Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6/9/07

Last week I had a line in my report that said, “If any readers can figure out how to make a realistic chunk of zucchini fly that a Plecostomus will eat, please email me about it.” Reader Gary Griffin, from Millican, Texas, emailed me this gem:

”I would think your cucumber eating fish has similar tastes as a grass carp. What I've found works around here for grass carp is a ‘Sister Carol's Grass Carp Fly’. You can find it at http://www.warmwaterflyfisher.com/flymonth/FOTM112005.htm Sure looks like a piece of zucchini to me.
One other interesting approach would be to chum with the veggies and then cast the Sister Carol in the mix. I'm serious.”

I think Gary deserves a Spotted Tail Prize Pack. Gary, if you email me your snail mail address I’ll send you a prize. And now all you wanna-be Plecostomus fishermen have at least a starting strategy! If anyone tries this please let me know how it works.

On Tuesday Capt. Chris Myers invited me to go scouting with him. I did. I started the day by getting a six pound seatrout on a Floozy popper, and shortly followed it up with a 28+ inch trout, a fat sucker of over eight pounds, also on a Floozy. I also missed a couple of strikes. Chris got a trout in the same size range on a DOA CAL jerk bait, and also missed a few strikes. We only saw a few reds, and caught none. After the wind started blowing the bite slowed way down, and finally died completely. We bagged it about 1 PM.

I got this fine trout on a Floozy popper. Photo courtesy of Chris Myers.

Thursday I got a 9 o’clock start, kayak fishing out of River Breeze. It was the first wind-free day in at least a month and frankly I expected to see starving hordes of tailing redfish everyplace. It wasn’t quite like that. There were lots of clouds that made seeing fish tough. I found two small areas that had a few fish and I got one at each place, both slot fish, both on a Borski Slider. Other than that I only saw two or three singles. It was a gorgeous morning though, and great to be in a kayak again.

Yesterday Scott Radloff and I joined Ron Pressly on his Pathfinder out of Port Canaveral. I had a doctor’s appointment so we started pretty late, after 10 AM. We found a school of menhaden before clearing the jetties, and filled the livewell with baits. Although the sky was spitting, completely overcast, winds were light out of the east.
It took over an hour to find some breaking fish. Scott immediately hooked up on a Sting Silver. While he was battling his fish I hooked up on a pogie. It was a bonito double-header, a nice way to start the day.
We cast Sting Silvers for a while without any more action. I let mine sink to the bottom and started jigging it and got bit immediately. It was a weakfish. We all started jigging Sting Silvers on the bottom and got several more weakfish to about 15 inches, as well as about a dozen croakers.
Scott then hooked a shark, a sharpnose, on a pogie. Ron jumped a tarpon of about 100 pounds and had him on close to 40 minutes before the hook came unbuttoned. We saw tarpon rolling sporadically all afternoon but didn’t get another tarpon bite. We did hook several more sharks, and saw quite a few large crevalle that would not touch our baits. Jacks aren’t usually very discriminating but these guys wouldn’t eat. We finally bagged it around 5 PM.
The Port and SR528 were an absolute zoo, full of folks partying while waiting for the shuttle launch. We watched it from Chuluota, a picture-perfect and blessedly safe launch, just spectacular.

This is my last newsletter until September. While my new boat is being built I’m taking the summer off from newsletter writing and guiding to work on some photography and writing projects. I know at least some of you will miss the reports, and I’m sorry, but there’s nothing else for it. See you in September!

Remember- Life is short- GO FISHING!

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at spottedtail@spottedtail.com, or call at 407 977 5207.

John Kumiski
member, Indian River Guides Association,
Florida Outdoor Writers Association

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