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

Orlando Area Fishing Report

February 1, 2014 by · 4 Comments

Orlando Area Fishing Report 2114

Upcoming Events-
-Floridians for Clean Water Rally in Tallahassee, February 18

orlando area fishing report

-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…

 

What a week. I started working on an ark after the fourth day of rain, but the sun actually shone for a few minutes today.

Last Sunday Tammy Wilson and I went to the St. Johns River in the Mirage to fish for shad. There were lots of boats out there. We saw some folks we knew. They both said the same thing- the bite was good this morning, but it slowed down. Since we were already there we fished.

It wasn’t hot but it was steady. With spin tackle we got them with little crappie jigs and Creme’s Spoiler Shad, and with fly tackle on a chartreuse and silver shad fly. We probably got 15 or so in three hours, and a couple of crappie besides. Nice enough day!

orlando area fishing report

This is the fly I’ve ben using for shad.

Monday morning I drove through the rain to meet my fisherman, the Rev. Del Schomberg, a fly fisher from Oregon. He had never fished in Mosquito Lagoon and was hoping to catch a redfish.

It was raining lightly as we idled out of Haulover Canal. It started to rain harder as I ran to spot number one. Running in the rain is not my idea of fun so we stopped at an alternate spot.

It was loaded with seatrout.

Del got a couple fat slot fish by blind casting a slider before the rain stopped. At that point he said he’d still like to try for reds so we went hunting.

orlando area fishing report

This is a trout caught on a slider.

They were not where they had been.

We looked in a variety of other spots. Some had fish, some didn’t, but nowhere were they thick. All the clouds made it hard to see. The best shots we had came when I found aboput a dozen tailing fish scattered over a 100 yard stretch of flat. We did not convert.

We found a school of about 30 fish that started moving almost as soon as I spotted them- no shot.

We found a bunch of fish in potholes. Blindcasting into the holes did not work, and sight fishing to fish we could see in the holes did not work either.

We ended up with the two trout and nothing else. At least it turned into a nice day.

It rained quite hard every day the rest of the week. I kept myself busy by adding some new articles to my website, tying flies, wrapping new guides on rods, trying to organize my tackle, and that sort of thing.

orlando area fishing repot

My tying was out of my comfort zone this week.

Instructions for how to tie this fly can be found here…

I am ready to do some fishing this week, I’ll tell you that!

And 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 2014. All rights are reserved.

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

The Last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

December 30, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

The Last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

A happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to all. If I may be so bold as to suggest a a couple resolutions, resolve to get outdoors more often, and to have more respect for man and nature.

Blog Posts this Week:
–Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Portable Toilet- A Review
–Brothers, a guest blog by Darryl Benton
–Indian River Lagoon Paddle Adventure Epiblogue

This is the time of year to do inventories. Actually, they should already be done. Then you could have added what you need to your Christmas list. The paddle adventure set me back, though.

Inventories needed to be done around Kumiski’s stuff include:
-fly-tying materials, including hooks;
-flies;
-leader material;
-line, including fly lines;
-conventional lures and hooks;
-rods and reels.
Inventory your fishing gear, get what you need, and be ready for the new year.

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

OK, fishing. Got some done this week.

Last Saturday (12/21) son Maxx needed a fish to take to someone’s house for Christmas dinner. We went to Mosquito Lagoon. I did not know what to expect.

We found a few tailing fish right away. I got one on a DOA CAL shad tail.

We looked in several spots without seeing anything alive. Then we found a place where there we saw a few fish. After anchoring the boat we were pleasantly surprised to see the reds swimming all around us. Maxx got a couple by sight fishing with mullet chunks and I got another on a DOA CAL jig. Mission accomplished, we put the Mitzi on the trailer and went home.

Sunday Dr. Todd Preuss, a long-time and favorite angler of mine (“Where did you get this brain?”), joined me for a day’s fly fishing on the lagoon. The weather was pretty nice and the tailers were there again. Sadly, we did not convert what turned out to be our best chance of the day. We covered water from Haulover Canal to Eldora. While we saw fish here and there, nothing was strong. Our shots were fleeting and none were converted. Todd never had a strike. Merry Christmas.

On Monday Jesse Hill, a fly caster from Colorado, joined me out of River Breeze for some fly fishing by canoe. It was a little breezy but the sun was shining.

I poled the canoe a long way. We did not see many fish.

We came to a junction. I wanted to go right but there was a boat down there already, so I went left. We came to a big white spot in the grass and anchored the boat. The plan was to wade and blind cast.

I got two dink redfish, then cast my fly to Jesse. He cut it off and tied it onto his leader. A few minutes later he had his first-ever saltwater fish, a seatrout. He ended up getting three trout, including a decent slot fish, and a couple redfish besides. Hardly hot fishing but it certainly beat off the skunk.

last 2013 mosquito lagoon fishing report

This certainly qualifies as a dink redfish.

Friday morning I went to Mosquito Lagoon for some scouting before my afternoon charter. Using the DOA Deadly Combo I found trout in several locations, then went to visit a flat. It was windy and overcast and not much was expected. I was pleasantly surprised to find some tailing redfish and got one on my first cast with the CAL Shad, quite a nice fish. Then I went back to Haulover to pick up my sports.

last 2013 mosquito lagoon fishing report

This fish, however, was anything but dinky. Too bad he wasn’t thee when my anglers were.

Jed Simmons, his son Zander, and his cousin Anne graced Spotted Tail for an afternoon of Mosquito Lagoon fishing. We went back to the tailing fish spot. Of course an hour later we saw exactly none.

We spent the rest of the afternoon using the Deadly Combo and got about 30 trout. Most were dinks but we did get a few slot fish, and a good time was had by all. Jed emailed me, “Thanks for yesterday.  We really enjoyed it. Anne and David cooked up the fish and it was really very good.  Zander even tried it and liked it.” So that was a good thing. Thank you, sir- the pleasure was all mine.

Saturday Steve Campbell and his son Seth found themselves on Spotted Tail for a full day’s fishing. The weather was not nice, overcast and windy, although after a morning shower at least it didn’t rain any more.

We fished from south of Haulover Canal all the way up to Eldora. At the last spot we fished we saw five redfish, all singles. We did not catch one. We used the Deadly Combo all day and got about 40 trout. Every one was short.

Steve got a flounder on the Deadly Combo (!). It was also short. I got a whiting on a four inch CAL jerkbait. It was the first whiting I’ve caught in Mosquito Lagoon in at least 15 years. While it was decent size for a whiting, a giant whiting is only a couple pounds.

So we caught a load of fish and did not catch one over eight ounces.

That is the last 2013 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report. I certainly hope 2014 fishing starts like gangbusters! Hope springs eternal from the heart of a fisherman…

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

American Shad Time on Florida’s St. Johns River

January 12, 2012 by · 2 Comments
English: A depiction of a shad fish, as taken ...

Image via Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year by the end of January, a silvery fish ranging from one to four pounds in size visits the St. Johns River until about the end of March. The fish is the American Shad, and they swim up the St. Johns with love on their minds. This year Charlie McCullough has already caught some.

Some years there are zillions of them. Some years back Rodney Smith took his son Jake, I took my son Maxx, and we met Tammy Wilson at Hatbill Park for some fly fishing for shad. The fish were thick, so much so the boys got tired of catching them on fly and began catching them by hand.

Some years there are hardly any. Why they vary in number from year to year is somewhat of a mystery, but probably has to do with reproductive success of various year classes and the amount of predation they’ve been subject to.

While many anglers enjoy slow trolling for them with light spinning tackle, they are a superb fly rod fish. You’ll need a five- or six-weight outfit with a sinking line, a three to four foot, 10 pound test leader, and an assortment of small, brightly colored, weighted shad flies. If you don’t catch a mussel from time to time you’re probably not fishing deep enough.

Cast your line quartering upstream, using just enough retrieve to maintain contact with the fly. When your line is pointing directly downstream, strip the line in until you can lift it out of the water and repeat the process.

Where are the fish? That varies from year to year. Hatbill Park, Marina Isle, Lemon Bluff, Puzzle Lake, Mullet Lake, they might be in all, any, or none of those spots. One year we had excellent fishing from the banks of the river at the Morgan Alderman Ranch, just upstream of Lake Harney. The Fly Fisherman in Titusville (321.267.0348), Orlando Outfitters (407.896.8220), and Mosquito Creek Outdoors (407.464.2000) can all point you in the right direction. Or, you could ask me!

Shad fight hard, with frequent jumps. Most people catch and release them.

Do you like fishing for shad? Let us nw where and how you fish for them!

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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Winter: A Great Opportunity for St. Johns River Paddling

November 15, 2011 by ·

Guest Blog by Paige Taylor

The upcoming winter season around Jacksonville is perfect for paddling. While the summer months are conducive to visits to the beach and playing golf, the fall weather allow locals to take part in activities such as kayaking and canoeing. The north end of the St. Johns River around Jacksonville is home to some great sights and waterscapes, is home to some great protected tributaries, and is perfect for kayaking.

Paddling at sunrise offers a wonderful window into Nature’s workings.

During the fall, bird migration takes place throughout the Jacksonville area as the weather cools off. It is rumored that nearly 60,000 birds a month are nestling in parts of the St. Johns River. The water is the best place to watch some of the heavy bird activity taking place in the Northeast Florida area- the woods can still be full of bugs.

White ibis and a spoonbill dabble in St. Johns River marshes.

Also, the lower basin is often a prime spot for fish to migrate in to spawn. Some of the common species that swim in from the ocean include redfish, flounder, mullet, blue crabs and shad. Keep your eyes open for manatees, one of Florida’s endangered species.

Whether you eat them or just want to watch, blue crabs are fascinating creatures.

Florida’s longest river, the St. Johns provides a mixture of different scenery along the away. This northern flowing river was once the main tourist destination in the state when nature was the main reason for traveling.

Paddlers need to use common sense. There are airboat and other motorboats along the way. Fortunately they usually steer clear of paddling traffic.

The lower St. Johns River is home to some of the oldest cities and towns in the state of Florida, cities that have histories that are deeply rooted and tied to the river. Some of the sightseeing along this portion of the river is a great departure from your everyday sight of apartment complexes and tract homes.

The weather begins to cool down in the fall and winter. This shouldn’t prevent you from staying off the water. Instead, it makes it more enjoyable. Kayaking and canoeing the St. Johns allow the opportunity to explore some of the state of Florida’s most beautiful habitats. Because the fall causes some great transformations of habitat and sights along the river, there is no better time for a relaxing paddle trip along the St. Johns.

Paige Taylor is a creative writer from the University of Texas El Paso. As an aspiring writer she specializes in writing about travel destinations and tourism.

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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