The Stuart, Sugarloaf Key Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 10/23/11

Upcoming Events- Show and Tell seminar on November 5 and 6. The 6th will be an on the water seminar. Details and the signup are now posted at this link- http://www.spottedtail.com/category/Schools-and-Seminars-13.

My apologies for the late report. In the Keys and Everglades I had no internet access. I spent my time fishing rather than searching for an internet cafe.

October 17, 2011
Dear Diary-
My alarm clock was set for 4 o’clock. I woke up at ten to three and couldn’t fall asleep again. After having some cereal and a cup of tea I woke Alex. We left for Stuart at about 4:40.

I had to fight to stay awake the whole way. Must have been because I wasn’t in bed. Alex was no help. He slept the entire distance.

We met Marcia Foosaner at the boat ramp a few minutes after seven. We left the boat and drove to Bathtub Beach. With a solid east wind the surf was UP. There weren’t a lot of mullet, or much obvious activity at the Bathtub. Still, we all managed a snook and several crevalle by tossing shallow running DOA Bait Busters.

We went to several other beach access points with no results. The wind was hard from the east, and it spit rain all morning. I’ve had great fishing along these beaches this time of year, but today was an off day.

We had lunch at the new bagel place. Mark Nichols joined us. He had Morris the Dog with him. Then we all went to DOA World Headquarters. Marcia and I both needed some Hot Heads for our new lines of flies. (A new blog with photo and tying directions coming soon!)

Alex and I are at River Palms now. He mustn’t have gotten enough sleep ’cause he crashed as soon as we finished supper. I’m hoping to watch some of the football game tonight, but I’m pretty sleepy myself.

Tomorrow we go fishing with both Mark and Marcia- a double feature!

October 18
Dear Diary-
We woke up to torrential rains, pushed by a strong southeast wind. In spite of this both Marcia and Mark were right on time. We launched the Mitzi at the Jensen Beach ramp and Mark navigated us to a flat on the south side of the Jensen Beach causeway.

We got out and waded in the pouring rain and chilling waters for three hours. Marcia threw a jerk bait, Alex a DOA Glow Shrimp, I a jig, and Mark a prototype of a new bait he’s working on. Between us we got four small jacks in three hours.

By this time I was starting to shiver, soaked through in spite of the raincoat. We wisely decided to call it and went to have breakfast.

Alex and I then hit the turnpike and drove to Sugarloaf Key, where we met Mike Gorton. It rained most of the way, and started raining very heavily after we got here.

We are in a house, very nice. Alex got a little tarpon in the canal behind.  I hope the weather gets better.

Alex got this baby tarpon on a DOA Glow Shrimp.

October 19
Dear Diary-
The house was shaking all night from thunderclaps. It was fitful sleep, with lightning going off every 30 seconds and all the thunder. It’s still raining as I write this but at least the sparks have subsided. We’re going to Mike’s now to see what he’s up to.

October 20
Dear Diary-
Mike saw my boat and said it needed gel coat work. Next thing Alex and I had sanders in our hands. We sanded the interior deck for hours. It was not fun. We were not fishing. I’m still itchy. On the other hand my deck is newly gelcoated and looks nice, plus it’s waterproof again.

Once the new gel dried we put the boat in the water. I netted a few pinfish and we went to a creek to go snapper fishing. It took me a while to find it. Then when we got there the water was milky. It was running at least eight knots. The wind was blowing right onto us at about 20. My anchor didn’t hold the first time. We finally got set and tried to fish.

It was ridiculous. I was going to move the boat to a calmer spot but more rain was coming, and it was getting dark. I’d say we were there about 20 minutes, had one bite (missed), and then ran out of there with our tails between our legs.

Today we went out of Key West with Jack Walker. While it was good to see Jack, we shouldn’t have bothered trying to catch fish. The water was milky dirty around Key West. We couldn’t find any bait. We finally had to sabiki up a few blue runners.

We got out to 200 feet of water and the water was still all milky. In four hours of bouncing around we had one bite. Alex got an amberjack of about 20 pounds, his first ever. It beat a sharp stick in the eye but was pretty pathetic, not at all what you think of when planning your Keys trip.

A solid amberjack for Alex, first he'd gotten.

Tonight we’re going to try night fishing for tarpon and snook. I so hope we get a few fish!

October 21
Dear Diary-
We met Jack and Willie and went to the Key West pier, getting there about 10 pm. Three friends of Jack’s were already there. The tide was low, the water was dirty, and not one bite was obtained between seven of us.

The reality of fishing is that sometimes it’s not too good. We traveled down here during a massive storm, and it’s boogered things up. But today is another day. We’re going out with Mike. We’ll see if that changes our luck.

Hope springs eternal in the heart of a fisherman.

October 22
Dear Diary-
We picked Mike up at his dock at about 10 AM to better catch the tide right. We went through a maze of creeks and ponds to oceanside. While the flat looked great, other than sharks it was devoid of life.

We fished for sharks for a while. I got a bonnethead on a bonefish fly and Alex got a small blacktip on a wiggle jig.

We kept hoping that the incoming tide would bring warmer water and some bonefish but no, that didn’t happen.

We went to a back country spot and looked but there weren’t even sharks there.
We went to a couple of different backcountry spots and fished for snappers for a little while. We missed a couple, got one little one, and gave up around 4 PM.

We’re going out with Mike in his boat today. He says the fish will start showing as it warms up again.

October 24
Dear Diary-
Permit are hard to catch. I have heard people say that they’ve caught them on fly. I’ve never seen it done. I’ve certainly never done it. After the past two days I think they’re all just making it up.

Mike showed us a lot of fish. We had shots at dozens of permit. Alex and I took turns with the fly rod and with a spin rod baited with a live crab. It didn’t much matter what we threw at them. They ignored us or fled in terror. Either they’re impossible to catch or we are really, really bad. Probably a little bit of both.

We spent two days searching for and casting to fish and didn’t get a bite.

Today Alex and I are going out in the Mitzi. We intend to target everything we see- sharks, ‘cudas, jacks, snapper, whatever. I want to hear the drag go out before I die.

Last night the Gortons had a barbeque at their house. It was Goodnews south- Mike, Kim, and Faith, Charlie Mudfoot and his girlfriend Lauren, Jack Walker, Willie, and Alex and me. It was good to see everyone together, not in Alaska. Hey, we exist elsewhere! What a discovery!

October 27
Dear Diary-
Mike led and Alex and I followed in the Mitzi. Charlie and Lauren rode with Mike. We had 25 knot winds out of the north and actually tried to find some bonefish. No success there!

Giving up on that idea we went to some creeks to fish for snappers. We got some pretty nice ones, a few crevalle, and at least everyone caught a few fish. Alex got to run the boat in some really crappy weather, too.

Miss Lauren got this nice snapper in a creek in the Keys backcountry.

As the Keys portion of our trip wound down we realized we had hit some terrible conditions. Nine inches of rain changed the salinity and dropped the temperature of the water by 11 degrees, and it boogered up the fish. We didn’t catch a lot, but Alex got a small tarpon, and an amberjack, and we got some snappers, and had shots at a bunch of permit. I’ve had worse trips.

Coming up- road trip, installment two.

Embrace simplicity.

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 2011. All rights are reserved.