Three Lagoons Fishing Report
Thanks for reading this week’s post, Three Lagoons Fishing Report. Fished three days this week- one day for each lagoon! The three lagoons are on the east coast of Florida, wrapped around and extending north and south from the Kennedy Space Center. The length of the system is about 160 miles, so three days in a kayak is likely to leave a few spots totally unexplored…
October historically has the highest water levels of the year. A hurricane passed recently, dumping LOTS of rain. The water is high and dirty brown everywhere I went. Sadly, dirty brown has replaced crystal clear as the new normal.
I like the gauge to read below 0.5. Maybe after New Year’s…
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Monday
Sight fished with a fly.
The idea was to try and sightfish with fly tackle on Mosquito Lagoon. This required finding areas that are often dry during normal water levels. I wouldn’t say the trip was a resounding success, but it was a spectacular day, I had five or six shots, and actually hooked and released two fish. Mission accomplished!
Wednesday
This guy didn’t know it was a tarpon fly.
Indian River Lagoon was on the menu this day. I knew where there were baby tarpon, and had tied some new flies for the attempt. Regular readers may recall when last I fished these guys, I had a bite on the first cast and then nothing but one ladyfish afterwards. A classic tarpon fly called a Cockroach was tied onto the end of my leader. I saw some fish rolling, so cast it into the area (no seeing these guys in that water). A bite and I had… a redfish! A beautiful, nine-spot fish it was.
It had four more spots on the starboard side.
A while later the line came tight again. The fish finally jumped, and it was a tarpon. Small, five or six pounds. I was able to photograph it. It was the last fish the Cockroach would catch.
I went a long time without a bite.
I ran into another fly fisherman. He’d gotten a variety of fish on a weighted streamer, just chucking it. I kept tossing a Polar Fiber Minnow at rolling tarpon, and got a seatrout, a decent one.
I went a long time without a bite, again.
Changing tactics, I tried the spin rod with a DOA Shrimp. A bite! A snook! Another bite! A redfish! Tried a Closer Minnow, and got another redfish. And then, to complete my Indian River Lagoon Super Duper Fly Rod Grand Slam, a snooklet!
I went a long time without a bite, again. I tried the tarpon again- they all said no. I paddled back, loaded up, and went home.
Thursday
I tried Banana River Lagoon, launching at KARS Park. The gate guard told me no one had fished the previous day, and I was the first one there at 8 AM. So clearly the fishing wasn’t very good. Hurricanes have knocked a lot of trees into the water along the shoreline, and it looks extraordinarily fishy. Looks can be deceiving. I paddled all the way to Buck Creek, getting a trout while trolling, a snook while casting the shoreline (both on the rubber shad), and spotting one redfish and three black drum in all that distance, maybe four miles. Mind you, there was no wind. You could have seen a fish move from a quarter mile away.
You would think there would be oodles of fish here. How many does it take to make an oodle, anyway???
At Buck Creek, two or three tarpon rolled in almost an hour. Blind casting a streamer got me casting practice.
I got another trout dragging the shad behind me as I paddled back to the launch, at which point I loaded up, having gotten plenty of exercise. But I wasn’t skunked once in three days.
That’s the Three Lagoons Fishing 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
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