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Tough Fishing this week on Mosquito Lagoon, Atlantic Ocean

October 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Report from Spotted Tail 10/2/11

Upcoming Events- Show and Tell seminar on November 5 and 6. The 6th will be an on the water seminar. Details and the signup are now posted at this link- http://www.spottedtail.com/category/Schools-and-Seminars-13.

On Monday morning I picked the boat up from the shop. New steering, awesome! Mechanic Rod Miller (321.225.8800) does my work and has for many years. He gets my highest recommendation.

After picking up the boat I went to Post Canaveral to catch bait. There were quite a few mullet (and jellyfish) in the port, and I got some of both. I don’t like jellyfish in the net but it was unavoidable unless you didn’t throw the net.

The waves at the jetty were at the design limit for the Mitzi. I fished there, along with two other boats, for about an hour. I hooked one bluefish. I didn’t see the other boats do much, either. Then, tired of waves coming over the bow and no fish, I left and went home.

Wednesday the weather was awesome and Scott Radloff and I went out of the Port hoping to find some mullet run action. We found enough mullet to use for bait and that was IT. There were almost no mullet along the beach, which we ran well past the tip of the cape. Then we headed offshore, hoping to find a weedline.

We did find sargassum weeds. They were essentially fishless. We looked for several hours, and saw exactly three tripletail. One was small, one was a tiny, aquarium-sized fish. The third was 21 inches long, as we found out when we measured him atop my cooler. He ate a finger mullet. We ate him. His bite was the only one we got in over five hours.

This tripletail took five hours to find. Although legal, it wasn't very big.

Friday morning Dr. Mike Sweeney joined me for a morning’s fly fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. If anything the water was even dirtier than it was last week. We spent more time running than fishing, saw maybe six redfish wakes in four hours, and did not get a single shot. The water needs to drop and clear up before there will be any realistic hope of successfully fly fishing there. There are lots of mullet there though.

A cold front came through last night. Hopefully that will stimulate more activity along the coast.

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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Gamefish of the Goodnews River, Alaska

September 7, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Here in one place find images of the major gamefish found in Alaska’s Goodnews River.

Of the anadramous fishes, the first to appear are the king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Kings reach weights in excess of 50 pounds on the Goodnews, making them the largest type of fish found in the river.

Your average "nice" Goodnews River king, a fish of about 25 pounds.

King salmon get quite large.

You'll also find king salmon jacks, precocious males that, despite their small size, are sexually mature.

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) come in next. When they come into the river they are bright silver (see the photo of the silver salmon below). As they prepare to spawn they become bright red with a green head. The males develop a hump.

Sockeyes, hard to catch when they first appear, become aggressive once colored up.

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) come into the river a few days after the sockeyes start. Like the sockeyes, they come in by the tens of thousands. Unlike the sockeyes they strike flies aggressively.

This chum shows some color.

Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) come into the river every year, although alternate years have a larger then a smaller run. When they’re thick they almost become a nuisance.

This pink salmon threw mud all over Calene.

The last salmon specie in are the silver salmon, (Oncorhynchus kisutch). They may be the most popular fish among anglers coming to Goodnews River Lodge.

A bright silver salmon, early in the run.

Later in the run some of the silvers color up. This phenomenon happens to all the salmon.

The Dolly varden char follow the salmon up the river, hoping to gorge on their eggs. They range in size from little “micro” Dollies to fish over ten pounds. They also color up once in the river.

This nice Dolly varden is still quite bright.

This Dolly varden shows lots of color.

We also have two resident species in the river. The Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is a lovely, delicate fish. A big one is three or four pounds, and could be in excess of 20 years old.

The Arctic grayling sports a showy dorsal fin.

Finally, the river hosts a population of beautiful leopard rainbow trout, (Oncorhynchus mykiss). These are also very popular among Goodnews River Lodge anglers. We release every trout we catch here.

An average sized Goodnews River rainbow trout. A big one will push 30 inches.

a detail of a pectoral fin, rainbow trout

That completes my pictorial roundup of Goodnews River gamefish.

John Kumiski

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Dollies and Silvers and Bears, Oh My- on Goodnews River- Goodnews River Fishing Report

August 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Goodnews River Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 8/21/11

This week and next mark the peak of the Goodnews River silver salmon run. Some fly fishers are tallying 50 fish days and we’re finding fish everywhere. Fish run up to 30 inches or so and strike streamers, poppers, gurglers, spoons, spinners, and jigs, with chartreuse, cerise, hot pink, orange, and various combinations of those colors being most effective. While most fish caught in the lower river have sea lice, a few are starting to pink up already.

This silver salmon just missed the popper.

A couple days ago Steve and Julie Butler, fly casters from California, joined me for a day of silver salmon fishing on the middle fork. They brought a Pyromid charcoal grill with them, a super neat little device. We got a small salmon, which I filleted. In spite of a steady rain they got the charcoal burning and we enjoyed a very civilized lunch of freshly caught, steaming hot grilled salmon while sitting in camp chairs in the rain. A thermos of hot tea was a nice addition. They caught so many fish…

Reaching for a silver salmon.

On Saturday Phil and Linda Shmerda, from Texas, joined me for some Dolly fishing. We went up the north fork a way and started off by tossing little crappie jigs. They ought to be illegal. Phil even got several silver salmon on them, quite the battle on his 6 pound spin outfit.

This fine dolly took an orange tube fly.

Phil had interest in trying for Dollies with fly tackle. I had a couple six weights aboard and set him up with a gurgler. To use a Lefty-ism, it was like rolling a wine bottle into a jail cell. The Dollies were all over it, and he got a couple rainbow trout as well.

We came to a braid that I have a history with. A deerhair mouse imitation was tied onto the leader of the six weight, then well greased. We walked over to the braid and Phil made a few casts. Wham! Suicidal rainbow trout. Another cast or two and Wham! That one was big, and of course he got away.

Linda and I went looking for unusual stones on a gravel bar. The sun was out and it was just beautiful, wonderful people, awesome day.

We’ve been seeing bears every day. I was cleaning fish on a gravel bar a few evenings ago and here comes a bear up the river heading my way. Oh, crap. I put all the fish back in the boat and launched it asap. The bear came over to the side of the river I had been on and went swimming for one of the salmon carcasses I’d discarded. I waited patiently in my boat, watching. The bear finished its snack, then re-crossed the river and wandered back the way it had come, so I went back and started cleaning fish again.

Of course the bear came right back.

The bear came up the gravel bar.

I said the heck with this, packed up the fish and my gear, and ran up the river a couple miles to finish the job in a more bear-free environment. Bears are wonderful critters, but I wouldn’t want to get in an argument with one, especially over a few fish.

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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Hot Mosquito Lagoon Trout Bite This Week- Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

May 14, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5/14/11

Upcoming Events-

-Space shuttle Endeavour’s launch, Monday, May 16, 8:56 a.m.

-On May 21, Fly Fishing for West Coast Tarpon seminar at Mosquito Creek Outdoors, starting at 10 AM. Tom Van Horn will also be giving a tarpon seminar aimed at east coast fish.

Bumper Sticker of the Week Dept:

On Monday I finally got onto the Atlantic, accompanied by Scott Radloff. Our goal was to find some bait, then search for tarpon first and giant crevalle second.

We found bait, both mullet and menhaden, near and past Cape Canaveral. While we were fishing around the mullet we noticed a very dark spot moving north off the beach. It turned out to be a school of crevalle, not giants but rather fish of about five pounds. There were thousands of them.

We chased them up the beach for several miles. We didn’t count but we caught a lot on DOA CAL jigs.

When we finally gave up on them we fished around the menhaden schools they had led us to. The bluefish were thick, but there was not much else. We saw one shark and three or four barracuda, nothing more. All we caught were blues.

It turned out to be a 50 or 60 fish day, but nothing spectacular in the way of size. Still, it was beautiful out and even the smaller fish were quite entertaining.

On Tuesday I was back in Mosquito Lagoon, joined by fly fishing Canadians Mark and Cody Zimmer. We found loads of big redfish tailing. They would not take any of the flies we tried. We had a bright moment when Mark cast a crab fly into a small school of big tailers and his line came tight. The fish he caught was a red of maybe 16 inches. In the middle of all those big ones, too!

Cody wanted a fish bad so the last 30 minutes we chunked with mullet. He got a four pound and a six pound trout, then a red of about 15 pounds. I forgot my camera, so there are no photos of these fish. 🙁

Again, it was a beautiful day and tons of big fish were spotted, but it was frustrating not being able to convince them to eat anything.

Wednesday Steve Kas and Jim Trub came up from Boca Raton, bringing Steve’s Archer Craft. I joined them and we went looking for all the fish I’d seen the previous day. They flat out disappeared. We looked from Pelican Island to Georges Bar and saw one redfish all day.

On the bright side the trout bite was pretty strong. We got a couple dozen to about 20 inches by casting jigs around the outside of several different bars.

Jim Trub with one of the many trout we got.

Steve Kas with another Mosquito Lagoon trout

Still, they wanted redfish. It was maddening not being able to find any after seeing so many the previous day. Ya shoulda been here yesterday!

Spotted Tail was on the Mosquito Lagoon again on Thursday, joined by Karl Dienst and his friend Brad. Tossing DOA Shrimp and CAL jigs we got a lot of trout, ranging from eight inches to almost 20. There were a lot of ladyfish around, too. We concentrated on trout fishing most of the day. With about an hour to go we went looking for reds. We found a few slot fish and Brad got two on ladyfish chunks.

Brad got a bunch of these seatrout on the DOA Shrimp.

Every fishing guide loves scenes like this- ready to boat a Mosquito Lagoon redfish.

A cheesy grin for the best fish of the day.

On Friday Jim Shwartzentruber and his friend George, fly casters from Utah, joined me hoping to bag a big red or two. It was not to be. We searched all day, me poling and them blind casting with a black bunny fly, and saw maybe a dozen reds. Once the wind started cranking the fishing got very tough too. They did get three of four decent seatrout, but again, those were not the target.

I hope the reds start cranking again like they did on Tuesday. I have every day this coming week booked up.

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.

 

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Bleeding Bait Hooks

May 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

All predators, including fish, prey on the old, the sick, the weak. Any technique you use in your fishing to fool the fish into thinking your bait is an easy meal will increase your success rate. The Bleeding Bait hook is one such device.

This hook, developed by Daiichi, features a bright, shiny red finish that, according to the company’s research, simulates the gill flash of a baitfish in distress. Distress means easy meal to a fish, which means more bites for you.

Daiichi’s Bleeding Bait hooks come in a variety of styles for different applications. The octopus and circle wide styles make excellent hooks for bait fishing, while the Copper Head and Butt Dragger hooks are designed with soft plastic baits in mind. The Butt Dragger features a lead weight attached to the hook shank to get it down fast in deeper water.

Tarpon with Bleeding Bait Hook

This tarpon ate a menhaden tethered with a Bleeding Bait hook.

Bleeding Bait hooks won’t make your catch rate triple. But they’re another tool, another little trick, to help shorten the time between bites.

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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Using Sound to Attract Gamefish

May 3, 2011 by · 1 Comment

Sound Advice

The fish we seek use all of their senses while searching for food. It only makes sense that the more of these senses you appeal to, the more success you’re likely to have catching them.

Adding sound to an otherwise silent bait is easily accomplished with the addition of a rattle. Woodie’s Rattlers makes a variety of products for the fisherman who wants to add the appeal of sound to his lures.

Woodie’s Rattling Hook is designed to be used with soft plastics such as jerk baits, soft plastic shrimp, etc. The hook has a rattle chamber glued to it. These chambers come in a variety of colors, offering a further enhancement.

seatrout on jerkbait

The fish catching ability of the jerkbait is enhanced by the rattle chamber on the hook.

The Versatile Rattle can be added to many different types of lures, subject only to your imagination. Or you can replace the “stick” in a standard popping cork with this rattle, turning the cork into a surprisingly loud fish attractor.

Finally, the plastic worm rattle can be added to flies, or various types of soft plastic baits, again adding a sound component to a bait that previously lacked one.

Adding a rattle to your lures will catch you more fish. Doing so is sound advice.

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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Tarpon Poem

April 28, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

This will hopefully be published every year at this time, in perpetuity.

an ideal world
hot sun, blue sky, clear, slick water
sweat
a graphite wand, a sliver of steel, a wisp of feathers

a flash of silver breaks the mirror
then another, and another
feathers land in water
magically, they come to life

line tightens
mirror smashed
display of power
water flies, gills flare, body shakes, shudders
again, and again, and again

the beast tires
arms ache
hand grasps jaw
feathers removed
great fish swims free once more

tarpon
God’s greatest gift to fly fishers

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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Three Ways to NOT Catch Flats Fish

April 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Learn a few sins to use when you wish to scare off every fish on any flat.

Big Mosquito Lagoon Redfish

You'll never catch fish like this one if you're noisy.

Clothing
If you can see them, you should assume they can see you, too. Flats fish can see bright clothing, especially brightly colored shirts or hats, more easily than more subdued shades. My friend Barry Kent was disgusted with himself one day while we were fishing together, saying his white hat had spooked several fish. White, bright red, and bright yellow are definitely colors to avoid when chasing skinny water fish. Wear subdued earth tones to avoid becoming a neon DANGER sign to your quarry.

For the ultimate in flats camouflage, Aqua Design makes a line of technical clothing printed with computer enhanced images taken from underwater photographs looking through the water’s surface. If you make it harder for the fish to sense your presence you ought to get more good shots at fish.

Noise
Fish in shallow water respond negatively to noise, even the human voice. They hear everything you do with your feet. The following two examples illustrate this.

One recent morning three of us were stalking a school of about 200 redfish from my boat when my angler moved the Fly Lane Tamer, trying to get it into a better position for casting. The Tamer’s base bumped the lip that goes around the edge of my casting deck. The school, almost in casting range at that point, immediately stampeded and never slowed down as long as they remained in sight, pushing a receding wake for at least a quarter of a mile. A golden opportunity was lost because of one small bump.

On another picture perfect morning (the kind fishermen dream about) I was wading with a friend. We were surrounded by tailing redfish, literally hundreds of them, in water less than knee deep. My friend decided he needed to tell me something, even though he was 100 yards away. After he shouted over to me, every tail in the vicinity immediately disappeared.

If you want more shots at fish while on the flats conduct yourself as though you are stalking wary wild animals that are intent on surviving, because that’s exactly what you are doing.

Hesitation
An old proverb says that, “He who hesitates is lost.” Flats fishing proves this adage true over and over again. If you hesitate once the fish is in casting range, the fish either moves too close and sees you or else it moves too far away and you can’t reach it. It’s better to do anything, screw up, and learn from your mistake than stand there wondering what to do and let the opportunity disappear.

Fly fishermen often ask me, “How far will I need to cast?” In most flats fishing speed and accuracy of delivery will be more important than distance. Fifty feet, on target and right now, will usually do the trick.

There are more common sins. They will be the subject of upcoming blogs.

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog including text and photos copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights reserved.

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A Week of Not Catching Redfish- Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

April 10, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4/10/11

Upcoming Events-

On May 7 I’ll be giving free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. We’ll be tying Clouser Minnows. Come out and see us, and walk out with some new flies!

From the Mailbag-

“We enjoyed our trip last Friday! Thanks! Photo attached.” -Paul Parker

mosquito lagoon redfish guide

Mike with his first redfish ever.

This week, the fishing was wonderful. Catching, on the other hand…

On Monday fly fishers Gifford Hampton and Alan McDonald joined me on the Mosquito Lagoon. The day started windy and got even more windy. I thought it was blowing 25 mph, coming out of the south. I was wrong, it only hit 23. We saw decent numbers of redfish but only had a couple shots, and did not score. In that wind it was very tough fishing.

Tuesday thunderstorms came through and I did not fish.

Wednesday fly fishers David Frost and Thomas Reay gave it a go. It was blowing between 15 and 20 out of the east and again it was a tough day. We found quite a few redfish but were not able to get so much as a bite.

On Thursday Herb and Pat Jones, brothers from Gainesville, joined me. The wind was not blowing hard, although there were some clouds. It was a pretty nice day all in all. The first school of redfish we found were deep and could not be effectively targeted. The second school already had two boats working it. We did not linger.

We finally found another school and worked them for close to an hour. They were very spooky, many times moving off before we got into casting range. Casting range with a jig and a Johnson Minnow is fairly far. Just showing a bait to these fish was difficult.  Herb got one hit on a Johnson Minnow. The fish came off. Herb got one dink trout and that was the total catch for the day, for the week.

Ouch.

After this week I think I’ll write a blog post on “The Top Three Things to do to Not Catch Redfish.”

On Saturday friend Karl Dienst returned my cleaned up, now running, Johnson 15 to me. The Bang-O-Craft may ride again this week! Thank you, Karl!

Also on Saturday I went to Mosquito Creek Outfitters to give fly tying lessons. There was no one to give lessons to, so I just tied myself some flies. The store is beautiful and well worth the visit, especially if you haven’t been there before.

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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Bad Days

March 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Most of us have seen the bumper sticker that says, “A bad day fishing beats a good day at work.” This is undeniably true most of the time. A sunny day in God’s great outdoors always beats a day working at some job you may not like.

But anyone who spends much time outdoors has had some miserable days afield, days when it rained a deluge all day, days when they were wet, cold, tired, and hungry. Usually on these days the fish don’t bite or the birds don’t fly. Days like this simply make us appreciate the good days we have a whole lot more. They don’t qualify as bad days.

What then, qualifies as a bad day outdoors?

Tommy Locke told me of a fly fisherman who had graced the bow of Tommy’s skiff while casting to tarpon. The gentleman wore nothing more than a Speedo thong for protection. The unfortunate man sank a 3/0 tarpon fly to the feathers right between his family jewels, painful just to think about. That fellow had a Bad Day.

I once read a tale about a steelhead fisherman. This poor soul was fly fishing when he had what at first he thought was a bite. He quickly realized the heavy weight at the end of his line, although moving, was not a fish. He managed to swing whatever it was near to the bank down below him, then walked down to see what it was.

To his shock and dismay it was a young woman, quite dead. His fly was hooked on a finger of her glove. Our angler was suddenly having a Very Bad Day.

On an otherwise lovely day, a former local guide went to grab a tarpon at boatside. Not only did the fish choose that moment to jump one more time, breaking the guide’s nose, the fish also managed to bury a hook in his neck, necessitating a trip to the hospital. This was a Bad Day.

Fishermen have accidents sometimes. They get stung by catfish, stingrays, and jellyfish. Their boats sink. They get hooked. They get bitten. They get struck by lightning.

So any day that you get home safely, without the use of a first aid kit (You do carry a first aid kit, don’t you?), a trip to the hospital or police station, or worse, is not a bad day, regardless of how few fish were caught or how miserable the weather was.

Count your blessings, and remember, life is great!

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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