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Orlando Area Fishing Report- One Fish, Two Fish, RedFish, BlueFish

May 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5/29/11

Upcoming Events-
-June 11, free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors, starting at noon. The Clouser Minnow is the fly of choice this time.

Last Sunday wife Susan and I went to Playalinda Beach, sans fishing tackle. I’m always looking, though. There was no bait along the beach, an observation reinforced by the fact we saw exactly one pelican there in almost four hours. Conversation with fishermen along the beach revealed that a few had caught a smattering of pompano and whiting.

Monday Rodney Smith and Rick Roberts joined me for a day’s search along the beach north of Port Canaveral. Based on my observations on the previous day I wasn’t expecting anything.

I got a flounder by the north jetty on a DOA CAL jig. Working our way north we didn’t see anything, but Rick got a nice whiting, also on a jig. A couple small jacks and a bluefish also fell prey to our approximately 10,000 casts.

North of Cape Canaveral there were quite a few menhaden but no fish eating them.
Back at the jetty Rodney got another flounder, again on a jig. The day was enjoyable but fishing wasn’t very exciting.

Tuesday I went kayak fishing, launching at River Breeze about 9 AM. I paddled along shorelines for miles. I found a few redfish off the shorelines in white holes. Blindcasting into a hole with a redfish worm I got a low end slot red.

I found one shoreline fish, a crawler, that gave me an excellent shot. It took the redfish worm and was released a few minutes later. It was about five pounds.
I had one other decent shot but the cast was less than perfect and did not work. It was a lot of paddling for only two shots but it was a gorgeous day and I had the whole place to myself. And I did get two reds on fly.

Cody Zimmer got this Mosquito lagoon redfish a few weeks back. I just recently got the image.

Wednesday afternoon I hiked up the Econlockhatchee and fished my way back, using a green foam spider. Because I switched to a six pound tippet I kept the same fly the entire way- amazing! Many redbellies popped that spider and at least a dozen were released but they were running small. One small bluegill was fooled too.

The river is very low right now, awesome for wading and fly casting. Maybe if I went at either end of the day rather than during the hottest part of it I would do better.

Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for some flats fishing on the Indian River Lagoon. We launched at Kennedy Point Park. Using DOA Shrimp we caught trout after trout. None would hold batter, as they were all short. We tried sight fishing for a bit but the water is real dirty and the clouds made it impossible to see. So we went back to trout fishing.
We also got a ladyfish and a bluefish. Although nothing of consequence was caught I’d guess we released two dozen fish. Thank goodness for the dehooker!

Cody got this trout the same day, same place, as the redfish above. George and I didn't get any like this on Friday.

Yesterday I helped Rick Roberts put together a powerpoint presentation for Angler Action (www.angleraction.org). This worthwhile endeavor is putting together an angler-owned database of fish population data so anglers will have their own data to use in shaping regulatory policy. Check out their website and consider submitting your catch data. It’s for the best of causes- fishing in our future.

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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High Pressure, Full Moon Reds, and Endeavor Blasts Off- Orlando Area Fishing Report

May 22, 2011 by · 4 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5/22/11

Upcoming Events-

-June 11, free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors.

The quick and dirty fishing report for the week of the full moon!

Monday, Mosquito Lagoon. Eric Robbins used DOA Shrimp during a half day trip to get a slot red, numerous trout, a couple of bluefish and a bunch of ladyfish. We also watched space shuttle Endeavor blast off. We didn’t see a lot of reds but really didn’t spend much time looking for them.

Endeavor blasts off on a cloudy Monday morning.

Tuesday, Mosquito Lagoon. Keith and Myrna Daugherty used DOA Shrimp to catch a bunch of seatrout. At the end of the day a mullet chunk produced a nice red for Keith. We didn’t see a lot of reds.

Mosquito Lagoon seatrout

One of many trout Myrna and Keith caught.

Keith got this nice red on cut bait.

Wednesday, brothers Steve and Dave Ritchie, Mosquito Lagoon. We tried flyfishing for reds. Spot #1, the fish were there in decent numbers. The fish wouldn’t let us into casting range, and the Ritchie brothers can cast. Spot #2, a school of fish bolted and waked off when we were about 150 feet away, no chance at them. So far the fish were not uncatchable, they were uncastable. Spot #3, we had some shots at spooky big reds. One actually checked out the fly, a black bunny leech. That’s as close to a bite as we got. Subsequent spots had no fish. On the bright side it was a beautiful, windless day. We ended up with a suicidal eight inch trout and a small pinfish.

Thursday, Ritchie brothers, Indian River Lagoon. Scouted large portion of IRL looking for a redfish school or tarpon. Didn’t find either, despite incredible weather. Found an area with some singles. Dave struck first, getting a slot red on a Merkin crab, his first redfish ever. Steve got another one on the same pattern a short time later, his first on fly. We had a couple shots at 20-30 pound class fish that were tailing, and numerous shots at black drum, none of which were converted. Dave hooked and lost another slot red. Not a great day but an improvement over Wednesday.

Indian River Lagoon Redfish

Steve's first fly rod red. A Merkin did the trick.

Friday, Ritchie brothers, Indian River Lagoon. Heavy fog early. Clouds hampered visibility but it remained almost slick calm most of the day. We fished the same area as the previous day and did not get a shot until almost noontime. The fish were lying in the thick grass. We would only see them after we ran them over. There was no tailing, there were no busts. It was like they were comatose. It was very frustrating.

Steve started throwing a Zara Spook and got a nice trout, over 20 inches.

I finally spotted a push coming at us. Dave made a perfect cast and hooked a fish, Hallelujah! It was a black drum of tem pounds or so, fooled by a Merkin. Steve hooked another one a short time later but the hook pulled, on the same fly pattern.

Indian River Black Drum

Dave used a Merkin to get this black drum.

Nearing 2 PM some breeze came up. Shortly afterwards I spotted a big red tailing. Dave had a shot at it but did not convert. Later Steve had a shot at another big red, made a perfect cast. The fish took the Merkin. Steve fought it for 20 minutes and then the hook pulled again, heartbreaking. We tried to find another without success. The boat was back on the trailer about 3 PM.

On Saturday Tom Van Horn and I gave a tarpon fishing seminar at Mosquito Creek Outdoors. There were about 30 seats there and most were filled, a nice bunch of people. There were raffles and prizes given away, and lots of good information was exchanged.

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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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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