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Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

September 29, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Upcoming Events
Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 27
Mosquito Lagoon On-The-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 28

There is a problem with my Word Press application- it will not accept photos for upload. As soon as this gets resolved I will be posting information-type blogs in addition to the weekly fishing reports. Thanks to all for your patience.

Son Alex’s photo is featured in the September issue of Florida Sportsman in my article on saltwater leaders. Check it out!

Fishing-
Monday found the Mitzi and I out along the beach in Canaveral Bight. There was a north wind and some wave action. The boat took a breaker over the bow which was the most exciting thing that happened.
Quite a few mullet were there, not much eating them. A crevalle, a ladyfish, several small bluefish, and a few missed strikes, all on live mullet, is all I got. Did not see much activity, and the main target, tarpon, was not observed. In spite of the slow fishing it was great being out there.

Tuesday Tammy Wilson and I took the Old Town up into the no motor zone. The water looked pretty good but there is very little grass. Tammy had one strike on a Seaducer. She popped it off, losing the fly.
I watched a small redfish eat my Electric Sushi, and pulled the fly out of its mouth. Those were the only two bites we had. We saw maybe a dozen reds all day, did not get many good shots obviously.
There were dozens of manatees up there. I wonder what they’re eating?

Wednesday son Alex, his friend John Napolitano, and I went to the Mosquito Lagoon, my first trip there since returning from Alaska. I was expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprised that it was much better than I had heard, not much different than how it usually is this time of year.
We did not explore the entire lagoon. Where we went the water looked OK and the grass looked very healthy. There is always a grass die-off at this time of year and that certainly is under way.
We spent the entire day looking for redfish. We found a few, even found a school of them, from which I pulled a nice one that ate a synthetic minnow fly. Alex got a small red on a piece of mullet. All poor John got was a catfish.
It was good to be out there and to find some fish.

Friday Dr. George Yarko and I went to Mosquito Lagoon. We did not find as many redfish as we had on Wednesday, hooking four and boating two 20 inch fish, all on DOA CAL jerkbaits.
We spent a little time using the DOA Deadly Combo looking for seatrout and had some small success, boating four or five. All were at the low end of the slot.

I have some concern for the heath of the fishery in the lagoons for the next few years. The seagrass is gone or dying back in a lot of places. Since the grass supports the rest of the food chain its loss has to lower the productivity of the entire ecosystem.

I am also surprised at the lack of finger mullet in the lagoons. There ought to be huge schools of them everywhere right now and they are definitely not there. Where are they?

And that is this week’s Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report.

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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Area Fishing Report

September 24, 2012 by · 3 Comments

Happy Birthday, Alex Kumiski!

 

After doing some telephone research, Monday morning found Scott Radloff and I launching the Mitzi at Kennedy Point Park in Titusville. The goal was to do some scouting and hopefully find some redfish and seatrout in the Indian River Lagoon.

We poled and ran quite a distance from the Rinker Canal to Parrish Park. Having been in Alaska all summer and having heard about the algae bloom in the lagoons I was not expecting much. This was a good thing. We didn’t find much.

The water clarity was better at the south end  of where we looked. It wasn’t very good anywhere. The closer we got to shore the dirtier the water got.

We did not see many fish. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. We got three reds between us, mine on a DOA Shrimp, Scott’s on a Gulp. The largest was 22 inches. I tossed a Chug Bug all morning and did not get a single response.

The boat ran well and it was wonderful to be on home waters again.

Tuesday Tammy Wilson and I tried a similar routine on the Banana River Lagoon, launching at Kelly Park. The water was at least as clean as the cleaner places we saw in the Indian River Lagoon. However, there was very little seagrass. Most of the bottom was bare.

I wanted to run down toward Pineda Causeway but the whitecaps made me re-think that strategy. We did not see many fish. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. I got one red on a mullet chunk from under a dock, a skinny 21 inch fish. We beat the rain back to the dock, pulling the boat at about 1:30.

Thursday I went up the road to the Econ, just to check it out. It is running quite high, higher than I would want to wade in.

With this as my background I had a fly charter on Friday with Jim Coraci. He had never caught a redfish before and desperately wanted to do so.

We launched at Parrish Park at 7 AM, running and poling as far south as the NASA Causeway. We only saw a few fish, and had zero shots. Plenty of boats, though!

We turned around and ran north of Parrish Park. We found a few reds working along a shoreline up there. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in lack of size. However, Jim managed to get three bites on a Merkin crab, and landed two redfish. One was a beautiful fish with 12 spots. The other was tailing with a partner.

Lovely to see tailing fish, even if, again, they were only about 21 or 22 inches long. Better small fish than no fish!

I will be doing more exploration in the upcoming week. It’s the end of September- there ought to be mind-boggling numbers of mullet everywhere in those lagoons. There definitely were not, so I need to look along the beach.

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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

May 18, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5.19.12

Upcoming Event- Inaugural Space Coast International Surf Fishing Tournament, Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27. For more information click here http://internationalsurffishingtournament.com/

Sad News- Vic Dunaway passed away on Thursday. Vic was the original editor at Florida Sportsman magazine and guided that publication to a pre-eminent position among American fishing magazines. Vic bought the first article I ever wrote, a piece about fishing at Lostman’s Key in Everglades National park, for which I will ever be grateful to him.

His daughter Mari writes, “His wishes were that there be no funeral. He just wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. If you wish to honor his memory, please send a contribution to the Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, P. O. Box 568886, Orlando, FL 32856. As I’m sure you know, the preservation of Florida’s coastal waters was important to him.”

I’m sure the next issue of Florida Sportsman will run a glowing tribute to him, which will be well deserved. Florida sportsmen will miss him, and should honor his legacy.

To all you discoers, Donna Summers also passed on Thursday. She worked hard for the money!

Fish of the Week- still the Spotted Seatrout!

My boat trailer is an aluminum frame EZ Loader. Aluminum or not, it had some galvanized parts and leaf springs, all of which were getting very rusty. Whoever said, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” obviously never had a boat trailer.

Tuesday I brought the trailer to EZ Loader in Port St. Lucie for some refurbishing action. After I dropped it off, I drove to Jensen Beach and met Mark Nichols for some fishing action down the south end of the IRL.

We went wade fishing. Fishing was good. Steady action from slot trout with the occasional crevalle and bluefish thrown in kept us entertained. The lure of choice, as might be expected, was a three inch DOA Shrimp.
Seatrout caught on a DOA Shrimp
It was great to see Mark and spend some time with him. The fish were a gift from God.

DOA Lures' Mark Nichols

Wednesday I went to the Mosquito Lagoon to do some scouting. I had a fly charter on Thursday and wanted to show the guy some fish.

I started at the south end of Tiger Shoal, using the trolling motor to save some time. I went almost all the way to the north entrance with a couple of small trout to show for it. All the reds and big trout that had been up there were gone. So sad.

I looked in quite a few other places. The best I found was moderate numbers of single reds in shallow water, which I did not fish. There was a lot of barren territory.

When I get a new fly rod I do not take the plastic off the handle until that rod catches a “real” fish. I have had a new Temple Fork rod for at least a month that still had the plastic on the handle, which was beginning to irk me. I stopped at a bar on the way back to the boat ramp and got three trout there on a black and purple streamer, the first of which was 24 inches long.

The plastic is finally off the handle.

Thursday Shaun Waterman, a fly fisher from Ontario, joined me for a day’s fishing. He’d never fished in saltwater before. It wasn’t windy at all, but it was very gray. As I headed to the spot I found the fish on Wednesday I was praying they would be tailing.

Of course they weren’t. We did see the occasional tail, but it would be up, down, and no more. In addition to the clouds, the water where we were fishing was kind of dirty.
We ran over quite a few but never got any kind of real shot. We just couldn’t see. I had him try blind casting with a spoon fly for a while but that didn’t work either.

After a couple frustrating hours I decided to see if we could find anything better. We didn’t.

After a while I brought Shaun to the bar where I had caught the trout the day before. There were two people wading there. I gave them wide berth and we started fishing the bar about halfway up, blind casting the streamer to the edge of the dropoff.

We ran over a couple nice fish but no bites.

In a brief interlude with sunlight I thought I saw a fish on the inside of the bar. I wasn’t sure what it was because it was motionless, and facing right at us, but I pointed it out to Shaun. He dropped the fly about a foot in front of it and what turned out to actually be a fish zoomed up and immediately ate.

It was a redfish about 20 inches long. Not huge to be sure but Shaun’s first saltwater fish on fly. Congratulations, sir!

It was the only bite we got. We went back to near where we started. The fish had started tailing, not hard, but enough to keep us busy. Shaun had one great cast I thought sure would work but the fish never responded to it. Then the east wind came up and we never saw another fish.

It rained hard Thursday night and my roof started leaking. No more fishing until that problem is fixed.

That is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report.

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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral Fishing Report

April 7, 2012 by · 3 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4.7.12

Fishing team of the week:

Upcoming Events/Volunteers Needed
In celebration of Earth Day 2012, Anglers for Conservation are coordinating a series of Hook Kids on Fishing programs throughout the week of April 14-22. Volunteers are needed. This is the perfect opportunity to work within the fishing community while having a very rewarding experience. All volunteers’ will received a free Anglers for Conservation fishing hat! Contact Rodney Smith at 321-750-3374 or rodney@anglersforconservation.org.

Monday required a trip to the lab. The Coast Guard wanted some body fluids for drug testing. Yuk.

Tuesday return angler Austin Warmus and his father Paul joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. The weather was awesome, bright and sunny with very little wind. It took a little while but we found quite a few tailing reds. They were very spooky. Every time they would hook one all the other would flee, pushing wakes as they changed locations. Also every time they hooked one it came unbuttoned, every time but one. Austin put one in the boat that was about 25 inches long.

mosquito lagoon redfish
We also spent some time trout fishing and got several on DOA Shrimp, but nothing of consequence.

Wednesday son Alex, Scott Radloff, and I launched at Port Canaveral. We were thinking big. We ran south of Cocoa Beach pier and netted some menhaden, then went looking for big fish, going out as far as three miles.

We did not find any. We could have done without the bait. It did not produce a single bite.

What we did find north of Cape Canaveral was an almost mullet-run-like number of ladyfish, Spanish mackerel, and bluefish. I used a DOA CAL jig with a shad tail. The other guys used Gotchyas. If not for the treble hooks I would say the Gotchyas made more sense for those toothy critters than did soft plastics.

I broiled some Spanish mackerel fillets for dinner Wednesday night. They were delicious.

I smoked several bluefish fillets on Thursday. They are very delicious!

Friday afternoon I went to the Econlockhatchee River for a couple hours of fly rodding for sunfish. Before I left I went on a major search mission to find my bluegill flies. I couldn’t find them. I used some orange gurglers I use for dolly varden in Alaska.
I’d like to say I slammed them but that would be an exaggeration. I got a few red-bellies and a few stumpknockers, missed a few strikes. I watched and listened as the trees rocked back and forth in a fierce wind. It was a very pleasant couple of hours.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral Offshore Fishing Report

April 1, 2012 by · 2 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 3.31.12

Upcoming Events/Volunteers Needed
In celebration of Earth Day 2012, Anglers for Conservation are coordinating a series of Hook Kids on Fishing programs throughout the week of April 14-22. Volunteers are needed. This is the perfect opportunity to work within the fishing community while having a very rewarding experience. All volunteers’ will received a free Anglers for Conservation fishing hat! Contact Rodney Smith at 321-750-3374 or rodney@anglersforconservation.org.

Fishing this week- lots of fish, not many big ones.

On Monday, Matt Williams of Winter Park joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. We did some searching for redfish and did not find very many. Matt caught three on a Johnson Minnow, all out of the slot- on the low end. He got a lot of trout on the DOA Shrimp, but again many were short, with only a few in the slot. The weather was pretty nice too, a little breezy but otherwise a beautiful day.

There are manatees swimming all through the lagoon systems now. They tend to hang out in the deeper water just off the edge of the flat. Please avoid running your boat in these places, unless you like colliding with 2000 pounds of ugly-cute critter.

On Thursday Sam Sharata, his son Alex, and his nephew Luis joined me for some fishing, again on Mosquito Lagoon. Again, the weather was beautiful, a bit breezy. We started off fishing for trout, always a good strategy when youngsters are in the boat. They were biting the DOA Shrimp pretty well, although again, lots of shorts.

The dehooker is such a great device for removing these fish from the hook. It’s better for the fish, too- you don’t even need to touch them. There are several commercially made versions of this tool in the market, the best known of which is the ARC Dehooker.

Anyway, after a while we went searching for redfish. It took a while but we found a school of about 50 and managed to get two in the 24 inch range before they vacated the area. Then we fished trout again until our day was done. A fine day it was!

redfish from the mosquito lagoon

Alex (L) and Luis with Luis's first redfish ever.

redfish from the mosquito lagoon

Alex got his first redfish, too.

On Friday I was the guest of Dr. George Yarko for an offshore charter on Capt. Jeff Brown’s 29 foot Copout. There were lots of menhaden off Cocoa Beach, where we filled up the livewell. Then we went looking for king mackerel.

using a cast net to catch bait

Jeff Brown tosses a net to catch bait.

Apparently we missed them by one day, and did not raise one. So we went further out looking for dolphin. George got a small one that hit a trolled rigged ballyhoo. Another hour of trolling went by and not another bite was had, so we went bottom fishing.

The red snapper bite was hot, and Dr. Yarko had their number. There’s currently a moratorium in place on red snapper so we had to release all of the tasty critters, even the one that I caught. More for the next trip.

red snapper

George got bigger ones, but this was the best photo.

Working our way back in, we came across a lovely line of weeds. Jeff shut off the engines and let us drift along. Some flying fish erupted from the water and I spotted a dolphin swimming along. A cast with a pogie brought an immediate hookup. A second cast got another. Sadly the second fish broke off but the first one was gaffed and brought aboard. We saw a couple dozen more of the mahis, but could not convince them to take either a live or a cut bait, very strange.

A small mahi-mahi caught off Port Canaveral.

It wasn't real big but it was very tasty!

We were back in the Port at about 4:30 after a grueling ride back.

On Saturday Steve Kruska, has son Karstin, and his friend Adam Rosati joined me to do some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. Karstin was nine years old so you know we went straight to the trout. And they were pretty cooperative, although again the average fish was about 14 inches, with maybe a half dozen fish in the slot being caught.

Small Spotted Seatrout from Mosquito Lagoon.

Karstin got a bunch of fish like this, which kept him busy.

We also got a ladyfish and a small red. Everything was taken on a DOA Shrimp.

Small Spotted Seatrout from Mosquito Lagoon.

Word on the street is these fish are more entertaining than walleyes.

I only poled one flat looking for reds and we did not see one. But we caught trout until the final bell.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon and Banana 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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An Awesome Week- Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral Fishing Report

March 4, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 3.4.12

Spring is breaking out in central Florida! Azaleas are blooming, trees are leafing out, oranges perfume the air with their blossoms.

Fishing has been fantastic.

Monday’s trip was a family affair. Pastor Louis Schulz, his son Chris, and the pastor’s brother Chris, joined me for a day’s fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. It was overcast almost all day, and a soaking rain lasted for at least an hour. Fortunately there was very little wind.

We wanted redfish. With the exception of a school of maybe two dozen fish that did not hang around very long, we did not see any. But the trout were really on.

I don’t know how many they caught. It was a lot. Most were caught on DOA Shrimp, but at the end of the day we found a hole full of trout and short reds and they used live shrimp there. All of the reds and many of the trout were short, but eight trout were in the slot and two were over 20 inches. It was a wonderful day.

 

On Tuesday Mike Webber, his girlfriend Judy Votta, and his friend Mike from New Orleans joined me for a day’s fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. It was cloudy and windy, not nice at all, although in the afternoon the sun finally broke through.

It was almost a repeat of the previous day. The DOA Shrimp produced a lot of trout, some short, some in the slot. Live shrimp produced a few more, and some short reds. The one slot red they got came on a mullet chunk.

seatrout Mosquito lagoon

Judy had the hot rod all day long.

The sun finally came out. It turned out to be a lovely day.

 

Wednesday Father Rick Voor and his long-time friend Steve joined me for some kayak fishing, launching at River Breeze. It was a search mission, as I hadn’t been there in weeks.

The weather was awesome, the water was low, and conditions were great. We did not see any fish for about an hour. Then we found a school of reds in a large white hole.

Father Rick had never caught a red on a lure before. Steve had never caught a red at all. They got quite a few- most on the DOA Shrimp, one on a Johnson Minnow. With the exception of a couple shorts, all were in the slot. It was a blessed day.

steve's first redfish

steve's first redfish

father ricks's doa redfish

redfish doa

This redfish wanted the DOA Shrimp.

 

Thursday son Maxx and I launched the Mitzi at Port Canaveral. Winds were SW at close to 15, almost at the limits of the Mitzi’s ability to handle on the open ocean. But there were no clouds at first.

We ran down to Satellite Beach, then went out a couple miles and started to idle back. Close to two uneventful hours passed before Maxx said, “There’s a fish!” He fired a jig out towards it and the fish was all over it. It was close to 20 pounds.

cobia

Maxx's first cobia in quite a while...

That gave us more confidence, although another long lull followed. Then I spotted a tripletail. I fired a live shrimp out in front of it. How could it say no? It was around five or six pounds.

tripletail

The tripletail- lover of shrimp.

A while later I spotted a cobia, coming in fast. He ate the jig but in spite of my striking him three times he came right off.

A while later Maxx spotted another cobia. He followed, but did not eat, the jig. I tossed a live shrimp and he was all over it. We released that one.

We bagged it shortly after that, but ran another cobia over on the way back. The boat was back on the trailer before 2 PM.

Saturday 10 fine folks attended the Show and Tell seminar. We drove all  around the Merritt Island NWR and talked fishing at every stop. We didn’t finish until almost 6PM. Great group of guys, great day.

The weather blew out Sunday’s on the water show and tell. We will hold it next week instead.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon and Port Canaveral 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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