Space Coast Fishing Report from Capt. John Kumiski 3/30/08
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The report-
Going back to March 21, Mark Richter, a fly caster from New Jersey, joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. The weather was beautiful if a bit breezy, but we could see into the water very well. We found a school of redfish fairly quickly. Mark is a decent caster and had flies in the fish repeatedly. We kept changing patterns because they weren’t taking. When we tried an olive, #4 slider one finally took it. The fish was about 25 inches long. In spite of having shots fairly regularly all day that proved to be the only bite he got. But one fish is so many more than none…
On Saturday 3/22, Jeff Bogart, a spin fisherman from New Jersey, joined me for a relaxed half day on the Mosquito Lagoon. It was very calm (No wind? What’s up with that?) but overcast. The overcast didn’t matter much since we found lots of tailers. Jeff ended up getting five reds to about ten pounds.
Dr. David Glabman accompanied me on a kayak excursion into the no motor zone on Sunday. Since it was Easter we had the entire place to ourselves. That solitude was the best part of the trip, at least as far as catching fish goes. It was mostly overcast and such fish as we did see were right underneath us before we spotted them. But we didn’t see very many. I cast at two fish, both of which were watching me the entire time, and David had similar luck. We were skunked, never having had one decent shot.
Tuesday the Chechio bothers, Joe and Len, joined for a day’s fly fishing. It was 44 degrees and blowing 15-20 when I launched the boat at Port St. John. I hoped if I fished around the edge of the closed areas at the power plants I might pick up some jacks or ladyfish. I was wrong, as we didn’t get a bite. So at 9:30 I trailered the boat and we went to the Mosquito Lagoon.
The fish were scarce. I’m sure most had left the shallows due to the falling water temperatures. The wind certainly didn’t help us, either. Such shots as we did have were of the, “Just jump on him!” variety. For those not familiar with that type of shot, it’s the type where you’d have more success jumping on the fish than casting to it, because it’s right next to the boat. We got skunked again, the start of a disturbing trend.
Thursday Paul Nicholson met me at River Breeze. We launched the Mitzi and went fishing. We found hundreds of fish, trout, redfish, and black drum. The reds were tailing fairly well. It was a perfect day early on, no wind, no clouds, and fish everywhere. Paul tried to fly fish them for a while with no success, so he very pragmatically switched to spin tackle. He tried a number of lures, none of which worked until he put a Top Dog on. He got three slot trout in short order on that. But he wanted redfish, so he took it off.
There were fish everywhere we looked that day. We saw and had shots at literally hundreds of fish. Paul had one cast where a red chased the gold spoon to the boat, hitting it three times on the way and not getting hooked. Other than that he didn’t get a bite from a red, a very frustrating day for both of us. Maybe I need to re-think my aversion to Gulp! baits.
Friday Dr. George Yarko and his son Sean joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. We went straight to the bait, using mullet chunks. All the fish I had seen the previous day with Paul were gone. So we went to a little hole that sometimes holds fish, and it was loaded. Sean’s first fish was a five pound trout. Without describing each fish they caught, they ended up with 11 reds to ten pounds and two trout, four and five pounds. All fish but one were released.
Yesterday Jay Johnson and his son Kyle joined me for a day on Mosquito Lagoon. The idea was to teach Kyle, 13 years old, to fly fish. We had a fly casting lesson that lasted an hour or so, and then Kyle wanted to go fishing. I had brought spin rods, and mullet. Kyle ended up getting six reds to ten pounds, and was very pleased with the day.
So as I look back on the past week I have to wonder if flies and lures are becoming obsolete. That would be horrible, because I find fly fishing so much more entertaining than bait fishing.
Life is short- GO FISHING!!!
Life is great and I love my work!
John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
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