Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 4/26/09
Tarpon Fishing! I'm trying to fill holes in my calendar for tarpon dates. I've got May 20-24, 28 and 29 open, as well as June 3-11 and 14-16. So let's hear that phone ring! Book now before it's too late!
Upcoming Events- May 16 I'll be doing a book signing while giving a fly tying demonstration at Andy Thornall Outfitters in Winter Haven. Call Allen Wyatt at (800) 499-9890 for more information.
The astute reader will observe I didn't write a report last week. My bad. I only fished one day, out of Port Canaveral with Shawn Healy on Thursday the 16th. We covered a lot of ground without finding much but finally found a lot of Spanish mackerel and bluefish off the beach at Cape Canaveral. We caught a load of fish and Shawn caught the biggest Spanish I've seen in a long time, a fish of about six pounds. It took a live menhaden.
Monday and Tuesday this past week Ray Kaatz, a fly caster from Illinois, joined me for two days on the Mosquito Lagoon. Monday was overcast and quite breezy, blowing about 15-20 out of the southwest. I tried staying in protected areas all day. We saw a reasonable number of fish, but always at a distance of 20 feet or less. He only had a couple of decent shots all day, and did not convert.
Tuesday, however, the sun was out and while there was air movement it was quite a bit less than the previous day, easy to deal with. We found a nice school of large redfish right away. Six fly changes and three hours later we left them, frustrated and aggravated (us, not them). We had failed to get a bite.
That pattern repeated itself all day long. Although we didn't find another school of fish we did find quite a few singles and pairs of both trout and reds. We never got a bite and at about 4 PM gave up not having gotten a bite in two days. Very sad.
Thursday Michael Ott, from upstate New York, joined me for a day's fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. It was picture perfect weather, sunny with almost no wind. We went to the same school of fish that had so badly snubbed Ray on Tuesday. Michael got one strike on a jerkbait. He missed it, and that was the last bite we got. We tried jigs, the DOA Crab, a crab fly, various things. They wouldn't bite again.
We left and went to another spot. There were scattered fish lying in holes, looking for trouble. Michael would cast, they would flee. After 30 or 40 minutes of that stuff I said, "Today is a perfect day to be on the ocean. Do you want to try it?" He said yes so we packed it up and drove to Port Canaveral.
There were thousands of bluefish and Spanish mackerel along the beach at Cape Canaveral. We caught them two at a time for a couple hours, basically until we were sick of it. Although the wind had come up out of the southeast and it was getting sloppy I wanted to see if the bait pods were still off Cocoa Beach, and if so if there were any fish around them. We headed off that way.
On the way a funny thing happened. I spotted a school of giant jack crevalle. We only had three light inshore spin rods in the boat but I put a one ounce jig head on one and threaded a 5 inch DOA CAL tail onto it. It took a few tries but Michael convinced a jack to take the jig and an almost hour long battle followed.
Michael had to stand on the stern of the boat, using the poling tower as a lean bar so he wouldn't fall overboard. The boat rolled and pitched in the waves, which frequently came over the gunwale. The bilge pump was on the whole time. We chased the fish about a mile out to sea. It was exciting stuff, extremely manly.
You might realize the transom is not the ideal place to be fighting a fish like this. The motor is a big obstacle to work around, and there's no good way to avoid it. The fight ended, as we both thought it would, when the fish managed to pull the line into the motor and cut it. We headed back into the Port at that point, happy about having left the lagoon for some fish that would actually eat.
Friday morning found Scott Radloff and I cruising south along Cocoa Beach in the Mitzi, looking for pogies. The first school we found was about a half mile south of the pier. I caught a hundred or so on the first throw of the net, and then we went looking for the jacks. I had a couple of 20 pound spin outfits this time, not wanting to be undergunned again. Photos at www.spottedtail.com/ThisWeeksFishingReport.htm
We found the jacks in Canaveral Bight. I hooked up on the first ones we threw to. They do love a lively menhaden! Twenty minutes later Scott pulled the beast into the boat. It immediately spit up a croaker that weighed about 12 ounces. A couple of photos later we released the fish and went looking for more.
Skipping all the gruesome details, we hooked eight or so and put three in the boat, the rest breaking off. After catching my second one my heart was pounding and I was breathing hard so I suggested we go catch a few Spanish mackerel.
We went along the beach but didn't find any macks. The blues were there though, thick as dogs. Scott was tossing a Gotcha and was catching them two at a time (see photo). After the jacks the little fish weren't a lot of fun, so after an hour of so we back looking for the jacks.
We hooked a half dozen more and put two more in the boat. After enjoying tremendous fishing and feeling thoroughly pleased with ourselves we bagged it at 2 PM.
Yesterday I watched the Red Sox/Yankees game. I was despairing when it was 6-0, but the Sox came bombing back and took the game handily at 16-11. Not exactly a pitcher's duel, but very entertaining, unless you're a Yankees fan. I'm not.
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)
