Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 12/7/08
Upcoming Events:
12/13, Fly Tying/Book Signing, Salty Feather, Jacksonville. Call them at 904.645.8998 for information. Please stop in and let's swap stories!
January 23, 24, 25, Fly Fishing Show, Somerset, NJ. I'll be tying flies, signing books, and giving a program or two. If you plan on attending the show, please stop by and say hello!
What a week! Arguably the best of the year. I love this season.
The weather this week was, except for just a few minutes, absolutely outstanding. To make it even better I spent five days this week out in boats. To make it even more better every day I was with quality people, old friends and a few newer ones. And to make it more more better, fishing was outstanding.
On Monday Brian Graves, a returning fisherman from Virginia, and I went to the Mosquito Lagoon. The wind came up powerfully early in the day and I thought it would blow us off the water. Then a funny thing happened. It diminished gradually until it was completely laid down, slick calm.
In the meantime Brian was catching redfish steadily on a DOA Shrimp. He'd never used one before but got the range quickly! The fish were cruising, tailing, and lying in potholes, mostly singles with a few small groups.
Once it layed down we went looking for the black drum. There were a lot of them, and we had some real shrimp. Brian tossed one into the fish repeatedly, but they wouldn't eat it! He got a trout and ten or so reds, but a drum would have given him a slam.
While we were messing with them the wind came up again. Had the drum been even slightly cooperative I would have put up an argument but as it was I just let the wind blow us off of them. Altogether it was an outstanding day. Thank you, Mr. Graves!
Wednesday Capt. Chris Myers invited me to join him on the Mosquito Lagoon. What do fishing guides do on their days off? They go fly fishing! And again the weather was just awesome.
We got on the black drum again. When they refused the slider, I tied on a black redfish worm. One cast and I had one, six or seven pounds. Then Chris got one. Then I got another one. Then Chris got another one. Clearly this was going to be too easy, so we went looking for reds.
We only found a few, but we also found several big trout lying in potholes. Chris was poling and I spotted one and cast the bendback to it. The line came dangerously tight and the tinny sound of a distressed reel ensued. Trout don't pull drag, what's up with this?
The fish answered that question by jumping out of the water. It was the biggest trout I'd hooked in several years. I really got nervous, afraid I might lose it.
I didn't though. I eventually pulled it into the boat. Chris and I both took a few photos of it and then released her. I'm happy to report she swam away like she meant it.
We ended up getting seven or eight fish between us, reds, drum, and that trout. Yes I did get the slam, too.
Thursday Capt. Chris Myers joined me for some kayak fishing in the Banana River Lagoon. Although there was no wind, we had cloud cover for most of the day. But we also found some tailing fish, lots of them.
My first fish was a dink trout. I saw some baits skipping and a swirl, to which I cast the Clouser Minnow (black and green). Bang! Small, but a fish.
Chris and I got separated as I paddled ahead. This was unfortunate. I saw a fish tail and stopped. Suddenly a wake was coming at me. I dropped the Clouser two feet in front of it and twitched it once. The wake accelerated right to my fly!
The line came tight and I struck. Look out, I'm going for a sleighride! I staked out the boat and hopped out before the fish pulled me into deep water, then commenced battling the beast. I eventually got it to hand, a redfish of at least 25 pounds. Where was Chris? I want a picture of this! He wasn't in sight so with a twinge of regret about not getting any photos I unhooked the fish and let it go.
Time to return to the hunt. There's another tailer! A big tail, too. I paddled as close as I dared then got out and stalked it on foot. One cast, one twitch, Bang! It's another big red, although not as big as the first. It turned to be pushing 20 pounds. Chris is still nowhere in sight.
I got the next one I saw, too, which was also close to twenty pounds. It's not even noontime and I have already had a heck of a day.
Chris finally showed up just as I was about to cast to another tailing fish. I hooked, but lost it. No photo.
Then we waded away from our boats (and the cameras) while following several schools of fish. Chris got several fish, both reds and blacks, while I got a black drum of about ten pounds. They weren't committing suicide like they had been. Lots of refusals and spooked fish, but Oh, so many chances.
I had three more strikes from big reds. Two I missed, one I hooked and lost. I got a couple top of the slot tailers on the paddle back. Altogether a most excellent day. Although I got another slam, I didn't shoot a single photo.
Friday found Chris and I back at the Banana River Lagoon, this time as a guest of Capt. Tom Van Horn. Tom had his poling machine canoe with him, and since the kayak had wrecked Chris's back the previous day he was riding in luxury. I was again in the kayak.
We paddled straight to where the fish had been the previous day. As happens so often, "Ya shoulda been here Yesterday!" They were mostly gone. Myers got a slot red there, and there were a few scattered singles around. The water was too deep there for me to see scattered singles that weren't tailing. I was discouraged after the sea world-like scene of the previous day.
I went paddling after Tom and Chris to tell them something. When I got there they were on a school of big fish. I took pictures for a while, hoping Chris would hook up. He didn't. Finally unable to stand it any more, I grabbed my rod.
Before casting to the fish I changed to a Merkin crab. On my third cast the line came tight. I only had the fish on for a few moments when the line went slack. I pulled it in and the fly was gone.
I tied another on, and worked to get into a good position again. I could see all the fish crossing in front of me and tossed the Merkin out in front of them. Again the line came tight. I struck. This time the leader held. Immediately I started surfing across the lagoon. After a short mindless run the fish pulled me out into deep water, and the real tug of war began.
The battle was long and hard, with Tom staying nearby and Chris taking pictures. I finally got the fish up to the boat, a monster black drum. Several years ago I got one 45 inches long with a 35 inch girth. This one was bigger. It was too big to pull it onto the kayak, so I got a double handed grip on its tail. We tried to figure out how to get it into water shallow enough that I could get out and we could get some pictures.
In the meantime the fish was resting. When he decided he'd had enough of the bondage, I couldn't hold him. I grabbed the leader and pulled him back, trying to get a grip again. I couldn't do it, and during the struggle the hook pulled out.
It was mangled. I wasn't surprised. It was only a #4, and did a heck of a job getting the fish to me in the first place.
Those were the only two bites I had, although Chris and Tom got several more smaller reds. The weather was again outstanding. It was another fantastic day.
Yesterday I met Rodney Smith at Port Canaveral. Terry Gibson was there with his boat. He had a five other people with him. Rodney and I took nine year old Adam into my boat, since I had some space.
The weather was perfect, the sea like glass. There were thousands of bluefish along the beach. We were catching them with DOA CAL and Cotee jigs.
After catching a few fish Adam lost interest in fishing and dug into my cooler. Wasn't I glad I had brought a bag of sliced barbecued hog meat and an entire barbecued hog shoulder! Adam was literally in hog heaven, and commenced to stuffing his face like he hadn't eaten in several days. Good stuff!
Rodney and I got sick of catching the blues and went looking for pompano. We didn't find any, not that it mattered much. Then a south wind came up. The water started to get whitecaps. I went over to Terry and told him I was heading in. At the jetty Rodney jumped a small tarpon, and caught a redfish. That finished another wonderful day, and the week!
I have some great photos this week. See them at http://www.spottedtail.com/ThisWeeksFishingReport.htm
Life is short- GO FISHING!!!
Life is great and I love my work!
If you have any questions or comments, or if you'd like to go fishing, please feel free to email me at spottedtail@spottedtail.com, or call at 407 977 5207.
John Kumiski
member, Indian River Guides Association,
Florida Outdoor Writers Association
