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Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

April 11, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

Blog Posts This Week- The Peruke Fly

orlando area fishing report

Last Saturday I accompanied my bride to the Home and Garden Show. It was not very good, BUT, there was a booth (the proprietor was not there) that had fish art made from stainless steel, very cool stuff. The artist’s name is Armando Hevia, his website is metalfish66.com. Check it out.

Didn’t fish Monday. Went for a walk on the Florida Trail. it was lovely. However I got about 15 chigger bites and a single tick, not lovely at all. Pulled the tick off on Friday, when I found it. Think I’ll stay out of the woods until October or so.

Tammy Tuesday got rained out. It poured.

Wednesday I went bass fishing on the Econ, something I’d never really done before. I was such a dumass. It was good, once I figured it out.

I had this demented idea I was going to catch the biggest bass of my life so I brought a five-weight and threw a big bunny eelworm for two hours. I got exactly one bite from a twelve inch bass. I finally lost the fly on some submerged lumber.

orlando area fishing report

The eelworm bass.

I switched to a hideously ugly foam frog I tied, and the bites just kept coming. I don’t know what a redbelly is thinking when it hits a three inch long frog but I got a couple that managed to impale themselves on the stinger hook. And I got about ten bass to three pounds or so, not great but definitely entertaining. The strikes are just awesome!

orlando area fishing report

If anyone out there knows what this guy was thinking I would love to hear from you.

orlando area fishing report

This is more like what I wanted.

Thursday son Alex was supposed to go fishing with me but he wouldn’t get up (after 9 am, I wasn’t trying to smoke him or anything) so I went back to the Econ. I got 20 or so fish, a few redbellies and the rest bass. The biggest was maybe three pounds, but again, quite fun with surface flies, which was all I tried.

orlando area fishing report

These fish will smack some ugly flies…

Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for some R&R on the Indian River Lagoon. He hadn’t been out for months! We found a school of redfish almost immediately, and got five on DOA CAL shad before they gave us the shake, nice fish, 24 inches or so.

orlando area fishing report

Then a few trout fell to the Deadly Combo. Then we went back to the place where the reds had been caught hoping to find them again. George got five blind casting the CAL Shad, unbelievable. As the east wind pushed us toward the edge of the manatee zone I tossed a Chug Bug, got a couple strikes, and got a nice trout of three pounds or so.

orlando area fishing report

So ended our day, and my week.

A couple weeks ago I showed a photo of the result of jousting against a pushpole with a fly rod. I got the new rod today- sixty bucks! Ouch.

And check out the link below between fly fishing and sex. Great stuff!

And 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Area Fishing Report

April 5, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Orlando Area Fishing ReportOrlando Area Fishing Report

The Mitzi is still for sale!

Blog Posts This Week– Poppers for Seatrout

It’s April and I’m thinking about tarpon. Friends on the west coast have already seen some.

On Monday I went bass fishing. I threw the same bluegill popper I threw last time I went, with much the same result- three or four bluegills and about 20 bass, mostly little ones with a couple decent specimens thrown in for variety. It was a beautiful day and a very enjoyable several hours.

orlando area fishing report

 

 

orlando area fishing report

Tuesday was Tammy Tuesday, so let me just copy her facebook post:

“Yesterday’s original plan was to fish the lagoon. Last second change had us going offshore. My faithful companion and mentor and friend John Kumiski had some issues getting across the bridge to port because of a bad accident.
“Change of plans again. He called and we decided to fish the IRL instead. So I left the port and headed to Port Saint John and we launched. Got into some jacks and trout and talked about what a beautiful day it was. As we could see the bridge from where we launched we saw traffic moving again. Next thing I know John is motoring to the ramp. Boat back on trailer and off to the port we go.

orlando area fishing report
“It was a long day of hunting for anything out there. A whole lot of nothing until a lone undersized tripletail appeared. We finally caught and released it. We looked everywhere and found nothing. Finally john decided to pull a Hail Mary and head to a spot a good bit away but likely unbothered yet for the day.

orlando area fishing report
“The lone tripletail on that structure was dinner last night. Just as we were giving up and admitting to and accepting the suck, though…. Divine intervention in the form of a huge ray leaping from the water 100 yards away.
“One rod set up and one cast made. A few minutes later there was much celebration aboard the Mitzi. We looked for that ray again hoping to pull another cobia off of it but it was not to be. So glad john never gives up! Another adventure toosday with John Kumiski in the books.”

orlando area fishing report

In spite of the beautiful weather, did not fish Wednesday.

Thursday Brad and Greg joined me as part of a two boat trip on Mosquito Lagoon. It was slick when we got there and although we saw a decent number of fish we could not get near them. In the third spot we tried Brad got a bluefish on a DOA CAL Shad. We then tried the DOA Deadly Combo out at the edge of the flat and got a few trout, small ones. At the last place we looked we found a school of big reds. In spite of having cut mullet in them numerous times over the next 45 minutes we did not get a bite. Stomachs growling at us, we gave up, ran up to Goodrich Seafood, and had quite the delicious lunch, after which we returned to the dock and pulled the boat.

Friday Scott and Ryan joined me for a half day on the Indian River Lagoon. Ryan got a rat red right away of the CAL Shad. Then we just spooked a bunch of fish. Ryan wanted to try fly fishing so I took them to the small trout spot and gave him a lesson. He was good enough to get two or three while Scott railed them with a barb-pinched-down DOA Shrimp.

We changed spots and saw some nice, spooky reds and trout. Ryan got a hit on the CAL Shad from a nice red but missed it. On the way back to the dock we saw birds diving. Breaking fish, how lucky was that? Ladyfish and bluefish, we got a few of each before the frenzy stopped. We were happy to have run into a bunch of fish to end our day.

And 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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What to DO When the Big Fish Swims Under the Boat

March 27, 2014 by · 1 Comment

What to DO When the Big Fish Swims Under the Boat

tarpon boatside

OK, today’s lesson deals with what to do when a big fish swims under the boat. For some reason most fishermen want to lift the rod when the big fish makes its dive. I’ve watched too many guys do this. The result is always the same. The line rubs against the hull of the boat, increasing friction and virtually assuring a break-off. Since big fish don’t come along all the time, when the line breaks so does your heart. OOOhhh that hurts.

So, what is the correct response when the big fish makes its dive? You simply thrust the tip end of the rod down into the water. How far down? Far enough down to ensure that the line does not touch the hull or motor of the boat. If the fish is beefy enough to extend its run away from the “wrong” side of the boat, you simply walk the rod around the bow of the boat. As soon as the line clears the hull you can lift the rod out of the water and continue the battle in a more conventional fashion. On a particularly big, nasty fish you may have to perform this maneuver more than once.

We’re assuming here that the boat is small enough to allow you to do this. Honestly, although I would certainly like to I’ve never had the problem occur while on a Hatteras 48 or similar vessel. If any readers can expound on this I would love to hear from you.

So, to sum up what to do when the big fish swims under the boat- rod lift bad, rod thrust into water good. Keep this straight and catch more of those big fish.

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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Thanks to Ricky Dee for use of the photo!

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Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report and Photo Essay

March 22, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report 32214

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and at that time the hours were 984.

My contact at the Circle K store in Christmas told me last week he caught a seatrout so big its photo weighed 32 pounds.

Bumper sticker of the week-

fcat sticker

On Sunday Mr. Derek Wensky, from San Francisco, found himself riding over the surface of the Indian River Lagoon in the Mitzi. He had never fished in Florida before. I can’t claim fishing was fabulous, or even hot, but he did catch a few. First came a redfish, a modest fellow that made the error of biting Derek’s DOA CAL Shad tail. After him quite a few fish laughed at our attempts. While we were eating lunch I soaked a piece of mullet. A handsome seatrout ate it. Lastly, we found a clump of black drum. Derek switched from the shad to a clear DOA Shrimp and one of those drum was fooled. Most of the fish we saw had too much sense to bite though.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Derek had never heard of black drum before this.

 

indian river lagoon fishing report

DOA Shrimp- deadly on anything.

Monday’s trip was blown out.

Tuesday’s trip was blown out.

Wednesday found me in a room at the Orlando VAMC with Dr. Tran. She said to come back next year. Can’t say the exam was anything more than cursory.

Thursday was the first day of spring! Brasileiro Kelven Lopes, a fly fishing fisheries biologist who lives in Brasilia, found himself riding over the surface of the Indian River Lagoon in the Mitzi. He was a real good angler and got a couple reds on my redfish bitters fly right out of the gate.

indian river lagoon fishing report

They don’t have redfish in Brasil. This was Kelven’s first.

Things slowed down then. We changed spots and he got a nice trout on a big black wooly bugger.

indian river lagoon fishing report

They don’t have seatrout in Brasil, either. Kelven prepares to release this one.

We found another clump of black drum that did not take anything we tried. But he got another redfish, the best of the day, on an ugly fly with a rubber hackle tail, a brown estaz body, and a rubber hackle wing.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Best fish of the day.

We went to another spot but there was nothing there so we returned to a place we had already fished. The fish were still laughing at us as we left, although we should not forget about nor discount the four quality puffers my flies cleverly fooled!

indian river lagoon fishing report

Recording the puffer for posterity.

I hadn’t used my Portuguese in a long time but it was better than his English so that’s how we communicated. Misquecindo todos todos todos!

On Friday Scott Townsend and his friend Brandon joined me for a day on the Indian River Lagoon. We were snakebit. Brandon got a redfish right away on a DOA CAL Shad. He then missed three strikes in a row, at which point the fish in that spot shut down.

indian river lagoon fishing report

A happy Brandon. Things went downhill from here.

 

indian river lagoon fishing report

The DOA CAL Shad gets yet another redfish.

We went trout fishing for a while, getting a lot of little ones on fly and on DOA Shrimp. When that got old we went looking for redfish again. We spooked several while Scott and Brandon got the hang of sight fishing. Then a big one showed up. Brandon made a perfect cast and hooked the fish, at least 20 pounds. I gave chase with the boat. I was getting ready to grab the fish when it dove under the boat, breaking the line in the process. Damn.

indian river lagoon fishing report

Brandon has a big fish on and he’s happy. Sadly it did not last.

We looked in three other spots. No fish in one, no bites in the next, one bite and a breakoff for Scott in the last, which is how our day ended.

Tip of the week- when a fly rod and a pushpole joust the fly rod always loses.

indian river lagoon fishing report

And the winner, by a landslide, is….

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
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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Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

March 15, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Another Orlando Area Fishing Report

The Mitzi is still for sale! It’s just had an annual service, and the hours were 984.

Blog Post This Week– How to Fish All Day Without Hurting Your Back

The week started out with a bang that had an unexpected twist. On Monday I took the three-weight out to go bluegill fishing. I only got two. But the bass were on fire, eating my little bluegill popper like great white sharks eating seals. I got twenty or so.

orlando area fishing report

They ate this bug like they were starving.

Lots of little ones, but several decent ones and a fatty that anyone would be happy to get, close to five pounds. They gave that little rod a workout, I know that. It was a wonderful day.

orlando area fishing report

This chunky guy was the fish of the trip.

 

orlando area fishing report

This is a 60s fish- psychedelic.

Tuesday I went scouting in the Indian River Lagoon for my trip on Wednesday. The weather could not have been nicer and holy cow, I found some fish!  I had written a blog a few weeks back about the Lunkerhunt Swim Bentos Bait. The packages were still unopened and I wanted to try one, so the Dace was put on a hook and showed to some prospective clients. They ate it as well as they eat anything else.

orlando area fishing report

This fish did not say no.

orlando area fishing report

This is how I rigged the bait, now beat up from catching fish.

Some said no, of course. I missed a couple of strikes, but got three 20 inch plus trout and one red on the dace. The last fish to eat it was a five pound trout- he actually ate it, was hooked in the gills, and was mostly bled out by the time he was boated.

orlando area fishing report

The suicidal fish. I was sorry it died.

Getting the hook out ruined the lure, so I switched to the old reliable DOA CAL Shad, which nailed the best fish of the day, a 28 inch red. I broke my rod getting pictures of it. I saw a bunch more fish after that but missed the only eater. It was a wonderful day.

orlando area fishing report

This is the fish that broke my Loomis rod…

orlando area fishing report

…and so is this…

 

orlando area fishing report

…and so is this. The lure is a DOA CAL Shad.

Wednesday’s trip was postponed until Friday due to the weather. I took the opportunity to visit the lab at the Orlando VAMC, always an interesting trip. The afternoon was spent doing taxes. It was not such a wonderful day.

Thursday had a high of 59 degrees with 20+mph winds. Didn’t fish.

Friday found me out on the Indian River Lagoon with fly fisher Will Zobel and his buddy from school days, Roger. The weather was a bit breezy and there were rather a lot of clouds that made sight fishing difficult. That being said, we were in fish most of the day- fussy, uncooperative fish. Some fine presentations were made. In spite of that only one small red was caught, and that on a DOA CAL Shad. It was a beautiful day, but tough and frustrating from an angling standpoint.

And 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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Sharkwave Fly Lines Coming

February 21, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Sharkwave Fly Lines Coming

Whether you hated or loved the Sharkskin line, here comes an entire family of them. The latest press release from Scientific Anglers-

The Development of the SharkWave
When we introduced the Sharkskin™ family of lines in 2007, they weren’t simply the latest in a long line of high-quality innovations. The Sharkskin created an entirely new category of product: textured fly lines. These lines, developed and manufactured at the Scientific Anglers facility in Midland, Michigan, represented one of the most interesting and groundbreaking evolutions in the history of fly line technology.

The benefits of the textured lines were numerous: increased surface area allowed the lines to sit higher in the water, offering less drag, easier mending, less water spray, and easier pick-ups; the micro-textured surface trapped air to provide increases in both shootability and flotation—all while decreasing friction; and the microreplicated pattern increased the durability of the lines, allowing them to last up to twice as long.

The accolades mounted. But we knew we could do better.

Using what we learned while developing the Sharkskin, we developed the Mastery Textured series. These lines took the high points of the Sharkskin technology and combined them with the easy feel of traditional, smooth fly lines, resulting in a textured line that performs like the Sharkskin, but feels smoother to the touch.

Then something struck us: Let’s take the best parts of the Sharkskin, combine it with the Mastery Textured series, and see what happens.

The result? Meet the SharkWave, the world’s first Triple-Textured and Triple-Colored fly line. Featuring Sharkskin texture on the tip section, Mastery Textured divots for the belly and running line, a smooth Tactile Reference Point at the AFTMA 30-foot mark, SA•ID line identification, AST dry slick technology, Improved Dry Tip technology, and Streamlined Loops, the SharkWave is unlike any fly line we’ve ever produced.

It’s fishing. Friction-free.

It won’t be cheap. I hope they include finger guards in the box.

See the entire press release with photos, graphs, and illustrations here…

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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St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 15, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report 21514

Upcoming Events-

-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18

-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

I’m still trying to sell that Mitzi skiff, an awesome little boat. See the details here…

We had some decent fishing this week. I did not carry a camera for any of it.

Sunday about noontime I launched the kayak at CS Lee Park on the St. Johns River and paddled upstream, dragging a tandem rig consisting of a Spoiler Shad and a crappie jig as I went. I talked to a few other anglers along the way, all of whom complained about the lack of action.

There was a bit of a traffic jam at the mouth of the Econ so I kept going to another spot farther upstream.

No one was at my spot, where it was discovered I had forgotten the anchor. I put the boat ashore and started casting, getting two shad and a sunfish in about an hour. Not exactly hot, but better than no cheese!

A flats skiff idled up the river, then started fishing right in front of me. At first I wasn’t crazy about this but the guy kept his distance and had a kid with him. He hooked a fish and handed the rod to the youngster. Good work!

When the boat was facing me and the wind was right I could hear snippets of conversation. “That’s Charlie Chapman!” I thought. “You sound like Charlie Chapman!” I hollered.

It was Charlie Chapman, a.k.a. the Mustache Man. He put the boat ashore and we chewed the fat for a couple of very pleasant hours, until the boy, his grandson, said, “Are we going fishing or not? We’re burning daylight here!” It was real good seeing him, it had been literally years. I hope they got some fish.

St. johns river and mosquito lagoon fishing report

The Mustache Man, a number of years ago, with a fat Banana River Lagoon redfish.

I paddled back to SR 46, again dragging the tandem rig, but did not get another bite. Didn’t care.

Monday Ed Farrell-Starbuck joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon kayak-fly-redfishing. Ed had never been before and wanted to learn how to go about it. I explained to him that every trip was a search mission. Most days it works, some days it doesn’t. Groundwork layed, off we went.

We paddled a long time without seeing much. Then we found a hole full of redfish, nice fish that averaged five to six pounds. They did not want to leave, and were fairly bitey.We were both using brown flies; mine was a slider. We both got five or six, a pretty good afternoon. The fish finally turned off, so we headed back. I did not see any more fish along the way.

mosquito lagoon redfish

This fish took a slider.

Tuesday Frank Moss and his friend Bruce drove up from Tampa to do some shad fishing on the St. Johns River. Frank had an old cane fly rod and wanted to catch a shad with it. Bruce was a spin fisherman.

I put two lines out with tandem rigs to troll up to the fishing spot. The fish immediately told us we were at the fishing spot- double hookup right off the bat!

We ended up getting fifteen or twenty shad, strangely no sunfish, crappie, etc. Frank got a couple shad on the cane rod before switching to spin. It was a great afternoon, and thank you, gentlemen.

Wednesday I went scouting with the Mitzi out of River Breeze. There was a number of places I had been wanting to check. At the first I had been poling less than five minutes when I spotted maybe a half dozen reds together, relaxed. I tossed a DOA CAL shad at them and one jumped on it, a little feller of 20 inches or so. Thinking it might be a good day, I continued poling, changed spots, continued poling, etc. What I found was lots of places not to look again, seeing perhaps a dozen fish in five hours.

On a slightly more ominous note, some guy with a red Texas scooter tower boat is out there running every shoreline he can looking for fish, scaring away everything in sight. When are fishermen going to learn that running shorelines wrecks the fishing for everyone? Fish stop using the shorelines when they’re geting run over by motorboats all the time.

Friday morning Dave Caprera and his friend Jim joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fly fishing. It was a little chilly at pick-up time, in the 40s. We went to the hole that produced all the fish for me on Monday. Of course it was barren, previews of coming attractions.

We looked in a lot of spots, from JBs Fish Camp down to Tiger Shoal. We found the occasional single and one small school of about 30 fish. We had maybe four good, solid shots all day, but none of the fish felt like taking the fly, and we ended up with a bagel for the day.

The weather was about as perfect for tailing fish as it gets, but nary a one did we see. I dropped them off at about 4 PM, then headed back to River Breeze.

And that is this week’s St. Johns 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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

Mosquito Lagoon Report

February 9, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Mosquito Lagoon Report 2914

Upcoming Events-
-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 15. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…
-Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 16. Visit this link http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ for more information or to register…

Blog Posts This Week-
-Make A Home For Florida Bats
-How to Buy Fishing Sunglasses

On Monday fly fisher Dalen Mills joined me for a Mosquito Lagoon trip. As soon as I came out of Haulover Canal I was on the compass. The fog was too thick to see anything. I found a fishing spot and there were some sizable reds tailing there. The problems were, as soon as they stopped tailing they were very hard to see, and Dalen couldn’t see them at all if the tails were down. We managed to spook all of them away without getting a bite.

English: Section of Florida map showing east c...

English: Section of Florida map showing east coast from St. John’s River to Mosquito Lagoon, 1839.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once the fog cleared we went looking in other places. The seatrout left the spot that was so full of them last week, and as a matter of fact we did not see a legal trout all day.

There were no fish of any kind where we looked on Tiger Shoal, and we were there for about an hour.

We worked our way north of George’s Bar, finding a reasonable number of redfish. Dalen had some good shots at tailing fish but they all spooked off his flies. I got one small red on a DOA CAL shad and we each got a small trout and that was it for the day.

On Tuesday fly fisherman William Lynch came down from Jacksonville for some Mosquito Lagoon sight fishing. There was a little fog as we left the dock but nothing like the previous day. We went to the place Dalen and I had found the foggy fish the day before. They were not there.

We spent the day checking spot after spot. Some spots had a few tailers, some spots had no fish at all. WIlliam was unable to convince a fish to take his fly. Wind and clouds made the job difficult. At 4 PM I put the Mirage back on the trailer.

Wednesday I took son Alex to the doctor. Thursday I took him to a surgeon, who re-attached a ligament in his left wrist. He’s now in a cast, but should be as good as new in six weeks.

I wanted to fish Friday and Saturday but a steady, soaking rain talked me out of it. Even though it’s Sunday I may go today.

The water temperature at the Trident Pier as I write this is 67 degrees. The cobia show up when it hits 71. Stay tuned…

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon 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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The Last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

December 30, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

The Last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

A happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to all. If I may be so bold as to suggest a a couple resolutions, resolve to get outdoors more often, and to have more respect for man and nature.

Blog Posts this Week:
–Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Portable Toilet- A Review
–Brothers, a guest blog by Darryl Benton
–Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure Epiblogue

This is the time of year to do inventories. Actually, they should already be done. Then you could have added what you need to your Christmas list. The paddle adventure set me back, though.

Inventories needed to be done around Kumiski’s stuff include:
-fly-tying materials, including hooks;
-flies;
-leader material;
-line, including fly lines;
-conventional lures and hooks;
-rods and reels.
Inventory your fishing gear, get what you need, and be ready for the new year.

Several reporters have indicated shad are in the St. John’s River. I will be checking that out this week.

OK, fishing. Got some done this week.

Last Saturday (12/21) son Maxx needed a fish to take to someone’s house for Christmas dinner. We went to Mosquito Lagoon. I did not know what to expect.

We found a few tailing fish right away. I got one on a DOA CAL shad tail.

We looked in several spots without seeing anything alive. Then we found a place where there we saw a few fish. After anchoring the boat we were pleasantly surprised to see the reds swimming all around us. Maxx got a couple by sight fishing with mullet chunks and I got another on a DOA CAL jig. Mission accomplished, we put the Mitzi on the trailer and went home.

Sunday Dr. Todd Preuss, a long-time and favorite angler of mine (“Where did you get this brain?”), joined me for a day’s fly fishing on the lagoon. The weather was pretty nice and the tailers were there again. Sadly, we did not convert what turned out to be our best chance of the day. We covered water from Haulover Canal to Eldora. While we saw fish here and there, nothing was strong. Our shots were fleeting and none were converted. Todd never had a strike. Merry Christmas.

On Monday Jesse Hill, a fly caster from Colorado, joined me out of River Breeze for some fly fishing by canoe. It was a little breezy but the sun was shining.

I poled the canoe a long way. We did not see many fish.

We came to a junction. I wanted to go right but there was a boat down there already, so I went left. We came to a big white spot in the grass and anchored the boat. The plan was to wade and blind cast.

I got two dink redfish, then cast my fly to Jesse. He cut it off and tied it onto his leader. A few minutes later he had his first-ever saltwater fish, a seatrout. He ended up getting three trout, including a decent slot fish, and a couple redfish besides. Hardly hot fishing but it certainly beat off the skunk.

last 2013 mosquito lagoon fishing report

This certainly qualifies as a dink redfish.

Friday morning I went to Mosquito Lagoon for some scouting before my afternoon charter. Using the DOA Deadly Combo I found trout in several locations, then went to visit a flat. It was windy and overcast and not much was expected. I was pleasantly surprised to find some tailing redfish and got one on my first cast with the CAL Shad, quite a nice fish. Then I went back to Haulover to pick up my sports.

last 2013 mosquito lagoon fishing report

This fish, however, was anything but dinky. Too bad he wasn’t thee when my anglers were.

Jed Simmons, his son Zander, and his cousin Anne graced Spotted Tail for an afternoon of Mosquito Lagoon fishing. We went back to the tailing fish spot. Of course an hour later we saw exactly none.

We spent the rest of the afternoon using the Deadly Combo and got about 30 trout. Most were dinks but we did get a few slot fish, and a good time was had by all. Jed emailed me, “Thanks for yesterday.  We really enjoyed it. Anne and David cooked up the fish and it was really very good.  Zander even tried it and liked it.” So that was a good thing. Thank you, sir- the pleasure was all mine.

Saturday Steve Campbell and his son Seth found themselves on Spotted Tail for a full day’s fishing. The weather was not nice, overcast and windy, although after a morning shower at least it didn’t rain any more.

We fished from south of Haulover Canal all the way up to Eldora. At the last spot we fished we saw five redfish, all singles. We did not catch one. We used the Deadly Combo all day and got about 40 trout. Every one was short.

Steve got a flounder on the Deadly Combo (!). It was also short. I got a whiting on a four inch CAL jerkbait. It was the first whiting I’ve caught in Mosquito Lagoon in at least 15 years. While it was decent size for a whiting, a giant whiting is only a couple pounds.

So we caught a load of fish and did not catch one over eight ounces.

That is the last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report. I certainly hope 2014 fishing starts like gangbusters! Hope springs eternal from the heart of a fisherman…

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short. Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

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

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

Selecting Successful Seatrout Flies

November 27, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

Selecting Successful Seatrout Flies

selecting successful seatrout flies

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1.9

More fishermen fish for seatrout than any other inshore gamefish along the coasts of the southeastern United States. You would think that reams of information would be available on selecting successful seatrout flies. Not so.

Here in Florida the average seatrout weighs between one and three pounds, so they’re not very big. They’re fairly easy to catch most of the time. They don’t fight very hard. And they’re usually hard to sight fish. So most serious fly fishers look for other species.

Challenging Targets

A seatrout over five or six pounds is a difficult fish to fool. They can be sight fished, best during the winter but also while they’re spawning. They are as spooky as any creature with fins. A seatrout over five pounds that is sight fished and caught on a fly rod is a great trophy.

The smaller ones are fun and will save the day when more appealing species aren’t biting. The larger ones present a formidable target in their own right.

Eyes Bigger Than Stomach?

A seatrout of any size is a glutton. A big seatrout will take a very large bait.

While poling one time I spotted what I thought was a dead fish lying on the bottom. I went over to investigate and was heartbroken to see it was quite a large seatrout, belly up. I poked it gently with the push pole and was surprised to see it wiggle weakly. I said to my fisherman, “It’s not dead! Reach down and pick it up.” He did, and we put it on a Boga Grip. It weighed a whopping nine pounds. Not many fly casters can say they’ve caught a nine pound seatrout with their bare hands!

I started examining the fish. It was pretty beat up. I looked down into its mouth. There was the tail of a one to two pound mullet sticking out of the fish’s throat. If a big seatrout will take a mullet this size they’ll also take a large fly.

Smaller seatrout seem to prefer shrimp. While larger fish will certainly eat them, they usually fill up by eating baitfish, principally by ambush feeding. Mullet, menhaden, pigfish, pinfish, pilchards, etc., all help big seatrout stay fat and healthy. So your best bet with seatrout flies, if you prefer the larger fish, is to stick with baitfish patterns.

Color, Flash, Sound

Bright colors and flash seem to attract the eye of big trout. Red and yellow, red and white, chartreuse and white, all seem to work well. Fluorescent and even luminescent colors are frequently outstanding. But I’ve also had good success with realistic color combinations, and drab colors like black, gray, brown, and grizzly, especially when sight fishing for them.

You can find trout in various depths of water. For shallow water fish (about fifteen inches deep or less), and these are almost always big ones, you need a fly that kisses the water when it touches down. The small “Plop!” of a lead eye spooks them badly in this situation.

For fish in deeper water, noise seems to be a great attractor. Flies that incorporate rattles can be extremely effective. Those luminescent materials can greatly add to the effectiveness of deep water patterns, too.

To read the rest of this article, visit this link…

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

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

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Filed Under: Fishing Tips, Flies and Fly Tying · Tagged: , , , , ,
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