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Orlando Fishing Report

October 26, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Orlando Fishing Report

orlando fishing report

Hurricane Sandy, doing her thing.

This will be a stinky Orlando fishing report. I did not fish this week. Not once.

No work and windy, rainy weather kept me away. We had a near miss with a hurricane. It adversely affected our weather.

Monday found me bike riding through the nearby state forest. I had not ridden in the woods for a couple years. It’s still a lot of fun. Even though I peddled close to ten miles I was not sore the next day, a good thing.

Tuesday I ran on the Florida Trail. No photos this time. The spiders are still there. Saw quite a few whitetails.

Wednesday my bride needed a medical scan of some kind. I was her driver. Blessedly, the results were normal. 🙂

Thursday found me running along the Econ in the state forest. It was a little wet but otherwise a wonderful couple hours.

Friday found me running on the Florida Trail. The trees were rocking in the breeze but it was like a sauna near the ground. There are lots of brand new blowdowns. I hope the storm brings some cooler temperatures.

The minutia of day-to-day existence took up most of the rest of my time.

I will be fishing quite a bit during the week upcoming. I promise to have some photos.

Hopefully it’s obvious to all fishermen along Florida’s east coast that when the weather settles the fish will have moved.

Don’t forget to VOTE!

And that is this week’s Orlando 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

October 20, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Upcoming Events-
-Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 27. Click here for more information/registration
-Mosquito Lagoon On-The-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 28. Click here for more information/registration

Blog Posts This Week-
 -My Views on Politics
-A Short Walk in the Woods
-Tiny Tarpon (guest blog by Paul MacInnis)

Bumper Sticker of the Week-

Fishing was a tailingfest this week.

Tailing Redfish Mosquito Lagoon

It was tailingfest this week.

Sunday night Chris Myers emailed me, asking me if I wanted to fish with him on Monday. So Monday morning found me in Chris Myers’ boat. We went down to the south end of the Mosquito Lagoon. There was nothing there.

Chris Myers. searching for fish.

Then he took me to where he’d been fishing as of late. There were redfish tailing everywhere. I was not particularly competent, but managed to get three fish on a small grizzly Seaducer.

I poled Chris for a while. He got three fish bang-bang-bang. Much more efficient than I he was.

The weather was incredible and I really enjoyed the day. Thank you, Chris.

Wednesday Tammy Wilson and I launched kayaks at River Breeze. It was overcast but there was no wind. We got to the first fishing spot and there were redfish tailing everywhere. I even got pictures.

Mosquito Lagoon Redfish

Tammy with one of several redfish she fooled.

Between us we got about a dozen fish. Tammy was using a small green and yellow Clouser Minnow, I a black and green one. Two of the fish were trout that ate when we threw to tailing reds. What’s up with that?

I got the last three fish I threw to, making me think that maybe I was getting my groove back.

We didn’t see many fish at all in any of the other spots we checked.

Thursday brothers Eric and Ian Rauch joined me for some fly fishing on the Mosquito Lagoon. We launched at River Breeze and went right to where Tammy and I fished the day before.

It wasn’t quite as good. But there certainly were tailing fish there, and they managed to get five between them. There were lost fish, missed strikes, and refusals, too.

This was the first redfish Eric had ever caught.

We checked several other spots. Some were barren, others held a few fish. But we did not see any more tailers once the first spot slowed down.

Friday the wind was forecast to be 5 to 10 out of the west. Scott Radloff and I launched at Port Canaveral, hoping to find tarpon or other exciting fishies.

We ran south all the way to Patrick AFB. We saw absolutely nothing. At Patick I turned left and ran out three or four miles, hoping to find some flotsam, diving birds, whatever. We looked around an anchored tanker. We looked around the mackerel net boats, all the way north to the buoy off Cape Canaveral. We saw exactly one tiny tripletail, nothing else.

We headed in to the beach to look around the Canaveral Shoal. Near the beach I saw a tarpon roll. We anchored the boat and started fishing.

There was a load of fish there. Jack crevalle, ladyfish, and bluefish were mostly what we got, on finger mullet, jigs, and Gotchyas. I also got a croaker and a nice Spanish mackerel, which we ate for supper Friday night. We saw a couple more tarpon, but they were scarce and widely scattered- no bites there, sadly.

SpanishMackerel

Scott shows off a nice, and delicious, Spanish mackerel.

And that is this week’s 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Area Saltwater Fishing Report

October 6, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Upcoming Events

Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 27. Click here for more information/registration.

Mosquito Lagoon On-The-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 28. Click here for more information/registration.

While on YouTube looking at music I typed my name in out of curiosity. To my surprise a 37 second piece featuring my photos popped up. You can see the piece here…

 

Fishing-

-Monday found Jim Manual and his friend Zack out in the Mitzi with me, on the Mosquito Lagoon for a morning’s fishing. Fishing was not great, but we did manage a couple redfish and a few trout. The water has so much loose grass in it that about the only lures you can use effectively are jerk baits. DOA’s Deadly Combo works well for trout in the deeper areas.

I ran down to the south end of the lagoon after I dropped them off. It was very nasty on the east side, a dirty, brown mess. No need to go down there for a while.

-Wednesday Howard and Hodges Haycock (some good alliteration there!) joined me for a six-hour trip on the Mosquito Lagoon. Fishing was good, with a solid bite from both seatrout and redfish. Although all the reds were in the slot, they were all at the lower end. The trout ranged from 10 inches to over 24. All but two fish were caught on either jerk baits or a DOA Shrimp. We got about 20 or so fish altogether, a solid outing.

-Thursday Tammy and I launched at Port Canaveral. First thing that happened was a rocket went up! It was mostly downhill after that.

Rocket Launch, Port Canaveral

The rocket launch was the highlight of the day.

We couldn’t get past the jetties because the ocean was too rough. I spent some time catching mullet. Our next idea was to go through the locks and fish the Banana River Lagoon.
Wrong.
The locks are under repair and only open every two hours. We had just missed the last opening, so a two hour wait was needed. We pulled the boat and went to the Indian River Lagoon.
We looked in several places in the IRL. The fish were fairly scarce. Tammy had one good hit from what I think was a redfish that nailed a DOA Shrimp. The fish came off and that was it for the day as far as catching fish went.

-Friday Dave Carlson and his son-in-law Marshall joined me for a morning’s fishing. Dave wanted to fly fish for redfish. I went to where we had gotten all the fish on Wednesday. Most of them had gone. We had a couple shots in a couple hours and no conversions.
We went into the Indian River Lagoon to a spot I had been finding fish. There were many fewer there than last time. Again, only a few shots resulted and again, there were no conversions.
Marshall got a couple dink trout on a jerkbait and that was it. The boat was on the trailer at about 1 PM. It was a pretty tough day.

And that is this week’s Orlando area saltwater fishing report. I hope it’s better next week!

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

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

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, Indian River Lagoon, and Goodnews River Fishing Report

June 26, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Monday- Rodney Smith joined me for some scouting in the Mosquito Lagoon. A “hot tip” had been had about fish in the Glory Hole. The tip proved unfounded, although Rodney did get a nice trout there on a Chug Bug.

We found a school of fish at another spot, big reds, about 100 of them. Rodney tossed a faux crab at them. I would like to report that the fish eagerly gobbled the fly but that, sadly, would be untrue. They fled like scalded dogs. We got exactly none.

I got a few trout on a DOA Shrimp at another spot and exactly nothing at the final spot we checked. The Mitzi was cradled at noon.

Tuesday- Dr. Patrick Campbell, intrepid fly caster from the great state of Ohio, joined me for some fly fishing. It was windy, 15+ out of the east, and quite cloudy most of the day.

Of course we started where the big reds had been the previous day. And of course they weren’t there. “Ya shoulda been here Yesterday!”

We fished the shoreline near Vann’s Island. Patrick got a small slot red on a slider.

I soon put the boat on the trailer, relaunching at Parrish Park. We fished for a couple of miles along the east side of the Indian River Lagoon. It was hard to see, although slot redfish were present in fair numbers. Many fish were flushed by the boat, a few were harassed with casts, and one succumbed to a Son of Clouser that Patrick dropped right on his face with a cast that was all of 12 feet or so.

It was a tough day that Patrick took with good grace. Nice guy, that Patrick. Hope he comes back.

Wednesday- the first day of summer, AND the dreaded flight to Alaska via US Air, through Phoenix. Left Orlando at 530 PM. Got to Anchorage at 1230 AM Thursday, and had four hours time change. Crashed in the airport, had a rotten night.

Thursday- 640 AM Alaska Air flight to Bethel, then a layover and a Yute flight on a Cessna to Goodnews. Getting to the Goodnews River Lodge is not the most fun part of my summer. Was in the lodge at about 1 PM

The Lodge presented many of the usual suspects and a cast of new characters. In many ways it was good to be back, it was certainly good to re-unite with son Alex. But I already miss Susan.

Spent the afternoon unpacking and cleaning, settling in. And of course anticipating wetting a line in that most fabulous of rivers, the Goodnews.

Friday- Alaska has outlawed the use of felt-soled waders in its waters. Goodnews River Lodge has about 30 pairs of said waders. G and I spent Friday morning pulling felt soles off of boots, a sad and ridiculous task.

Alex, Taylor the cook, and I got out on the water for a couple hours of plug pulling in the afternoon. Not many king salmon are coming into the river yet. We did not get a bite.

Saturday- The Hunt Brothers, Chuck and Tom, joined me for an excursion up the Goodnews to Barnum Creek. They had been there a week earlier and done well on grayling and rainbow trout. I was looking forward to seeing both.

Rainbow Trout, Goodnews River, Alaska
Tout fisher extraordinaire Chuck Hunt with a beautiful rainbow trout.

Alas, it was not to be, as they did not catch a grayling. The trout bite, however, was pretty darn good and both of them got fish in the 24 inch range, solid, fat, beautiful leopard rainbows, using black streamers. It was a wonderful morning. We were back at camp by 2 PM to help with the many chores still needing completion before camp opens for guests on Wednesday.

Rainbow Trout, Goodnews River, Alaska
Tom Hunt got this fine ‘bow.

And that is this week’s Mosquito Lagoon, Indian River Lagoon, and Goodnews River Fishing Report. All reports until mid-September will be from the Goodnews River.

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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Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

June 9, 2012 by · 2 Comments

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6.9.12

On Sunday, friend and neighbor Karl Dienst joined me for a quick strike. We launched at Kennedy Point at 6 AM. We got to the fishing spot and no one else was there! Amazing.

The fish were not as thick as they were. We did not see a redfish. Karl got several nice trout on a white plastic worm, the kind you use for largemouth bass. I got a few on the Bait Buster. We also got a few nice ladyfish. Still looking for tarpon, still haven’t seen any.

Seatrout on DOA Bait Buster

The Bait Buster is a great lure for any mullet-eating fish.

The boat was on the trailer at 10AM.

Monday I went solo, launching at Marina Park. Got a couple trout and ladyfish on a Chug Bug, but it was slow. Saw one pod of redfish that would not let me near them. Switched to a Bait Buster and got a couple more trout.

I ran around much of Turnbull Basin and didn’t see much. On an ominous note, the nasty water we had last summer is showing itself again- found one large spot of dirty water on the west side south of the safety zone, and a big chunk of filthy water around Duckroost Cove.

After going to another spot I went wading, got four slot redfish on a black Clouser Minnow, quite satisfying.

Monday afternoon Sue and I brought son Alex to the airport, sending him off to Goodnews. It’s that time of year.

Tuesday morning Scott Radloff and I launched the Mitzi at Lee Wenner Park. It was overcast and windy, coming out of the west.

Scott got a small red on a Gulp on this third cast.

We got a nice trout on a DOA Shrimp in the next hour. It was too slow and visibility was not that great, so we put the boat on the trailer and went to Kelly Park, launching into the Banana River Lagoon.

I had gotten good reports about the BRL but we fished until 2 PM and got one trout that Scott convinced to take a Chug Bug. Not a lot of seagrass there any more.

Wednesday fly caster Darrin Prestangen met me at Marina Park. It was overcast and windy, terrible fly fishing conditions. Darrin, used to blind-casting in the streams of Colorado, blind-cast all morning. We did not get a fish. We did get rained on. We did see another boat pull in a 30 pound class redfish on the northwest side of the railroad trestle.

In the afternoon we went to where I had gotten the four reds a few days earlier. It was still very hard to see, but Darrin managed to sight-fish his first ever redfish (a small one) and a 20 inch seatrout, both on sliders.
The boat was on the trailer at 3 PM.

seatrout, indian river lagoon

Darrin's first saltwater fish was this nice trout.

Thursday I did honey-dos. The weather was awful. It was a good day to stay home.

Friday Darrin joined me again, his last hurrah for this trip. We launched at Parrish Park. It was overcast but the wind was light.

We saw one tailing fish at the first spot, at which we did not get a shot. It did not tail very long.

We found a small school of fish at the second spot. We found them by running them over. There was a stampede.

We ran over several singles too. There were fish there but between the clouds and the dark bottom we could not see them at all.

We went back to the place where Darrin had caught his two fish the previous trip.

In a stunning turn of events there were more fish there than the previous day. Darrin got two reds and a fine black mullet on the estaz crabby thing fly. The fly goes into commercial production tomorrow! The reds at this spot run small, but at least we could sight fish.

mullet on fly

Mullet, on fly!

 

mullet on fly close up

The fly goes on sale tomorrow!

 

We went to another, similar spot and there were even more reds. Again, they were small, about 20 inch fish, but he got four more on a Son of Clouser. There were many refusals and blown shots. In spite of the clouds fishing was actually quite good. If the fish had been bigger I would have said it was excellent. At any rate we had a great time.

redfish, son of clouser

This red (and several others) fell for the Son of Clouser.

redfish, indian river lagoon

Although the fish ran small, at least we could sight fish.

redfish tail featuring spots

The double spotted tail...

The boat was on the trailer at 3 PM.

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

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

June 2, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Banana River Lagoon Fishing Report

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6.2.12

You may have heard about the proposed Pebble Mine. If not, the idea is to have a huge open pit mine, the world’s biggest, in southwest Alaska. Great idea, unless you care about trout and salmon.
This link-  http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/262141/1a1f348b3c/1774503119/dd14000b65/
-contains other links and a call for action. With a pre-written letter you can express your opinion about the mine idea to the president, the head of the EPA, your Congressman and senators, etc.

south fork Goodnews River

Imagine this as a big open pit mine. Not much fishing would be going on any more.

Salmon used to be a common fish along both coasts of North America. Now all that’s left is a tiny remnant. Please help preserve that for posterity.

Fishing this week, ah yes. A lady named Beryl came to town early in the week and dumped on us for a couple of days. I was going to go fishing on Wednesday but a minor domestic problem prevented anything more than a trip to the Econ.

In last week’s report I asked about bass flies. While no responses came in, I have been doing some research and tied up a few flies based on that. I went to the Econ hoping to test them.

Beryl came to town. The Econ was up considerably, almost not fishable for a wading angler, especially one with a fly rod. But I found a couple of places where it was feasible.

I actually got two bites. On the second I watched the bass take the fly. I missed them both.

Two bites may not sound like much, but I’ve never gotten a bass to hit a fly there. So progress is being made. I know I’ll never figure it out, because it is fishing. But when I get a handle on it a full report will be filed. It may take a while- it’s rained some more.

Tom Van Horn picked me up at 5 AM Thursday morning. We loaded two kayaks into the bed of his truck and headed to the Banana River Lagoon. He had gotten some glowing reports and we were optimistic about our chances.

A light breeze from the southwest greeted us at the launch. The sun was just clearing the trees as we paddled to the first spot. I had tied on a Floozy popper, since the water there was up, and not terribly clean at that first place.

Second cast- Wham! Twenty-four inch trout. Good way to start the day. Fourth cast- Wham! Twenty-three inch trout. It tore the Floozy apart. Another was tied on, but it was the last one in the box.

I quickly lost track of how many casts were made or bites were had, but it was smoking hot for a while. Then it cooled down. It always does. Not to worry, we went somewhere else.

Seatrout-on-fly, banana river lagoon

The trout tore the Floozy apart.

Tom was tossing a surface plug and had three nice trout before I could get organized. The Floozy soon started popping though and the fish were all over it. They soon tore it apart.

seatrout, banana river lagoon

After Tom lost this plug he used a Bait Buster. The fish didn't care.

I switched to a Hot Head. The trout like it just fine.

Hot Head flies

The Hot Heads worked well, too.

The strikes were jolting. The tippet was too light. Only two Hot Heads were in the fly bag and I lost both of them. I had one Electric Sushi and lost that too.

In the meantime Tom had lost his plug and had switched to a DOA Bait Buster. The fish didn’t seem to mind.

I stopped fishing and made up a 15 pound tippet. That stopped the bleeding.

The bite slowed as the sun climbed. Since the wind was light and visibility was excellent we went looking for big redfish. Sadly, we did not find any at all.

We did find some slot reds. Using a black Clouser Minnow I got five or six, as well as some more trout.

The boats were back in the truck at 2:30. It was a hell of a day.

In general, the trout bite in the lagoons right now is as good as I have ever seen it for a sustained period. It’s been smoking hot for several months and shows no sign of slowing. And the fish are running a large average size, 20 inches or so. Get out and enjoy it- it’s sure to slow down!

That is this week’s 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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Indian River Lagoon and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

May 25, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5.26.12

Sunday found fly fisherman Bill Schell (from Washington state) and I floating around in the Mitzi on the Mosquito Lagoon. The sky was unmarred by any clouds at all- pretty rare for this time of year.

Bill could cast. For fly guides that’s usually the kiss of death. As a general rule, good caster = no fish. And so it seemed at the first spot, that I had just scouted three days earlier. Absolutely nothing there.

Hit spot #2 on a whim. There were some big trout there and Bill had one hit his sexyfly, but it came unbuttoned. No more bites, off the the next place.

Remarkably enough, the next place had quite a few fish, both nice trout and reds. And Bill managed to get one of each. Not great, but so many more than none. Then the east wind came up and although we kept fishing, the fishing had ended.

 

mosquito lagoon redfish on fly

Bill's first Mosquito Lagoon redfish.

Monday found fly fisherman Bill Schell and I floating around in the Mitzi on the Mosquito Lagoon. Wind was light out of the south, just perfect. Again, no clouds. Someone must be living right.

We went straight to the third spot from Sunday. He had to blind cast at first since the sun was too low to penetrate the water. It’s not like the fish cooperated by tailing or anything.

He hooked and lost a trout, then caught a redfish and another trout by casting blindly with a PolarFibre Minnow.

Mosquito Lagoon seatrout on fly

Bill got a couple of trout like this one.

Pass number two we tried a slider. Again, one trout, one redfish by blind casting. We were starting to be able to see but all the shots were in close and none worked.

Pass number three we could see well. Casts to redfish made with the slider were studiously ignored. Out came a crab pattern. The first fish he threw it to took it, as did the second. Then a couple refusals happened before a last fish took it.

Mosquito Lagoon redfish on a crab fly

The crab fly produced Bill's best fish- and at the end, how it should be.

Again, the east wind ended it for us, but it had been a good morning.

 

Wednesday I went to the Econlockhatchee for a couple of hours. A weird thing happened. I saw quite a few bass and became interested in trying to catch one. They ignored my bluegill bug, and would inspect but not eat the streamers I tried. If anyone has any good patterns for catching bass in the Econ, would you please share one with me?

Sunfishing was slow- only got a few modest redbellies.

 

Thursday Scott Radloff and I went to the Indian River Lagoon. Unlike me, Scott is a Gulp fan. He got a redfish on one within five minutes of my shutting the motor off. He would get another a few minutes later.

I hooked and lost three nice trout on a Chug Bug.

We saw a lot of both trout and redfish that wouldn’t look at our offerings. Literally. They would see them and either turn around or make a wide circle around them.

We saw a lot of fish but ended up catching one nice trout, two slot reds, and a couple of ladyfish.

 

John Riggle joined me on Friday. We again fished in the Indian River Lagoon. The weather was spectacular, with a very light breeze from the north.

John started the morning tossing a Chug Bug. A slot redfish was his first victim, followed by trout after trout. The constant bites on the surface plug were wonderful to see.

 

spotted seatrout, indian river lagoon

One of many trout caught by John Riggle on Friday.

I was able to set the skiff on an easy drift, parallel to the shoreline, and fish a little myself. Tossing a DOA Bait Buster I got a slot red and several trout too.

We caught at least a dozen trout. The smallest was 17 inches, the largest 23. Five or six reds were caught too. There were a lot of missed strikes.

Once the wind cranked up, about 10 AM, the bite slowed way down. The boat was on the trailer about noontime.

 

That is this week’s Indian River Lagoon 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 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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

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