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Not So Hot Fishing Report

February 17, 2024 by · Leave a Comment

Not So Hot Fishing Report

Thank you for reading this Not So Hot Fishing Report. Good thing I philosophized about enjoying your time on the water last week. This week, only a few small fish distracted me from that enjoyment.

Our friend Michelle Hartman has another guest post this week. Please read it here…

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please. Oh- there aren’t any photos this week.

Weather kept me off the water Monday and Tuesday. Of course the van got worked on, minor electrical stuff. Wednesday was Valentines Day. My valentine and I went to Lake Mills Park and had a picnic by the lake, gorgeous, warm sunshine, pleasant breeze, sublime company. A lovely little celebration it was.

I’ve been tying some articulated streamers for a trip to Montana. (If any readers have tips about fishing Montana in September, I would love to hear from you!) After the picnic, a trip to the local retention pond followed. I wanted to see how the flies look in the water. Frankly, I was disappointed.

I’ve tied three unweighted ones, which is what I tried. The damn thing sat on the surface like a dead moth. I globbed all kinds of saliva on it, trying to convince it to get wet. Didn’t work. Once it got forced it under by stripping it, it didn’t look particularly good, either. Although a bass did hit it. I missed it. Back to the drawing board on that.

Thursday, under a solid overcast, the kayak and I visited Mosquito Lagoon. There weren’t a lot of fish around. When I was sitting, I couldn’t see them. When I was standing, they all saw me first. I did not get a shot.

I visited a number of my blind fishing spots. Finally, four hours in, the skunk was chased- by a puffer. Does that even count??? At the last spot of the day, a few trout and reds fell to the DOA Shrimp, which ended up being shredded by more puffers. All the fish were modest, although the trout would be in the slot. It beat no fish.

Because hope springs eternal in the heart of a fisherman, Friday I tried the Indian River Lagoon. There were high clouds, enough to cause a lot of glare. Again, such fish as there were saw me first. Then a yahoo ran his boat the entire way down the flat I was fishing, taking particular care to get close to me. Thanks, you jerk.

I did manage two small trout and a small red on the plastic shad. Once the wind came up, I bailed out. Boat was on the roof by 1PM. Altogether, the day was beautiful, the fishing not so hot.

And that, folks, is the not so hot fishing report. Thanks again for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go on a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, © John Kumiski 2024. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Flies and Fly Tying, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Paddle Fishing Florida · Tagged: , , ,

Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing, Again

January 27, 2024 by · Leave a Comment

Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing

Didn’t I use this title last week? Thank you for reading this post on Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing. The fishing was fair at best, but let’s look to the van first…

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please.

I’ve built the cabinet in the back of the van. Debating as to whether to put doors on the hatches. Will need to take a couple short trips to see if stuff falls out, I suppose.

Whenever I use the Bang-O-Craft, I always run all the gasoline out of the carburetor at the end of the trip. When I used it last week, I forgot to do that. When I finished working on the van Tuesday, it was about 1500 hours. I’ll run the gas out of the boat! I’ll bring a fishing rod!

I went to CS Lee Park. There was exactly one trailer in the lot, not a good sign. I ran the boat up to the mouth of the Econ. Saw no breaking fish at all- no gar, no mullet, and certainly no shad. Did not get a bite on tandem-rigged crappie jigs. A virtual biological desert! Floated down the river to the boat ramp, casting the entire way, solidly skunked.

There was an FWC creel survey dude there, who interviewed me. He told me no one has caught anything out of that ramp for at least three weeks. He further said such shad as were being caught were being taken out of the Cameron Wright ramp, near Sanford. Sounds like a poor shad season to me…

Friday under a heavy overcast I went back to the Indian River Lagoon, tailing black drum on my mind. Naturally, I didn’t see a one. I did get rained on. In my waders, with a raincoat on, it was not unpleasant. I did see a fair number of redfish. Unfortunately, all but two were flushed by running them over with the kayak, not a good technique for catching them.

The two I had shots at were bank-crawlers. I hit one on the tail with the RipTide shad, also not a good technique for catching them. The other spooked off my schmutz-coated fly (a wiry green algae collection guaranteed to offend any fish).

I got a trout and a small red blind-casting the shad to keep the skunk at bay. I have to think if I went there with good visibility I’d get a few fish. It doesn’t look like that chance will happen this week, though

And that, folks, is a Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing Report. Thanks again for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go on a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, © John Kumiski 2024. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Paddle Fishing Florida, Sienna Van conversion · Tagged: , , ,

Changing Seasons Fishing Report, and More!

October 30, 2021 by · Leave a Comment

Changing Seasons Fishing Report, and More!

Thank you for reading this week’s Changing Seasons Fishing Report, and more! Got out twice this week, both times by myself.

Mushrooms

Last week I wrote about the mushroom grow kit from northspore.com. We ate mushrooms last week, and there’s another flush we’ll be eating today. How long will it keep producing? I don’t know, but I aim to find out. To learn more, go to https://northspore.com.

Flies, Again

Talking about the synthetic minnow, last week I wrote, “If anyone needs tying instructions, let me know and I will make a new webpage with them.” You know someone did. Here’s the link- https://www.spottedtail.com/free-florida-fishing-informatio/tying-the-synthetic-minnow/

Emails

By way of explanation- until recently I had three email accounts. Two were under spottedtail. One is gmail. I’ve had the spottedtail accounts a long time, and get massive amounts of spam. Last week I deleted one of the spottedtail accounts (and am considering deleting the other one). The spam was out of control.

The spottedtail accounts forward to the gmail account. The gmail spam filter is efficient. Unfortunately, several readers emailed me at the spottedtail account, which I check only weekly at most, and gmail treated their emails as spam.

If you have sent me an email and I did not respond, I did not see it. My most sincere apologies! I often think this technology stuff just serves to further separate us from each other. I will try to check the spottedtail account more often.

FISHING and other…

Tuesday
Went paddling on the Indian River Lagoon. Wind was out of the west for the first time in a long time. No bites, no bites, no bites. Most of the tarpon seem to be gone. Water is definitely colder.

Stood up and started paddling the shoreline. It was hard to see anything! All the snook seem to be gone too, and although there weren’t a lot, there were more redfish than I would have expected. I managed to get a slot red on the rubber shad, the only bite I got.

Wednesday
Went to Playalinda to take advantage of that west wind. What a sunrise!

 

 

There were enormous numbers of fish. Sadly, they were all beyond the breakers. I would have needed a bazooka to reach them. After an hour of frustration, and a single, small ladyfish, I gave up the beach and went paddling on the Indian River Lagoon.

The few redfish I saw either fled from my cast, spooked off the fly, or got ran over by the kayak. Did not get a bite.

Thursday
The first cold front of the season blew through! Rain, lightning, wind- it was glorious! Thus the changing season fishing report!

That’s it for this week. Thank you again for reading this Changing Season Fishing Report and More. Life is great and I love all my readers!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide

Purchase a signed copy of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2021. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports · Tagged: , , , ,

Goodbye ’19 Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

December 31, 2019 by · Leave a Comment

Goodbye ’19 Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

Thank you for reading this Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report. And best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous new decade!!!

We’ve had a lot of rain here locally. The Econlockhatchee gauge went from 2.5 feet to almost 6 feet. The St. Johns went up about the same amount. All the little minnows the fish were gorging themselves on are back in the flooded grass. The fishing went right down the tubes.

That being said, there are reports of shad being caught. I have yet to try.

Went scouting on the Indian River Lagoon last Thursday. Cloudy and rainy, it was hard to see in the high water, even though the water was what passes for clean these days. There was a lot of bait around. Fishing was not hot, but I got a few trout and one black drum of moderate size, all on plastic shad.

The trout have been more reliable than anything else.

Went scouting again Friday, different area. Did not see much bait and the water was not as clean, although the weather was the same. Started off by tossing a Deadly Combo. Got a few trout, and had two whack the float. Tossed a Chug Bug for a while, got at least a dozen strikes. I had changed the hooks to singles on this plug. They failed miserably, only hooking a single fish. At least I didn’t hurt any.

Got a black drum on a DOA Shrimp.

Got several more trout and a black drum on a gray DOA Shrimp. On the way back to the ramp I ran through a huge flock of ducks, for at least 15 minutes. Probably the most I’ve ever seen. Not a duck hunter, but still loved to see that!

Sunday’s charter was Travis and Jessica, from Fairbanks, Alaska. Travis wanted to fly fish, even though it was still cloudy with showers and windy. I tied a popper on his leader. He got bit almost immediately. I think it surprised him because he missed it. He did not miss many more, getting four or five solid trout of around 20 inches.
Jessica tossed a Deadly Combo and did some damage on the trout as well.

We spent the last hour trying to sight fish. We did not get a fish but had shots at several reds (yes I was happily surprised). For a day with shaky weather it turned out to be decent, fishing-wise.

Monday Dr. Todd from Atlanta, my longest-tenured angler, joined me and he brought his nine-year-old nephew, Ashton. Even though Todd is a fly caster I had three dozen shrimp in the cooler. Good call, with a nine year old.

I knew a spot where there had been some black drum. We went there. The fish were not there.

I knew a spot where there had been some trout. We went there. The fish were not there.

We went where I had gotten the trout the previous day. Wind and waves made it hard to fish. We did not touch one.

I was getting a little desperate. We went to where I had sight fished the previous day. By soaking some shrimp (they were anemic little things) we managed an almost respectable bag of a half-dozen hardhead cats, two black drum, and two redfish, one of which had fifteen spots.

One of the redfish had fifteen spots.

Most importantly, Ashton caught the biggest fish he’d ever gotten. So life was good!

Thanks for reading this Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report! Have a happy New Year’s Eve!

Life is great and I love my work!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide

Purchase Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2019. All rights are reserved.

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

Central Florida Fishing Report

December 13, 2019 by · Leave a Comment

Central Florida Fishing Report

Thank you for reading this central Florida fishing report!

NEWS!
Changes are coming to recreational seatrout harvesting rules. Here in east central Florida, the bag limit changes from four to two, and the slot changes from 15-20 inches to 15-19 inches. There’s more. The new rule goes into effect on February 1. For more info click this link- https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLFFWCC/bulletins/271263f

Monday
Having done all of all the chores I could stand by noon, I took lunch, then hooked up the trailer of the Bang-O-Craft. Having CS Lee Park ten miles from my front door is a beautiful thing!

In the St. Johns small fish were crushing tiny fry minnows. I used small tackle and caught a bunch of them- largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegills, and redbreast sunfish. No striper hybrids. Got several doubles, even mixed species doubles. Love those tiny swimbaits, and my little fry minnow flies. Enjoyed the afternoon right to sunset.

Tuesday
Ricky waited patiently at the boat ramp. Having driven right past the exit I was a few minutes late, even though our start time was 930 AM (!).

We launched his boat and were off to chase the wily pompano. You won’t mistake a pompano for a tarpon on the end of your line. You won’t mistake one for tarpon on your dinner plate, either. And for such a small fish they sure do fight hard.

Ricky poled while I manned the bow. He wanted to sight fish them. I actually had a few shots and had a couple fish show interest in the jig, but no eats.

When we anchored up by a deeper cut our luck changed. Casting jigs into the deeper water brought bites from pompano, and crevalle, and ladyfish. I got a croaker and Rick got a bluefish.

Rick’s favorite jig worked well!

I tried the fly rod and got a pompano almost immediately. Got ladyfish, jacks, and a blue runner too.

I caught a pompano on fly!

Basically we caught fish all day long, often enough to keep our interest up. When we got back to the boat ramp (after sunset) Rick put the seven pompano we had kept into my cooler, and off I drove into the darkness.

Detail of the fly in question.

Wednesday
Got up early and drove to CS Lee with a bucket, a knife, some bags, and a cutting board. Filleting fish first thing in the morning is not something I do often (thank goodness) but I kept thinking how delicious they would be. I gave one to my aunt and a couple to neighbors.

There were a lot of trailers in the lot. Something good is going on.

The trolling motor on the Mitzi was old and ugly. I took it off and started the installation of a brand new one.

We had grilled pompano for dinner. Nothing should taste that good. Thank you, Rick!

Thursday
Finished the trolling motor job. If anyone wants the old one (free to good home) contact me before Thursday.

Put a canoe and a kayak up for sale on Craigslist, among other things.
https://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/d/oviedo-for-sale-old-town-canoe/7037280422.html
https://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/d/oviedo-for-sale-ocean-kayak-prowler-13/7037273150.html

Friday
Had to test the trolling motor of course, so I towed the Mitzi to Titusville. After launching in the Indian River Lagoon I put the motor through its paces. I am happy to say it seems to be quite an upgrade over the old one!

They were all nice but this was the best.

Part of the program was to see how the fish react to it. They can hear it, of course, but that did not keep me from catching several seatrout to about four pounds. The lure was a RipTide Sardine. Quite a lovely morning it was.

Life is great and I love my work!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste them- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide
Purchase Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2019. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Orlando Fishing Report, St. Johns River Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , , ,

North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

November 2, 2019 by · Leave a Comment

North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

Fished four days this week on the Indian River Lagoon. It was good! Fished one day on the Banana River Lagoon. It was a pleasant paddle.

Upcoming Events
On November 9 starting at noon, Kayaks by Bo in Titusville is having a “Meet the Author”/book signing with John Kumiski. His new book, Fishing Florida by Paddle, is now available!

For those unable to make it to the book signing, Fishing Florida by Paddle is available here- http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

Bugs- The Forgotten Food
I have a copy of the 1971 Professional Guide’s Manual written by George Leonard Herter for the North Star Guide Association. An excerpt is printed below-

Try an insect next time you’re hungry!

Fishing!
Monday
Itching to get out again, I tied a kayak to the roof of the chariot. My destination, picked more-or-less at random, was the Indian River Lagoon. Due to the water quality I have not fished there much in the past several years.

I got there just as the sun was appearing. The water’s surface was smooth and shiny. Barred owls hooted. Mosquitos bit me. To my complete surprise, jacks were going off all over the place. Haven’t seen that in the river in way too long. Got in the boat, started paddling, started casting a popper.

Got a jack of a pound or so. Got a trout, somewhat smaller. Ran over a pair of tailing reds. The jacks were not very interested in my popper, which was strange.

Changed flies to a small white streamer. Stood up and started looking. The water wasn’t clean, but it wasn’t algae nasty either. I could see the bottom as long as I stayed shallow. There were a lot of mullet around.

I started seeing trout. At first they were too close when I’d spot them, but as the sun got higher I was able to sight fish them.

Every good presentation got a fish. It was uncanny. The fish were all nice ones, 20-24 inches. Got a slot red for good measure. Off the water at noon, it was a heck of a morning.

Tuesday
Weather holding, went to a different area on the IRL, launching the kayak around 1030. The water was dirty. Kept paddling until it cleared up, then started looking.

There were more redfish and fewer trout at this place. There was more wind, too, which made fishing harder. I tried wading but couldn’t see anything.

I had five good shots at slot reds. Only one ate, a fly without a name.

I saw a fish and dropped a grizzly seaducer on it. It took, I struck and missed. It swam right under the kayak and sat there. I dropped the fly back in its face. I was fairly shocked when it ate again. I released it a few minutes later. It was a big trout, every bit of 26 inches.

Ended up doing well again, another great day.

Wednesday
Tammy and I were there at first light. The jacks were not there but the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were. They tore us up.

Forecast called for wind and clouds so I brought a spin and fly rod. Never touched the fly pole.

Tammy tossed a 5.5” jerk bait. I tossed a DOA Shrimp. I caught more fish, she got better quality. I did not get a red, but she got two. I got a pompano, a flounder, and a sea robin in addition to numerous trout to about 22 inches. Among other things, she got a trout about 28 inches.

Another awesome day.

Thursday


Tom Van Horn and I launched the Mitzi for some serious IRL scouting. We covered miles of shoreline, finding trout, black drum, and redfish, and hooking two snook. We could not get the drum to bite any of our soft plastics; however, the trout and reds were reasonably compliant. In most places the water was reasonably clean. Some green stuff, not seagrass, has started growing on the bottom in some places.

Fishing was never hot, but it was pretty steady all day. We did pretty well.

Saturday
Last time I went to the Banana River Lagoon I said to myself, “It will be a long time before I come back here.” I tried it today. The water is better than it was but you really can’t see the bottom. Of course the water is still pretty high. Other than a few mullet I saw no fish, got no bites. Did see one dolphin and one manatee. You know it’s a bad sign when you show up on a Saturday with nice weather and no one else is there.

And that is this week’s north Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report. Thanks for reading!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
www.johnkumiski.com
www.rentafishingbuddy.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jkumiski

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2019. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Orlando Fishing Report, Paddle Fishing Florida · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,