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The Fishing Was Mostly Blown Out Report

April 22, 2022 by · Leave a Comment

The Fishing Was Mostly Blown Out Report

Thanks for reading this Fishing Was Mostly Blown Out report. Yes, we had a small craft advisory every day but Monday, the day I had to go to the doctor. Tough fishing when it’s blowing 15-20 every day.

Monday

evening I went to a retention pond, maybe a new favorite? I was throwing the mouse fly and got three very aggressive, and fat, bluegills. I also got three bass, the biggest of which was maybe a pound. So we’re not talking big fish, but it’s close to home, the water looks decent, and I get bites. Not gonna complain about that! Need to dig out the three-weight.

Tuesday

found me first go to Bitter’s to buy some stickbaits, then shore fishing at the pond in Christmas, using a light spin rod with one of my new lures. I got three bass, all small, one ridiculously so. I stopped at Tosohatchee. The biologists put 30 unmarked fish attractors in Lake Charley last week. They told me, “Go find ’em.” A future project for me, maybe.

Wednesday

I took a walk with a camera at Orlando Wetlands Park. There were lots of wildflowers.

Pickerelweed.

 

Fleabane.

Found a spot where the bass were partying, including an easily four-pound fish. Fishing is not allowed at Orlando Wetlands Park.

Thursday

I took some advice I got from Duane De Freese about 20 (maybe 30?) years ago and went for a walk with my camera at the Enchanted Forest in Titusville. It’s nice, perhaps not quite enchanted, but nice. Certainly beats apartment complexes and strip malls.

Dragonfly, order Odonata.

 

Roseling.

 

Zebra butterfly (genus Heliconius) feeding on Texas sage.

 

Coral bean.

 

Bastard indigo-bush.

Afterwards, I went to the Fox Lake Sanctuary. I need to launch the Bang-O-Craft there at the lake and do some exploring…

Friday

This is the type of bluegills I was catching.

I had errands to run, and cooking to do. In between I did something I have not done in a long time. I got the three-weight out and went bluegill fishing. It was fun! I got ten or so in a couple hours, with that many missed strikes, too. And it can still be done under a small craft advisory!

A bonus bass, the size of all my bass this week!

Monday next I get cataract surgery on the left eye, which means I’m pretty laid up all week while it heals. Since I’ll have little to report, probably no report next week!

That’s the Fishing Was Mostly Blown Out report. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2022. All rights are reserved.

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Last Road Trip Report and Photo Essay

March 7, 2020 by · Leave a Comment

Last Road Trip Report and Photo Essay

All things come to an end.

Thank you for reading my last road trip report. Still no fishing, so I hope it’s worth your time!

I just finished a wonderful little book, The Angler’s Book of Favorite Fishing Quotations. I wrote a review you can read here… 

My intent is to include a quote from this book in every fishing report, assuming I can remember to do that. I need to keep my copy on my desk.

Road Trip-

Maxx and I and the pets had spent two nights in Porterville so we could hike among the sequoias. That accomplished, it was time to head to our actual destination, which was Oakland.

We drove north on CA 99 through the central valley of California, where a lot of our food is grown. We drove through Selma, the Raisin Capital of the World. We drove through miles and miles of flowering trees. I did not know what they were but think there were pistachios and almonds, and maybe cherries? It seems too far south for cherries though. We passed big lots full of Holstein dairy cows that were covered in mud and manure, yuk.

We passed  through windmill farms. I’d like to get a few of those seeds!

We at last got to Maxx’s new apartment, on a mountainside in the Montclair section of Oakland. It’s strange, they build houses on 70 degree slopes, it’s living on the side of a cliff.

Crossing the Bay Bridge.

 

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Why isn’t it golden??

After visiting Oakland I can see why the city told the Raiders to build their own stadium. Homeless camps everywhere, a lot of people living in tents on the roadside. It’s heartbreaking. I hope the city uses some of the money they’re not spending on a stadium to help those folks. It will be a huge job.

 

There were all kinds of flowers along the trail. I am not familiar with this one.

 

California poppy.

 

Calla lily, a beautiful bloom.

 

Apple? Cherry? Something in the rose family I think.

 

Wood sorrel grows all across the continent.

Brian Jaye took Maxx, Catalina and I on a walk through the Muir Woods, a grove of redwoods that didn’t get logged to oblivion. It was on a Sunday. The place is very popular, with lots of languages in use there. Redwoods are not as big as the sequoias, but are still very impressive. It was a lovely day.

Do you have chipmunkiosis?

 

Catalina, Maxx, and Brian in Muir Woods.

 

Clowning around in a redwood tree.

 

The happy couple, Maxx and Catalina.

Wednesday morning I got on an Air Alaska jet, a non-stop from San Francisco to Orlando. I had a great time travelling across the country with my son, but there’s no place like home, as Dorothy said.

And that’s my last road trip report and photo essay for this trip. Thanks for reading it!

I intend to fish this coming week!

“If you don’t go fishing because you thought it might rain you will never go fishing. This applies to more than fishing.” -Gary Sow

Life is great and I love my work!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide
Purchase Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2020. All rights are reserved.

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Wildflowers of the Goodnews River Valley

September 8, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

The flowers of the Goodnews River valley dazzle the eye on even the dreariest day. Sadly I don’t know the names of many of them, or even the family of some, but they present a photographer with a never ending range of subjects.This is a type of Eriophorum grass, commonly called Alaska cotton, near the base of Tsuktulik.

Purple asters flower in the fall in every state where I’ve lived. These grow on a north fork gravel bar.

Hillside tundra gives off a wonderful fragrance, and hosts many different berry types.

This is a type of composite, found on the tundra near the north fork. If any readers can identify it, please post below.

A wild geranium, or cranesbill, also growing in tundra by the north fork of the Goodnews River.

Fireweed, or river beauty, grows on almost every gravel bar in the valley.

Lingonberry blossoms form low in the tundra.

This lovely flower has the unlikely name of Jacob’s ladder. It grows abundantly in meadows throughout the valley.

Mike calls the bluff on which these lupines grow Silver Salmon.

You find irises in wet places in the tundra. This one grows right at the lodge.

I think this is starwort. It grows along the rivers all through the valley.

A bumblebee works some yarrow flowers. Likewise, yarrow grows in meadows all through the valley.

Frigid arnica grows above the treeline on Tsuktulik.

While you fish here it’s easy to get distracted by scenes like this.

Life is short- get outdoors!

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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