Lagoons Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 3/14/09
We had great weather again this week.
I had a Banana River Lagoon skiff charter scheduled for Wednesday. Since I had been there exactly once since August I thought maybe I should go look around. I did that on Monday, launching at Kelly Park at about 9 AM.
First I went to the westside flat, south of KARS Park. It was devoid of life. Next I went over to the locks. There were some 4-5 pound crevalle there. I got two on a jig, then left. I tried jigging briefly under the 528 bridge- nothing. South of 528 on the east side of the lagoon is a bombing target. I found nothing in that area. I tried jigging under the 520 bridge, lost a couple baits to puffers and got a small trout.
South of 520 on the east side there is a long bar. I poled along it for quite a way and saw nothing. I did get a couple bites on a jig in the deeper water off the bar and got another small trout.
Up in Newfound Harbor I found quite a few large spooky trout on the flat. While I didn't get a bite I was glad to have seen them.
North of Pineda Causeway on the westside flat I poled a long way. I found one school of redfish. They were very spooky. I got the fly into them several times and had a couple looks but no takes. I also saw a few small schools of black drum, moving fast, the way they do when they won't eat. I didn't take a cast at them. The boat was back on the trailer at about 2 PM.
Wednesday I showed up for my charter. I was to be part of a 17 boat extravaganza. As it turns out they had more guides than they needed so they handed me a check and told me to leave! I went to Parrish Park and launched the boat for some scouting, slightly irked that I didn't have a fly rod.
First I went to the spot where all the black drum had been the week before. They were all gone. Damn! Then I went to Tiger Shoal and poled across that large flat. There were a few redfish tailing, at which I didn't get a cast, and a lot of unhappy black drum cruising around. I took a couple of casts at these but wasn't surprised to not get a bite.
I then went looking around some of the spoil islands. I found a few trout and caught and released a couple slot reds. The boat was on the trailer at about 3 PM.
Thursday Mr. Brian Graves met me at 8 AM and we went looking for black drum. We found some but they wouldn't tail. We left them to do something else.
Brian asked me, "Do you remember those big fish we saw last time I was here? Are they still there?" I didn't know but we went to look. They were.
I had the shrimp, nice and dead, left over from my non-charter the day before. It was a good thing because those fish would not take any of our artificials. In the next three hours Brian had four bites on those dead shrimp and boated four reds between about 18 pounds to about 30 pounds. That big fish was a pig. I had trouble lifting it into the boat.
Then the wind came up and clouds rolled in and we couldn't see them any more. We tried a few other spots but didn't get another fish. Still, those four fish definitely made the day. Here's what Brian had to say when he emailed out the photos: "These are three of the redfish I caught yesterday at Mosquito Lagoon fishing with my favorite guide, Captain John Kumiski. These three were 20+lbs, with the biggest estimated to be in the 30lb category. What a fabulous day!!"
Friday Dr. George Yarko joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing. Of course I went straight to the big fish spot. I didn't pole five minutes before a tail popped out of the water. George made one cast with a dead shrimp and hooked a red of about 15 pounds. Nice fish for the first cast!
It was partly cloudy and the fish stayed in deeper water than the previous day. We had trouble seeing them and kept running them over. Finally, frustrated, we used some shrimp to catch a couple pinfish and chunked with them the last hour we were there. That didn't work either. The boat was on the trailer at about 12:30 and the fish George got on his first cast was the only one we got.
Life is short- GO FISHING!
And life is great and I love my work!
John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
member Florida Outdoor Writers Association (www.fowa.org),
Indian River Guides association (www.irga.org)
