You are here: Home / Archives for Black drum

Another (mostly) Mediocre Week Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

April 29, 2017 by · Leave a Comment

Another (mostly) Mediocre Week Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

The wind still won’t quit. This is another (mostly) mediocre week Mosquito Lagoon fishing report.

It still blew like snot most of the week.

Monday
Kevin Linehan joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon scouting. My mission was to figure out where the fish went. The wind and clouds made that mission much more difficult. We saw some nice fish, but did not catch any, getting maybe a dozen trout to 16 inches on shad baits.

seatrout on DOA CAL mosquito lagoon fishing report

The DOA CAL shad is still producing fish for me.

Tuesday

mosquito lagoon fishing report

I worked it hard with meagre results.

I rode to the Econ, figuring the low water would aid my fly fishing efforts. I tried unweighted streamers, weighted streamers, and surface flies. Four hours of casting netted me two small bass, one big warmouth (big for a warmouth, that is) and one spotted gar. All fish were taken on a popper, for whatever that’s worth.

warmth mosquito lagoon fishing report

The warmouth, so aggressive we’re lucky they don’t get very big. If they did they would try to eat us.

The red-tailed hawks were doing lots of screeching. A large alligator was growling, hopefully not at me. It was really a pleasant outing, fishing notwithstanding.

Wednesday
The Stefansky brothers, Jerry and Paul, joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. The wind wasn’t howling! (at first)

We found fair numbers of redfish at the first spot. They could not have been less cooperative without not being there at all. We did not get a bite, although Paul got a nice trout on a Riptide Sardine.

seatrout on riptide sardine mosquito lagoon fishing report

The Riptide Sardine is also producing fish for me.

There were four boats working the next spot. We declined joining them. The alternate did not produce a fish.

The third spot was the hot spot of the day, producing about a dozen trout to 20 inches or so, most of them in the slot. Jerry did most of the damage with a DOA CAL Shad.

At this point the wind came up and the fishing mostly shut down. We got three or four more trout before trailering the boat.

Friday
One of Benjamin Ashworth’s birthday presents was a day with me (?!), fishing in Mosquito Lagoon. Girlfriend Chely was along too. Amazingly, the wind was blowing but not too hard (at first).

No one was home at spot #1.

Some seatrout, hovering around the 15 inch mark, were caught at spot #2. We are still using the three inch shad tails with good result.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Benjamin and Chely seemed happy with this fish!

Spots 3 and 4 produced several nice trout in the 20 inch range, as well as three redfish. We also encountered a school of black drum, but they wanted nothing to do with the juicy frozen shrimp we offered. About this time Mr. Wind decided to join the party, and a sea of whitecaps was the result.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Chely was REAL happy with this seatrout!

Spot 5 produced several more trout- one nice one and a bunch of shorties. And at the final spot we did not hit a fish. It was by far the most productive day all week.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who fished with me this week. You folks are awesome!

That is another mediocre week Mosquito Lagoon fishing report!

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 2017. All rights are reserved.

Share
|



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

Small Craft Advisory Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

April 9, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
mosquito lagoon fishing report

I dropped Taubin’s trout overboard, but we did get the pic of the drum.

Small Craft Advisory Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

The wind was ridiculous all week. I only fished three days because of it. So we have a small craft advisory Mosquito Lagoon fishing report.

Monday found Alex Worden and his friend Taubin (spelling?) in Spotted Tail, hoping to do battle with some denizens of the shallows. Need I say the wind was blowing? And we had some clouds, too. Taubin, who had not caught a fish in about 40 years (his estimate) got the first fish, a nice trout that once unhooked flopped over the gunwale before I could get the camera.

We got blown out of a couple spots because the skiff was filling with water, but managed a black drum at one of them before giving up on the windy spots and hiding in lees. Several more trout came aboard, some of them quite nice, on shad tails. Nary a redfish was captured, however.

It was a nice enough day if you weren’t fishing. The surface of the lagoon looked like a washing machine a good part of the day, though.

Tuesday fly fishers Jon Lancto and his friend Evan joined me, again on Mosquito Lagoon. It started off with heavy overcast and high south winds and proceeded to get worse. My plan was simple- go to the pole-troll area and stay on lee shorelines as much as possible. A good enough plan it was, but unfortunately there were no fish on those shorelines.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

We took advantage of ten minutes without wind to hit a couple trout.

A point in the day came where the wind laid down. We could see dark rain clouds and lightning flashing to the north, but took the brief (as it turned out) opportunity to hit a couple seatrout. Then the wind came up stronger than ever, 180 degrees opposite of where it had been coming from, with a ten degree temperature drop.

We raced the storm back to the boat ramp, only getting minorly wet along the way. We were off the water about 130 PM.

Wednesday the sun was out, so in spite of the fact the trees were rocking back and forth I loaded up the kayak and went to the Econ. The water is as low as I’ve ever seen it. I thought I would do well. HA!

In four hours I got four dink bass. Didn’t see much in the way of fish, nor did I see an alligator (???). Did see a couple pairs of eagles and a swallow-tailed kite, one of my favorite birds. It was a lovely day and paddle, even if the fishing was slow.

Thursday found me at Discount Water Supply where I purchased a whole new water system for my home. Friday and Saturday I ripped out the fifteen-year-old one and put in the new one. Now we have clean, sweet water again!

That is the small craft advisory Mosquito Lagoon fishing report!

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.

Share
|



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

Week of the Black Drum Fishing Report

April 1, 2017 by · Leave a Comment

black drum fishing report

Week of the Black Drum Fishing Report

We caught other kinds of fish this week, but black drum were the stars. Thus the black drum fishing report.

Thank You!
Many thanks to all those folks who responded to my question about eastern Tennessee. I got more information than I could handle in a busy week!

Alaska
Mike Adamson shared this link by email- https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/03/150-years-ago-today-the-us-bought-alaska-from-russia-for-72-million/521340/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-weekly-033117 . Definitely worth the few minutes it takes to check it out.

Manatee Reclassified

Manatees Delisted
In a move guaranteed to generate controversy, the US Department of the Interior has removed the West Indian manatee from the endangered species list. You can read the entire press release here- http://www.spottedtail.com/blog/manatee-reclassified-from-endangered-to-threatened/Solo Skiff
Tom Mitzlaff posted a video that has gotten six million views! See it here- https://www.facebook.com/SoloSkiff/videos/1274846345945765/

 

Fishing!

black drum fishing report

Bass on RipTide.

Sunday I went to a pond in Oviedo and in the howling winds managed to spin fish my way to a handful of bass. The lure was the RipTide Sardine.

black drum fishing report

No trophies- the best fish of the afternoon.

Monday fly fisherman Jeff Leishman joined me for a fly fishing trip on the Banana River Lagoon. The weather was spectacular, a chamber-of-commerce kind of day.

black drum fishing report

Jeff with one of many black drum.

We weren’t out very long when we spotted a tail, and then another, and then the whole place was loaded with tailing fish. Jeff, tossing a crab imitation, did some serious work with those fish. We had five or six double hookups. If only every day were like that…

black drum fishing report

One of our doubles…

Tuesday’s kayak fishing trip happened out of River Breeze, with George White and his friend Mike. They were tossing those little shad tails I’m so fond of, and got a mix of seatrout and redfish. The fish made us work, though, no suicidal ones this day. There are long stretches of fishless water out there. And that water is beginning to rise again. It’s getting deeper.

black drum fishing report

Mike had never caught a redfish before.

Wednesday and Thursday I had the pleasure of hosting Jerry and Alex, a father-son team from the Chicago area, on the Mosquito Lagoon. Alex will be pitching for the Cubs in the World Series in another 15 years or so. But I digress…

black drum fishing report

Alex got this trout on a DOA Deadly Combo.

Wednesday the weather again was picture-perfect. The fish, however, were incredibly spooky. Redfish wouldn’t let us within two cast-lengths away. Since you can only cast one cast-length, we just couldn’t get a bite. We got a fair number of trout. All but one were short. We got one redfish, which may have been barely legal. We got a real nice puffer. We got to watch a herd of manatees in clear, shallow water. A beautiful day, kind of tough fishing-wise, though.

Thursday young Alex started us off with a fine 23 inch seatrout he got with a DOA Deadly Combo. BANG! Several more nice trout followed. Then we found a herd of black drum. Double!

black drum fishing report

More black drum doubles in a black drum fishing report week!

The fish let you know when they’ve had enough by swimming fast and not biting any more. We took the hint and tried a few other spots, getting another trout or two. We hardly saw any redfish. Yes, it was windy, but visibility was pretty good. I just couldn’t find any. We returned to the drum spot. They were still there and we got three more. At that point the wind was blowing close to 20 knots, so we called it a day.

That is the week of the black drum fishing report!

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 2017. All rights are reserved.

Share
|



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

Still Hot Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

February 12, 2017 by · Leave a Comment

Still Hot Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Incredibly, this week was even better than last week. Thus the still hot Mosquito Lagoon fishing report.

Upcoming Events-
-2017 Fly Fishing Film Festival, February 26, 4 PM. See the graphic below for more information.


– On-The-Water Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar March 4. Click this link for more information… http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/

SuperBowl Sunday Fran and Christian Allen, fly fishers from Massachusetts, joined me for a cloudy half day on Mosquito Lagoon. We spooked all the fish off the first spot. We just could not see them.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Christian got this fish by casting blindly.

The second spot produced a handful of seatrout, some of which were decent if not huge. Fortunately my anglers did not object to casting blindly.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

He followed the trout up with this fish.

At the third spot Christian got a bite. His response? “That’s not a seatrout!” He was correct, as a 26 inch red had taken the fly. It was a short, sweet trip, and that fish was the culmination.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Dave and Dan doubled up. Dan got to pose!

On Monday David Waring and his friends Ryan and Dan, all engineers from the Seattle area, joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon light tackle action. Redfish, seatrout, and black drum, all on either DOA CAL Shad or RipTide Sardines, came into the boat in spurts all day long. Dan posed with a couple of his fish!

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Dan got this nice fish, too.

Tuesday I went scouting out of River Breeze. I did not find fish everywhere I looked, but I certainly found fish. The water is getting really low.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

These three inch plastic minnows are deadly.

Wednesday Coloradoan Donald Nunn joined me, again on Mosquito Lagoon. It was the slowest day of the week fishing-wise, but he still got several redfish and a couple nice trout, all on my favorite artificial baits (see above).

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Don Nunn with a respectable seatrout.

Took Thursday off.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Bill Vail with a nice trout caught on a bouncer fly.

Friday Billy Vail, a fly fisher from South Bend, and Billy Vail, a student in Jacksonville, joined me out of River Breeze. We got trout and reds more or less continuously all day, with the best fish coming on the last cast of the day. The fish was a lovely 27 inch seatrout. If I could script every day that’s how it would play out.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Billy Vail got the fish of the day, though.

On Saturday Mic Lauric and his friend Brian, fly fishers from Atlanta, joined me for a day of kayak fishing out of a busy River Breeze Park. Somewhat inauspiciously I got the first two fish just a few minutes from the launch, a fine trout and a slot red, on a Polar Fibre Minnow. On the rest of the way to the spot I had in mind we saw very little. Even my spot was slow at first- all the fish were at the far end of it.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

One of the many redfish Mic got.

Without the gruesome details, they had at least three doubles. Mic sent me the following email- “Thank you. Can’t wait to do it again. Please send pics when you can. We want to braggggg…”

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Brian certainly was not to be outdone.

Flies were synthetic minnow imitations. The fish were definitely on the feed. There goes that they don’t bite good on the full moon nonsense.

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Brian got this beautiful trout, too.

 

mosquito lagoon fishing report

Mic even got the elusive black mullet.

So, that is the still hot Mosquito Lagoon fishing report!

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.

Share
|



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

Some Good News Lagoons Fishing Report

January 15, 2017 by · Leave a Comment

Some Good News Lagoons Fishing Report

Upcoming Events
-Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, January 25-30, Titusville, FL. http://www.spacecoastbirdingandwildlifefestival.org

The water in the lagoons has cleaned up considerably and I found some schools of fish this week- good news! Thus the good news Lagoons Fishing report.

A cold front slammed us last weekend, cold, wind, rain, the whole she-bang. Monday afternoon the weather started to moderate, so I took the kayak to the St. Johns on a shad mission. It was slow, but in three hours I got two shad (one on a chartreuse shad fly and one on a pink crappie jig), a couple crappie, and a redbelly. There were hardly any airboats, a lovely afternoon all together.

With charters coming up I went to the Mosquito Lagoon on Tuesday for some scouting. Wasn’t I surprised- the water was pretty clean in places! The bad news is lots of the seagrass is gone. Hopefully the water will stay clean and the grass will come back.

With clean water I could sight fish. The seatrout were sunning in a lot of my favorite spots, nice fish in the 20-inch-plus range. Redfish were also ranging on the flats. My current favorite lure, the three inch DOA CAL shad, was effective on both. I felt pretty optimistic about my trip the next day.

lagoons fishing report

Brent with one of several redfish he caught.

Wednesday Brent Chapeldaine and Tom Howell joined me for Mosquito Lagoon fishing. Out of the gate we hit trout, on the three inch DOA CAL shad. No surprise there. The larger fish had scattered some, but there were enough around that they kept three handsome fish. They also got quite a few redfish to about 24 inches. Basically we caught fish all day, a splended outing. Thank you for joining me, gentlemen!

lagoons fishing report

Tom was howling at how good the fishing was!

Thursday was a Banana River Lagoon trip, with fly fishers Kevin Barnes, from Georgia, and his friend Jamie, from Pennsylvania. The word younger folks would use to describe the fishing is “epic.” Tailing fish most of the day, calm winds, drizzly but not uncomfortably so, and the whole place to ourselves. Wool crabs worked well. Thank you gentlemen for the second awesome day this week!

lagoons fishing report

Jamie had never caught a black drum. He figured it out real quick.

 

lagoons fishing report

They are such beautiful, delicate fish!

 

lagoons fishing report

Mr. Barnes got a few, too.

 

lagoons fishing report

All fish were released.

Friday my old friend Kevin Linehan joined me for some fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. I wanted three trout in the 17-18 inch range for dinner, two for me and one for him. We caught a load of trout but did not complete the task, with one sixteen inch fish for Kevin and zero for me. Saw an honest-to-goodness school of redfish, at least 50 fish. They weren’t happy, but it was the largest school I’ve seen in a couple years, a wonderful thing.

So we have clean water, sight fishing, a school of fish, good catches, some good news for a good news lagoons Fishing Report!

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.

Share
|



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

Mixed Bag New Year’s Orlando Fishing Report

December 30, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

Mixed Bag New Year’s Orlando Fishing Report

We fished the Mosquito Lagoon one day, and the St. Johns River two days, and the Banana River Lagoon one day. Of course results were a mixed bag. And Sunday is New Year’s Day! So we have a mixed bag New Year’s Orlando fishing report!

Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2017!

Monday around noon I went launched the Bang-O-Craft on the St. Johns. Son Alex and John Napolitano were with me. It was warm and sunny and every airboat in Florida seemed to be there. Fish were popping fry minnows all over the river.

orlando fishing report

Alex casting on the Econ.

At the mouth of the Econ there was a paddling fly caster who steadily caught 12 inch bass on a small white streamer. Since there were three of us we refrained from joining him and went farther up the Econ. We found breaking fish up there but they weren’t taking our flies very well. John and I each got a crappie.

orlando fishing report

Crappie on the fry.

When we went back down the river the other angler had left. We took his spot. Fish were breaking steadily. Using a fry fly I did some damage! Bluegills, bass, and my first shad of this season all succumbed to the fry fly’s charms.

orlando fishing report

Even the shad take the fry.

When the action slowed we went down the river, where we found another spot with breaking fish. Again, the fry fly did some damage, taking some reasonably large bass. The other fly that worked extremely well was a #10 white Gurgler, a silly little fly. The fish liked it, though!

orlando fishing report

A finished fry.

Fry Fly
hook- Daiichi X510, #10
thread- Danville flat waxed nylon, white
wing- craft fur, light grey, light tan, or cream
eye- Witchcraft 3-D, 5 mm

Start the thread. Cut off a clump of craft fur and pick out most of the fluff. Tie it on to the hook, smooth the head, and whip finish.

Glue the eyes on with Zap a Dap a Goo or Duco cement. After the glue dries, coat the head with Softex.

Since the fly is small, you’ll catch some very small fish with it. Some surprisingly large fish will take it, too. The hook is on 3x thick wire, so it will hold a good fish without issues.

orlando fishing report

Drying, not frying.

You can see how to tie a gurgler here http://www.spottedtail.com/how-to-tie-a-gurgler/. Since the #10 is so small I use hackle fibers for the tail and the tying thread for the body- simple!

On Tuesday Greg Scible and Caleb Cousins joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon light tackle action. Unfortunately the action part was fairly slow- a couple trout and small reds. We started fishing the spots that had been so good to me last week- not so good this day. We tried Deadly Combo-ing for trout. We got a few fish but again, pretty slow.

orlando fishing report

Pvt. Caleb Cousins got this redfish while home on leave.

We checked out a couple spots where I had found fish last week. Caleb got a slot red on a DOA CAL Shad. We Deadly Comboed again and got a few short trout. We tried soaking cut mullet in two spots where this worked wonderfully last week. Not even a catfish this day. I cranked the motor to move, and it pooped out. It would not start again.

I had them start fishing while I thought about the problem. They started hitting trout immediately, again on the Deadly Combo. Most were short, but a few were slot fish.

In the meantime I checked the in-line fuel filter. It looked fine, but there must have been some debris in it. When I reassembled it, the boat ran fine. We kept fishing though, and got a bunch of trout.

We ended the day with six reds and about 30 trout, not bad for a slow day.

Wednesday at 8 AM I met Paul MacInnis at the Space Center Badging Station. He got me a visitor’s badge and off we went to the Banana River Lagoon. We had perfect paddling weather- no wind, no clouds. We paddled a long way before we found any fish, though.

The fish we found was a school of large black drum. They were way more interested in each other than in our flies, as we did not get bit.

We got a few small trout, though.

We found some smaller drum. I got one about seven pounds or so on a crab pattern.

I later got a small, beautiful, nine-spot redfish on the same fly. Paul got a fish here and there too.

Some kind of rooted vegetation is beginning to grow on the otherwise barren sand bottom there, and the water is quite clear in most places. Perhaps it was just an off day, but it was pretty slow fishing-wise.

Thursday afternoon I went back to the St. Johns, by myself, by kayak. A short distance from the boat ramp there were breaking fish. My first two casts, on the little gurgler, each garnered strikes from 12 inch largemouths. Before leaving that spot three strikes were missed and two more bass released.

orlando fishing report

Bass on fry. Not a bad schooling bass, ay-tall!

The spots that had been so hot on Monday were not on Thursday. Apparently the fish are following the moving bait.

No shad or crappie were caught, but bluegills and a couple more bass rounded out the catch. All fish were released to make more fish for the future.

Thursday night a cold front came through, putting the kabosh on any thoughts of fishing Friday.

So that is the Mixed Bag New Years Orlando Fishing Report! Have a great holiday!!

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.

Share
|



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

Orlando Kayak Fly Fishing Report

November 15, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

Orlando Kayak Fly Fishing Report

This is the Orlando Kayak Fly Fishing Report for November 14. My apologies for all the selfies.

With a kayak fishing charter coming up on Saturday, all my fishing this week was paddle-based fly fishing.

Tuesday‘s trip was on the Mosquito Lagoon. Yes, it sounds like a broken record. High, dirty water makes fishing tough there. I found one redfish all day. Remarkably, I had a good shot at it and caught it. One cannot with reasonable expectation see one fish and hope to catch it. Someone gave me a huge dose of luck.

orlando kayak fly fishing report

It was quite a handsome redfish, though.

Wednesday Mike Conneen and I went to the Banana River Lagoon. The water was cleaner than Mosquito Lagoon, but still pretty dirty. All the grass there is gone. I ran over a small school of fish and set up camp while Mike kept going. A couple hours of casting a wool crab netted me three bites that resulted in a black drum, a redfish, and a hooked and lost fish of unknown specie.

orlando kayak fly fishing report

Black drum selfie. Not the monster black drum, but it’s a fish.

 

orlando kayak fly fishing report

This redfish was a pretty nice one.

 

orlando kayak fly fishing report

I imagine the fish feels a great deal of relief when it gets returned to the water.

 

orlando kayak fly fishing report

And off it goes!

Unfortunately Mike did not get a fish. There wasn’t a lot of cheese (not many fish) around for us.

Thursday

In spite of that I went back to the Banana River Lagoon the next day, to a different spot. The good news was the water, although of course still quite high, was clean. Like it’s supposed to be. There was no grass at all, though. Only a handful of fish were seen all day, resulting in a single shot and a small redfish that took the wool crab.

orlando kayak fly fishing report

Another case of converting the single shot I got.

It is painful to see what’s happened to that fishery.

orlando kayak fly fishing report

Sunrise over the St. Johns River on Saturday morning, at 70 mph.

Saturday fly fisher Steve Marsden, from the wilds of northern Wisconsin, joined me for a day’s kayak fly fishing. He had a few shots at tailing reds. Sadly there were no conversions. He did get what was by far the largest pinfish I have ever seen, and a handful of trout that probably would not have “held batter.” The weather was awesome, the birds spectacular, and we enjoyed the day.

orlando kayak fly fishing report

If the IGFA kept pinfish world records, this fish would be in the book.

Sunday Tammy had a birthday. She spent it with friends on the Econlockhatchee. I hope she had fun. I think she did!

orlando kayak fly fishing report

Fishing on the Econ was less than stellar.

 

orlando kayak fly fishing report

Tammy’s birthday crew. Birthday Girl is hot and pink.

—————————————————-
FOR SALE
Still trying to find a good home for my old EZ Loader Trailer- http://orlando.craigslist.org/bpo/5764303987.html
—————————————————-

And that is the Orlando Kayak Fly Fishing Report!

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.

Share
|



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

Windy Week Fort Myers Fishing Report

February 13, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

Windy Week Fort Myers Fishing Report

Fort Myers Fishing Report

Black drum on black redfish worm.

It blew hard most of the week. I went to Fort Myers to fish with my friend Henrique this week, thus the Windy Week Fort Myers 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/
– 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/

Blowing My Own Horn Dept.
The new issue of Fly Tyer magazine arrived at the Kumiski home this week. In it was a lovely article about fly fishing in Louisiana, by John Kumiski! It looks goooood. If you read it, your life will be improved by an astonishing 638 percent! As TMQ says, All predictions wrong or your money back.

Fishing!
Sunday it blew like snot. I wrote letters to the manager of the state forest and the commissioner of agriculture. We’ll see what they say.

Monday it blew like snot. I don’t even remember what I did.

Tuesday it blew like snot and was very cold besides. I spent the day at the car dealership getting the chariot repaired. I didn’t like sitting there all day, and I didn’t like spending the money. But the van has not run this well in a long time. Now it’s just awesome.
I tied quite a few flies while sitting there.

Wednesday it blew like snot. I took Susan’s car to the dealer and got it worked on, tying quite a few more flies.

Thursday morning I got up ridiculously early and drove to see Rick. When we got on the water (water temperature 54 degrees) we had a shot in five minutes, a redfish I caught on a black bunny leech. “This is gonna be easy,” I thought. Because of the cold wind (blowing like snot) and clouds I got three more shots all day, hooked one more fish. That fly was a black Matuka, tied on a #4 Mustad 34011. A five pound fish bent the hook out and escaped. Won’t be using those hooks any more for anything other than making earrings.

Fort Myers Fishing Report

Redfish Ricky!

Friday we tried again. It was not blowing like snot! There were no clouds! Eureka!
There were no fish at the first spot. At the second I spotted a big snook, which blew out as the fly touched down. We’d see three more with identical results. I pooched a few more shots before finally getting a red about noon on a black redfish worm. We ended up with a half dozen reds and a black drum, all on the same fly. We were off the water about 3 PM, and then the Friday afternoon fight through traffic to get home.

Rick looked great and it was really good to fish with him again. Thanks, Rick, for an awesome couple of days!

And that is the Windy Week Fort Myers Fishing Report.

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.

Share
|



Filed Under: Fishing Reports · Tagged: , , ,

North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

November 8, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report

Upcoming Events

Eau Gallie River muck dreding project public meeting Nov. 12- The St. Johns River Water Management District will host a public meeting on Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. to provide an update on the status of the Eau Gallie River dredging project. The meeting location is Melbourne City Hall, 900 E. Strawbridge Ave.

IRL Paddle Adventure 2015 – Paddle A Portion, November 14. Paddle a portion of the Indian River Lagoon!   http://www.irl-paddle-adventure.com

Ocean Reef Beach Festival- December 5. The ORB returns to Pelican Beach Park, Satellite Beach. Celebrate the ocean lifestyle with exciting conservation and recreation displays, activities and hands on learning!  Food trucks, local ocean artists, live music and more! The event is free and will be held from 10am-5pm. Proceeds to benefit Surfrider Foundation and Anglers For Conservation.

Fishing!

This is a North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report. Only fished two days this week. I’m in the middle of a writing project and had the seminars on the weekend, so…

Wednesday found me on Capt. Chris Myers’s boat. He very kindly poled me around on the Indian River Lagoon for about seven hours. In that time we saw quite a few fish. They were not particularly bitey. Using DOA CAL Shad we got a few slot reds and trout. I was able to get a red of about 25 inches of a shrimp pattern with the fly rod, and followed that up with a 20″ trout on the same fly. The sea grass is disappearing again.

orlando fishing report

The Universe treated Chris and I to this.

Thursday I visited the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa to do some research. I found this image, a seatrout catch from the Banana River Lagoon. The rods look like they might be fiberglass, which means this was probably taken during the 1950s. Them there’s some Button Trout!

orlando fishing report

I was born too late!

Contest of the Week- First person to correctly tell me what a Button Trout is gets a free copy of Flyrodding Florida Salt. PLEASE USE THE CONTACT FORM BELOW.

Friday I thought I would try the no motor zone. The water had dropped a little bit. Maybe I could see some fish.

The water was horribly dirty. Moby Dick could have swum by and I couldn’t have seen him. It wasn’t good sight fishing weather but it would not have mattered. You could not see the bottom in eight inches of water. Heartbreaking, really, really sad. I got some pictures of the weather…

orlando fishing report

Clouds, rain, and dirty water. At least there was a rainbow (or two).

 

Same rainbow, different lens.

Same rainbow, different lens.

Saturday was the Show and Tell Seminar on the Merritt Island NWR. Four people attended. We spent the day driving around the refuge, discussing where to fish and how to get them to bite. Thanks to all the attendees! We talked to some kayak fishermen who had gotten a few redfish in spite of the dirty water.

Sunday was the Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Seminar. Dave Lair was the only attendee, and again, thanks for coming, Dave! The water in the Mosquito Lagoon looks horrible, at least as bad as the no motor zone. We watched a gentleman catch a black drum in the Haulover Canal. He already had three on a stringer.

And that is this week’s North Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report.

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.

Share |



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

Stalked by a Gator Orlando Fishing Report

April 26, 2015 by · Leave a Comment

Stalked by a Gator Orlando Fishing Report

crocs too

Last time I had gone kayaking on the Banana River Lagoon, a banner day ensued with five redfish and over a dozen fine seatrout. Naturally I had been itching to go back. It happened Tuesday.

All the fish I had found that trip (admittedly, it was a couple weeks ago) were gone, of course. Search mission time.

The search revealed a bunch of black drum tailing, after a long paddle. Still, tailing fish are tailing fish. One took a black Redfish Worm, another a Merkin. I missed a few strikes. The fish were not overly aggressive towards the fly, though.

Realizing that it was a scouting trip more than a fishing trip I left the tailing fish and continued the search. It led me to the shoreline, where an occasional redfish was spotted. In spite of best efforts, none were fooled.

At one point I got out of the kayak and was stalking a fish when a security vehicle drove up to the water’s edge, blue lights flashing. Since I was the only other human being in the vicinity, I paddled over to see what I had done wrong.

“There’s an alligator stalking you,” the Security Man said. I had seen the gator. It was not paying any attention to me. But I did not want an argument with the Security Man. I was curious as to how he knew that, but did not pursue a line of questioning.

“I hadn’t noticed,” I replied.

“You gotta be careful this time of year,” he said. “They’re mating and they get real aggressive. You got an ID?”

When Security Man was done with me I decided I was done too. I paddled back to the chariot, loaded up, and went home.

Thursday found Rodney Smith and me out on Canaveral Bight. The weather looked fine when we left but it clouded up quickly. There was a lot of bait there, and some bluefish, but we didn’t find much else.

The storm moved in faster than I thought it would and we were caught out in it. At least one of us had a raincoat! The lightning was all cloud to cloud, fortunately. The boat was on the trailer before noon. I drove through rain all the way home.

Friday I still wanted to know if there were any fish along the beach, so went out of the Port as a solo act. It was too windy and too snotty for me to do what I wanted to. The bait was still in the Bight, and the bluefish were still there too. I saw a few of the Giant Crevalles bust some baits within casting range. Before I could move to grab a rod they were gone. Having learned all that I could, I headed back to the Port and home.

Saturday found me out on Mosquito Lagoon with David Gunn (Peter’s cousin) and his friend Bill, fly fishers from New England. We found a school of black drum right away and David got one to eat a black Redfish Worm. The fish was a relatively small one of six pounds or so.

The fishy area quickly became crowded with boats and the fish just as quickly disappeared. We were on a search mission the rest of the day. We did not find much. The one bite we had already gotten would be it for the day.

And that is this week’s Stalked by a Gator 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.

Share |



Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Orlando Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »