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Blown Out Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 27, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

Blown Out Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Gee, did the wind blow this week? Every day, most days around 20 mph. We have the Blown Out Mosquito Lagoon fishing report.

Upcoming Events- Lots of ’em!
– 2/28-3/5 Wekiva Paint Out. Thirty nationally-renowned artists come here and paint our beautiful scenery for one week. They start painting on Monday, February 29th and continue through Saturday, March 5th.  The event culminates with a Gala at Wekiva Island, an event not to be missed! http://keepseminole.org/event/wekiva-paint-out/

– Ocala Outdoor Expo, 3/5 and 3/6. http://www.ocalaexpo.com/

– Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 5. http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/
No one has signed up yet!

– Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 6. http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/ -One space left in the morning session.

State Forest Update-
Two weeks ago I wrote, “I wrote letters to the manager of the state forest and the commissioner of agriculture. We’ll see what they say.” I got an answer. It’s been scanned and can be seen at this link…http://www.spottedtail.com/blog/state-forest-letter/

Fishing!
The plan for Monday was to visit the Banana River Lagoon. Tom Van Horn went Sunday. His report of nasty, dirty water and hard-to-find fish saved me the trip.

Tuesday John and Sue Burns joined me for a day’s fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. Yes, it was blowing. The sun kept peeking out from between the clouds. Fishing was not fabulous, and the nasty water moved into areas that had been clean last week. Damn algae.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Sue holds John’s trout. She’s a better model!

 

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Photographing the fishie.

John got a slot trout on a DOA Shrimp, and a nice four-pounder class fish on the RipTide Weedless Shrimp. We got several small fish on the Deadly Combo. Sue finally got a slot redfish on a DOA CAL Shad, three inch. And that was it for the day.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Sue wanted a red, and got this one.

Postponed Thursday’s trip to next week, the second time in two week’s that trip has been bounced.

Friday I got new tires for the trailer, then went to the St. Johns for some shad fishing. Bluebird sky, winds 10-15 from the north. Fly fishers, you’ll need a sinking line. The water is high, almost flooding the pastures. Two boats with fly fishers took six fish that I saw. I got three shad in four hours, using 1/16th ounce crappie jigs with one inch curly tails.

Saturday my bride brought me to the Florida Gourding Society’s Gourd Festival in Melbourne. It may sound worse than a trip to dentist, but actually it was quite fascinating, with lots of beautiful work. My shaky photos do not do it justice.

DSCN1427

Maybe I’m getting old, but it was a very worthwhile thing to do.

DSCN1428

Not a great week, but better than no cheese.

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 2016. All rights are reserved.

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

Not Covered Up With Fish Orlando Fishing Report

March 28, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

Not Covered Up With Fish Orlando Fishing Report

I can’t say we were covered up in fish this week.

Last Saturday Mr. Mike Conneen and I went looking for cobia and tripletail out of Port Canaveral. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty darn nice. We went down to Patrick AFB and back up to the cape. We saw one fish that I could not clearly identify. Mike saw it and said it was a cobia. We saw one tripletail. I put a live shrimp on his nose and he ignored it. I got a two pound jack off the cape. That was it, for eight hours invested.

Back at the dock the FWC girl was doing creel survey. She told me 75 percent of the boats coming in had not caught anything at all. “It’s a virtual biological de-sert!”

Orlando Fishing Report

Roland with his best trout.

Monday Mr. Roland Gerencer and his eight-year old son Roland joined me on Mosquito Lagoon for a half day. The goal was to keep the boy entertained. It was cloudy and windy with intermittent drizzle. We had to work at it, using DOA Deadly Combos, of course. We got a few small trout and a ladyfish. The young man was happy.

Tuesday I went to the Banana River Lagoon, which I had been wanting to do. When I got there the lagoon was white-capping below a low ceiling of clouds. I said no. There was a spot on the Indian River Lagoon I had been wanting to check, so I drove up to the Merritt Island NWR. The Haulover Canal bridge was closed so I could not get over it. I gave up and went home.

Wednesday the famous horse veterinarian Dr. Mark Cheney joined me for a day’s fly fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. We literally were in fog most of the day, terrible visibility. Somehow we saw a few fish but did not get a single shot until on the way in I spotted a tripletail on a crab buoy. Mark made a good cast and the fish just sank out of sight. The skunking was pretty thorough.

orlando fishing report

A crappie, on a crappie jig. We get the shad on these, too.

Thursday Warren Wnek and Mark Soley saw some shad action on the St. Johns River with both shad and crappie, getting a couple dozen fish using both fly and spin tackle. Doubles, even! Steve Baker, your shad flies were the ticket!

orlando fishing report

Warren, angler-at-large. The lure is a Pixie spoon.

Saturday the wind was pushing good out of the northwest and a front had dropped the morning temperature to about 60 degrees. That first ride with John Iufrate and his friend John was chilly! Using DOA’s Deadly combo they got a couple dozen trout to 20 inches and a couple redfish, one shown in the photo. It was a decent if unspectacular day, catch-wise.

orlando fishing report

John holds John’s redfish.

And that is this week’s Not Covered Up With Fish Orlando Fishing Report from Spotted Tail.

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 2015. All rights are reserved.

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St. Johns River Shad Fishing Report

February 28, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

St. Johns River Shad Fishing Report

I've been getting ready for salmon fishing.

I’ve been getting ready for salmon fishing.

Upcoming Events

Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar March 14
Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar March 15

Sunday I went solo, in the Bang-O-Craft, scouting on the St. Johns River. Since the CS Lee ramp is closed I used the one at SR 50. All I found was a single shad, not very encouraging. But I saw Brian Eastman out there, and Mark Thomas, and Dave Lear, and Mark Benson. So the excursion was hardly a waste, quite the opposite. It was good to see all those guys. It had been years since I saw MT and Dave.

Monday Mr. Joe Xu of Beijing was my fisherman for a St. Johns shad trip. After Sunday I had my doubts, but we hit them right away, using small crappie jigs and the 1/8th ounce Pixie. After getting more than a dozen we went catfishing. What I don’t know about catfishing would fill lots of books, but Joe managed to get a six pound channel cat and a big bluegill, too. We also hooked and lost another catfish. Fishing was very good, and the day was gorgeous.

st. johns river shad fishing report

Mr. Xu, proud owner of a six pound channel cat.

Tuesday long-time friend Rodney Smith met me at the St. Johns boat ramp and we went off shad fishing in the Bang-O-Craft. Again, we hit them right away. After a dozen or so we tried catfishing for almost two hours with but a bullhead to show for our efforts. So we went back to shad fishing for our last half hour and got five or six more. I even got a double. So the shad are still a going concern.

st. johns river shad fishing report

Rockin’ Rodney with a St. Johns River American shad.

Friday I had an afternoon half day booked with Joel Sanders and his buddy Dave. It was about 55 degrees when they showed up. The flags were snapping and the lagoon looked like a washing machine. Dave was wearing shorts. Since he had just got here from Maine he said it felt like a heat wave. It did not feel like a heat wave to me- I was freezing.

Since the weather was obvious when I left home I had brought the shad tackle and suggested that we shad fish instead of trying the lagoon. They opined that might be a good idea so we did.

The fish were biting. It was not spectacular but it was very steady. We were using 1/16th ounce crapping jigs with tiny twisty tails in hot pink and chartreuse. We probably got close to 20 in just under four hours.

Son Alex wants to go today. The weather is again looking pretty iffy so I guess we’ll see…

And that is this week’s St. John’s River shad fishing report from Spotted Tail.

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 2015. All rights are reserved.

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St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 15, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

St. John River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report 21514

Upcoming Events-

-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. johns river and mosquito lagoon fishing report

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

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

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

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

mosquito lagoon redfish

This fish took a slider.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that is this week’s St. Johns River and Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short. Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2014. All rights are reserved.

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The First 2014 St. Johns River Fishing Report

January 4, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

The First 2014 St. Johns River Fishing Report

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

Tuesday afternoon the kayak and I went to the St. Johns for a little over three hours, launching at CS Lee Park, where the Jolly Gator is. I had four bites and landed two shad. Pretty slow fishing.

Thursday afternoon son Alex, John Napolitano, and I went back in the Mitzi. We timed it so that we would be there right when the front came through, so we were there less than an hour. In that time we got one shad, one blue gill, one redbelly, and one crappie. I hooked and lost another speck. All fish were caught on crappie jigs or Creme Spoiler Shad, great lures for this kind of fishing.

St. Johns River Fishing Report

John Napolitano with his first shad of 2014.

St. Johns River Fishing Report

John got this fat redbelly too.

This crappie was fooled by a Creme Spoiler Shad 1.5".

This crappie was fooled by a Creme Spoiler Shad 1.5″.

The front was a strong one, with high winds and brief but heavy rain. The run back to the ramp was short but entertaining.

The photos from the Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure are posted at http://johnkumiski.com/portfolio/2013-indian-river-lagoon-paddle-adventure/

I drove to Miami and back yesterday. Came back with Bob Stearns’s Maverick Mirage HPX-T. I believe I will take it out for a spin today.

The first Florida Clean Water Rally is coming up-

clean water rally

And that is the extent of 2014s First St. Johns River 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 2013. All rights are reserved.

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Orlando Shad Fishing- Orlando area fishing report 2/5/11

February 5, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The Report from Spotted Tail 2/5/11

Upcoming Events

February 22- I’ll be speaking to the Florida Fly Fishing Association in Cocoa.

March 5- MINWR Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details.

March 6- Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar. See this link for details.

*******************************************

Every day this week saw me on or in the water. Fishing wasn’t very good.

Monday I went scouting on the Mosquito Lagoon in the Mitzi. It was mostly sunny and at first there was no wind. I saw that and headed straight to a big fish spot.

They were there, finning out and tailing sporadically. I donned waders and stalked them on foot. I had two superb casts with a crab fly, casts I was sure would work. Neither did. The fish moved off and rather than use a lot of time on them on a scouting day I went scouting.

I did not see much else.

There were five boats at the south end of Tiger Shoal. I could see one chasing some fish around, but didn’t see anyone hook up. I poled the entire way across the flat. All I saw were tailing mergansers, nothing with fins.

I ended up with a small black drum taken on a Son of Clouser and several marginal sized seatrout on a chartreuse DOA Shrimp.

Tuesday afternoon I went to the St. Johns River to try for shad. I walked up to the Econ and started fishing. My six-weight had a floating line. I got one crappie and hooked and lost one other fish.

I hitched a ride back down the river with Bill Mieli. Bill, using a #3 sinktip line and a pair of flies, had gotten nine shad. Ah-HA!

Wednesday David Cushman, a fly caster from Virginia, and his brother-in-law Clark, joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. It was cloudy and breezy. I was hoping for better luck than on Monday, but no such luck. We scoured the south end of the lagoon and most fish that we saw we saw as they fled. We just couldn’t see them. Not that there were many around. It was very thin, numbers-wise.

Clark tossed various spinning lures all day without a strike, and David did no better. He really had only one legitimate shot all day. We were victims of a good, old-fashioned skunking.

Thursday afternoon found me back at the St. Johns, this time with a sink-tip. When I got there Tom Van Horn was there already. We fished together for about three hours. Total tally- two bluegills, one shad. We talked to a guy who had been fly fishing up by the Econ. It was slow up there too.

Friday I went back to the St. Johns. The fish come up the river in waves. If you hit the wave you do very well. Between waves there’s not much going on. Some years the waves come one after another and other years there are days between waves. I figured if I kept trying it I was bound to hit one of those waves.

When I got there Ron Presley and Paul McGinnis were staging Ron’s boat for launch. I hitched a ride with them up the Econ a ways, then hopped out and fished my way back to the SR 46 bridge.

Ron and Paul tossed tandem rigs with Tiny TerrorEyz from DOA. They got seven shad between them. I was throwing a chartreuse shad fly. I got one bluegill, one redbelly, one crappie, and one shad. I passed several other fly casters along the way and none of them was doing much.

I like the stretch of river between SR 46 and the Econ because you don’t need a boat to fish it. But Thursday and Friday at least there were no waves of fish there. You could get one or two but you’d better be prepared to work for them.

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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