Mid-August Report
Thank you for reading this Mid-August Report. Oh, yes, the days have been hot, Hot, HOT. Start early, off the water around mid-day.
The day Monday started with an epic battle- me against a horde of mosquitoes. I started early! They didn’t name it Mosquito Lagoon for nothing! Foolishly, I had no repellant. The bugs buzzed and bit, and I swore and swatted. In a motorboat you can just zoom away from them. Much more difficult to do in a kayak. When it was over I had a bunch of bites, and a bunch of dead mosquitoes littering the bottom of the ‘yak. The only winners were the bugs that got away…
Then I saw a redfish tail. I paddled over and found I could see the fish over a light bottom. The fly (a synthetic minnow imitation) landed in the right place. When the fish was close enough to see it, it jumped a bit. The fish rushed it, and did not get away!
I ran over a couple black drum. Using a technique I almost never use, I staked out the boat, stood up rod in hand, and waited for a fish to swim into range. Before long, one did. The cast was true. The fish chased the fly (changed to a slider) several feet and ate it. It did not get away!
After moving a little ways, I tried the same technique. Here came a redfish. The cast was true. The fish took the fly, which I pulled away. The fish was frantic looking for it. I tossed it back, and the fish took it again (that hardly ever happens)! There was a little stump in the water nearby and that fish did a 270 around it, hanging up my line of its woody protrusions. After paddling over and untangling the line, I discovered the fish was still on. I got all the line onto the reel, and the hook pulled. Aye, caramba.
I got another black drum, and one of a pair of tailing redfish. I head-shotted three separate fish, none of which hung around to give me a second chance. Hitting the fish on the head with your cast is a really poor fish-catching technique. I hooked and lost another red. All-in-all, it was a pretty good outing, in spite of the mozzies.
Did not fish Tuesday or Wednesday. But I did pressure wash the kayak, which probably weighs five pounds less now. Wednesday night I checked the Spruce Creek tides, just in case. To my amazement, it was a low, outgoing tide at sunrise. My favorite combination!
Thursday I went to Spruce Creek, launching at DeVito Park just as the sun came up. Although I don’t go there often, I have been going there for a long time. I like it there- the tidal influence, the currents, the sand and oyster bars, the numerous little mangrove islands, and, when I go, I hardly ever see anyone else fishing there. Plus, the fish population is quite the smorgasbord.
Of course, fishing there used to be much better than it was the last few times I went. The water is brown now, and there does not appear to be nearly as many fish as there used to be. Or it could be I’m just a grumpy old man.
The search started on a mangrove shoreline. The roots were out of the water, as I suspected they would be. I was hoping to find redfish crawling the shoreline, but did not find any. A few small snook took my slider fly, and I released two of them.
I got to the railroad trestle. There were a few tarpon rolling there, nothing else. The tarpon did not bite my offerings, either fly or spin. I went along the other shoreline, still looking for crawlers. I now had a minnow fly on. A pair of reds came up the bank. In spite of the brilliance of my presentation (and hopefully you caught the subtle sarcasm there), they laughed at it. I changed flies, back to the slider.
Some tarpon were rolling, farther out. Changed flies again, to an unweighted slider without a weedguard. Then I paddled out and waited for one to roll within casting range.
It took a while, but the roll happened, the cast happened, and the eat happened. The fish was about 10 pounds, maybe 12.374 pounds. Anyway, six jumps, six spectacular jumps, from that way awesome fish. One went way higher than my head!
I eventually leadered it. As I brought it alongside, it shook its head and chafed the leader just enough to pop it. It was the best fish all summer, an amazing fish. And, tarpon caught, I left the others alone and went back to the shoreline, still hoping for a red, and maybe a bigger snook, and a flounder, and maybe a crevalle. The slider went back on to the leader.
Before long I spotted my crawler, made a good cast, and got the eat. The fish made a run, at the end of which he stopped and shook his head. The fly fell out.
I did not get another bite. The kayak was loaded up at midday, the oysters just getting covered by the rising tide.
The heat Thursday made me not eager to fish Friday. The water in the lagoons is uncomfortably high, and the Econ is over 8 feet on the gauge. Plus, I had a pile of the minutia of day-to-day existence to deal with. I’ll go again next week. Maybe I’ll use the Bang-O-Craft.
That’s my Mid-August Report. As always, thanks for reading!
Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go walking! Stay active!
John Kumiski
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