Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6/26/09
My apologies for the late report. I've been busy. There may have been a touch of procrastination, too.
On June 11 I drove down to Pineland and launched the Mitzi at about 11 AM. I didn't make it to Captiva pass before I was throwing a fly at a daisy chain of tarpon. I found them all along the beach. On the Johnson Shoal I saw a single and tossed a small black streamer to him. He took it! And I missed the strike. It didn't seem to bother the fish much, so I tossed it back to him. He took it again, and this time I stuck him.
It was rough. The wind was 15 out of the northwest. I'm trying to chase the fish with the trolling motor while simultaneously fighting him and staying in the boat. It didn't work. He broke off during a jump. The leader was very frayed.
Further searching turned up a small daisy chain. I dropped another small black streamer on them and a fish came right up and took it. I struck and broke him off- the tragedy of the bad knot.
The next day Dr. George Yarko joined me. Using pinfish, mullet, threadfin herring, and small blue crabs we threw to tarpon most of the day. He had one strike on a pinfish but missed it. That was it for the day.
Dr. Michael Collins was along for some flyfishing on Saturday. We didn't have a shot at a fish until almost noon, although it got good in the afternoon. It also got rough, again with the northwest wind. I couldn't get the anchor to hold, and we finally gave up at about three o'clock after having every fish we threw to laugh at us.
Jack and Scott Radloff joined me on Sunday. We saw maybe ten fish all morning. Finally, at about 2 PM they started to move. We had some great shots with both fly and various spinning lures. The fish all laughed at us but one, which took a small black streamer. I missed. I had to drive home so we gave up at about 4 PM not having hooked a fish.
My boat had some minor issues and I brought it to East Cape Canoe for repair. I want to thank Adam for taking care of it in a most expedient manner.
On June 20 Shawn Healy and I went scouting on the Mosquito Lagoon, launching at River Breeze. I ran all the way down to Max Hoeck Creek, and saw very few fish. We got three trout between us to about three pounds, all on a three inch DOA Shrimp.
Sunday Max and I went to Port Canaveral. I had heard there were all kinds of pogies in Canaveral Bight. We looked there without success, so we ran south. South of the Cocoa Beach steeple we found a huge school of bait and loaded up. The next bait school south was full of rolling tarpon. Naturally we stopped to fish it.
Maxx got the first bite. Not a tarpon, it was a monster crevalle in the 30 pound range. I got the next bite. This was a tarpon. He tossed the circle hook (!) on the third jump. Maxx got three more tarpon to eat, breaking off the first two and getting the third. I held it while he unhooked it, then we revived it on our way back to the school.
I had two tarpon rods out with us that day, one loaded with 20 pound braid and the other with 50 pound. We broke that 20 pound three times. I'm sticking with 50 from now on.
The bite at that bait pod went cold so we ran further south, to Patrick AFB. WE found a huge school of bait full of rolling tarpon. We had several bites here, got cut off by a couple, got a couple of handsome blacktips, and I got another big jack, but no tarpon bites, sniff sniff boo hoo. It had been a great morning though, and we bailed at 1 PM.
Monday Mark Martuch and Doug Hartley joined me. They had originally wanted to go to the Mosquito Lagoon but I talked them into fishing the beach. We ran all the way to Patrick AFB and didn't see a single baitfish. It amazes me how fast they disappear. Keith Kalbfleisch told me later the pogies were down off Melbourne but that's a longer run down the beach than I've ever made in one of my boats.
Casting at the jetty Doug got a snook and a fat mangrove snapper, both on a three inch DOA Shrimp. We then went through the locks and fished the Banana River all the way south of the Pineda Causeway. We saw a few redfish but did not get another bite. It was a long, slow, hot, tough day. C'est la fishing!
Live is short- go fishing!
Life is great and I (in spite of days when the fish make me look stupid) love my work!
John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com