/11

Emails from readers-
“I read with interest your blog on littering; that is one of my pet peeves. I also cannot understand how people can carry in, but not carry out. Long ago, I got into the habit of taking out more whenever I went fishing (trash, not fish). It’s not hard to do. I was inspired by your blog to start this habit in my new home. Monday and Tuesday, I fished the Banana River off the 520 causeway, near the hospital. I carried home a full trash bag each day. Also, I hope people driving by saw a crazy guy in chest waders with a trash bag in his hand picking up trash along the shoreline. By the way, I caught some trout, too, one of which measured 30 inches.
“I’ll call you when I return in May, so we can go fishing. Thank you for being a great guide and a great person.” -5:00 Bob

God rewarded you for picking up trash with that fine trout, Bob. Great work and thank you.

“I spent last week fishing large areas between Sebastian and Vero Beach. A combination of wind, tidal fluctuations and shallow water made accessing the fish difficult in my north-country deep V boat. On an information seeking trip, at the tackle shop below the bridge in Vero, I picked up a copy of your 2005 redfish book and used to it find some scattered reds. Without your guidance, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to continue to seek redfish, and would have turned to the more predictable trout and ladyfish. I even picked up a few flounder, a new species for me. Pretty cool.
“So thanks for selflessly putting your flats experience between covers. The book is an undervalued resource at $12.95, and should be priced at least twice as much based on the specificity and depth of the information. I’ll journal the experience, and will use your book to shape tactics during future visits to the IRL.” -Jeff Kutcha, Jackson, MI

Thanks for the kind words, Jeff. Send the other $12.95 to me directly, please!

Sunday Bill Carey and I did the On-the-Water Show and Tell on the Mosquito Lagoon. While it was not a fishing trip we found some redfish and managed to get six or seven on RipTide weedless jigs and Johnson Minnows. Thanks for coming out, Bill.

Monday was cold and windy. That didn’t stop Steve Ranier and his uncle Mike from braving the elements aboard Spotted Tail. We started off with a quick five or six redfish in the pole/troll area of Mosquito Lagoon, using RipTide weedless jigs and DOA Glow Shrimp with an inserted Woodies Rattle. When that well dried up we went on a search mission. Some spots were barren, others had fish that wouldn’t eat, and they got a few more fish in other spots. We knocked off in 20 mph winds an hour early. I’ll be glad when the Haulover Ramp opens again.

Tuesday’s trip was cancelled because of the weather.

Wednesday Jim Revercomb and his son Wes joined me, again on Mosquito Lagoon. If anything it was even windier than Monday. The graph I checked afterwards showed wind speed peaked at 24 mph. Jim actually tried to fly fish, and we actually found a tailing fish. Between the winds and clouds it was almost impossible. By using spin tackle they managed three reds boated and a couple missed strikes. A RipTide weedless jig and a Johnson Minnow again did the damage. Again, we knocked off an hour early due to the conditions.

It poured all morning yesterday. I’m not booked today.

Tomorrow I’ll be giving fly tying demonstrations and lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. If you want to learn to tie the Redfish Worm and maybe some related patterns, come on out and see me!

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

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orlando fishing report- 2/26/11 Redfish in the Mosquito Lagoon

February 26, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Report from Spotted Tail 2/26/11

Upcoming Events

March 5- MINWR Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details. Last call for the Show and Tell Seminar! Prime slots still available!

March 6- Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details. Last call!

Fishing success (as frequently happens) was up and down this week.

On Tuesday John Anders and Heather, visitors from Ontario, joined me for a half day on the Mosquito Lagoon. Although it was a beautiful day we didn’t see many fish and the ones we did see were not very cooperative. Heather finally broke the ice with a nice trout that whacked a jerk bait. John got two rat reds on a RipTide Weedless Jig. Sometimes guides will complain that the fish were there and the fishermen couldn’t catch them but Mr. Anders is a tournament fisherman and was very competent. It just wasn’t happnin, mon!

Tuesday night I had a nice visit with the Florida Fly Fishing Association. The program went well. Thanks for having me, gentlemen!

Thursday fly fisher Five O’Clock Bob from Vermont shared the Spotted Tail with me. The weather was crapalacious- cold windy, foggy, overcast. How windy you ask? It hit 25 mph, measured with an anemometer- not exactly prime flycasting weather. Bob had a fine red nail his black bunny booger on the third cast of the day. The fish broke off. It would turn out to be the only bite we got. Amazingly we saw quite a few other fish but it was borderline unfishable. Any fish seen under those conditions, much less caught, was a major victory. The water was real low- I had to get out and push a couple times.

Thursday I had a split half day. In the morning Dan LaRosa and Ron Ten Berge joined me. The weather was awesome. There should have been fish everywhere. There wasn’t, although we certainly saw enough that we should have caught some. The gentlemen had some fine casts, lures right in the fish, both trout and reds. We found them both tailing and laid up on the flats. We had one strike all morning, and did not hook the fish. Yes- the dreaded skunk visited.

The afternoon trip was with old friend Susan Cocking, up from Miami to write a piece about redfishing with the space shuttle going up. We got the skunk off pretty early with a nice trout that fell for a DOA Shrimp.

This trout de-skunked Spotted Tail.

Then we found a school of redfish and got them on the DOA, the RipTide Weedless Jig, some real (dead) shrimp, and on fly with the redfish worm. I wasn’t keeping tally but we probably got eight or nine.

The fish didn't say anything about the launch. Unimpressed?

Then we raced down to watch the shuttle blast off. It went! It was spectacular! Take that you dirty Klingons!

The launch was flawless. Take that, Klingons!

Friday Rod Miller made love to my Yamaha for me while I got new tires for my van and trailer. New tires on the van- it’s almost as good as…, well, no, not that good. But pretty darned good, none the less. And the Yamaha is good for another year now. So let’s go fishing!

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Shad Fishing- Orlando area fishing report 2/5/11

February 5, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Report from Spotted Tail 2/5/11

Upcoming Events

February 22- I’ll be speaking to the Florida Fly Fishing Association in Cocoa.

March 5- MINWR Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details.

March 6- Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details.

*******************************************

Every day this week saw me on or in the water. Fishing wasn’t very good.

Monday I went scouting on the Mosquito Lagoon in the Mitzi. It was mostly sunny and at first there was no wind. I saw that and headed straight to a big fish spot.

They were there, finning out and tailing sporadically. I donned waders and stalked them on foot. I had two superb casts with a crab fly, casts I was sure would work. Neither did. The fish moved off and rather than use a lot of time on them on a scouting day I went scouting.

I did not see much else.

There were five boats at the south end of Tiger Shoal. I could see one chasing some fish around, but didn’t see anyone hook up. I poled the entire way across the flat. All I saw were tailing mergansers, nothing with fins.

I ended up with a small black drum taken on a Son of Clouser and several marginal sized seatrout on a chartreuse DOA Shrimp.

Tuesday afternoon I went to the St. Johns River to try for shad. I walked up to the Econ and started fishing. My six-weight had a floating line. I got one crappie and hooked and lost one other fish.

I hitched a ride back down the river with Bill Mieli. Bill, using a #3 sinktip line and a pair of flies, had gotten nine shad. Ah-HA!

Wednesday David Cushman, a fly caster from Virginia, and his brother-in-law Clark, joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. It was cloudy and breezy. I was hoping for better luck than on Monday, but no such luck. We scoured the south end of the lagoon and most fish that we saw we saw as they fled. We just couldn’t see them. Not that there were many around. It was very thin, numbers-wise.

Clark tossed various spinning lures all day without a strike, and David did no better. He really had only one legitimate shot all day. We were victims of a good, old-fashioned skunking.

Thursday afternoon found me back at the St. Johns, this time with a sink-tip. When I got there Tom Van Horn was there already. We fished together for about three hours. Total tally- two bluegills, one shad. We talked to a guy who had been fly fishing up by the Econ. It was slow up there too.

Friday I went back to the St. Johns. The fish come up the river in waves. If you hit the wave you do very well. Between waves there’s not much going on. Some years the waves come one after another and other years there are days between waves. I figured if I kept trying it I was bound to hit one of those waves.

When I got there Ron Presley and Paul McGinnis were staging Ron’s boat for launch. I hitched a ride with them up the Econ a ways, then hopped out and fished my way back to the SR 46 bridge.

Ron and Paul tossed tandem rigs with Tiny TerrorEyz from DOA. They got seven shad between them. I was throwing a chartreuse shad fly. I got one bluegill, one redbelly, one crappie, and one shad. I passed several other fly casters along the way and none of them was doing much.

I like the stretch of river between SR 46 and the Econ because you don’t need a boat to fish it. But Thursday and Friday at least there were no waves of fish there. You could get one or two but you’d better be prepared to work for them.

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

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13 Time Saving Tips for Lucky Anglers

January 6, 2011 by · 4 Comments

orlando fishing, orlando redfishing, orlando fishing tripLucky anglers get that way because they operate efficiently. They recognize opportunities and act decisively when one presents itself. Let’s take a look at 13 tips that when incorporated into you everyday angling routine will make you one of the lucky ones.

1. Keep your spool full with fresh line. You can cast farther when the spool is full. Fresh line is stronger than old line.

2. Don’t use swivels, snaps, or other similar hardware. These devices have some specific uses, but most of the time they just mess up the action of your bait or lure. Keep as little “stuff” on the business end of the line as you can. Try to keep it line-leader-hook.

3. In the same vein, use as little weight as possible. In the lagoons that may mean none at all, or a small shot. In the surf, use the smallest weight that will get the job done.

4. Wear a line clipper on a piece of fishing line around your neck. I hang mine on a piece of fly line. Any time you need to cut your line the right tool is right there.

5. Carry a good pair of pliers. I like the Gerber MultiTool. Keep them in a nylon holster on your belt. Any time you need them they are within easy reach.

6. Keep a dehooker handy. There are many styles, including home-made, but the ARC Dehooker is the best known. The dehooker not only saves you time, it saves the lives of the fish you release. You don’t even need to touch them!

7. A towel kept in your pocket or on your belt will dry and de-slime your hands when touching the bait, fish, or what-have-you becomes necessary.

8. Keep more than one rod handy, each with a different lure rigged. When you want to change lures, simply switch rods, rather than cutting and re-tying.

9. Practice your knot tying until you can tie your favorites blind-folded. You want to tie good knots quickly when you’re surrounded by fish.

10. When using live bait, keep a little dip net handy for pulling it out of the bait well, bucket, or whatever.

11. When searching for fish, use attractor-type lures that make noise, vibrate, have a lot of flash, or all three. Cover as much water as you can!

12. When you’re on spooky species of fish, use subtle baits like jerk baits or the DOA Shrimp. These baits are less likely to scare off spooky fish. Of course, for aggressive fish like bluefish or crevalle the noisy lures will usually be a good thing!

13. Hire a guide. Let them do all work! I’m available! Call me now! 407.977.5207, http://www.spottedtail.com/Rates.htm

Try incorporating these thirteen tips into your daily fishing routine and watch them increase your luck!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2010. All rights are reserved.

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