Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 5/18/09
We had the strangest weather today, but I get ahead of myself. I also saw my first tarpon this year, a good-sized roller in the Haulover Canal.
Wednesday last week son Maxx and I went canoe fishing on the Indian River Lagoon. We found a bunch of tailing fish. I thought they were reds but they were black drum. We wasted 30 minutes throwing the wrong fly. When we switched to the redfish worm Maxx got bit right away but missed it. He got the crawler red that hit it though. Then we switched pushpole for fishing rod and I got a red on the redfish worm too. In the meantime the blacks disappeared and we didn't get another shot at one. Maxx had a couple more marginal shots at reds and then they turned off too. We were done at noon.
Friday Maxx and I joined Dr. George Yarko and his son Shawn on the Copout, captained by Jeff Brown, a 29 foot Angler working out of Port Canaveral. The seas were snotty, four foot or so with chop. We got a bunch of pogies on the first throw of the net and then went fishing. We got nothing until we got to the 8A Reef. Maxx struck first in a big way with a 32 pound king mackerel. George got a bonito, then I got a 25 pound king, then George got a snake, then Maxx got another king about ten pounds. Poor Shawn was out of the rotation, suffering from mal de mer. By then it was about 2 PM and storms were approaching so we headed back to port.
Capt. Jeff is a very knowledgeable professional. I recommend him highly. Check out his operation at www.copoutfishing.com.
Sunday Dr. Bud Robertson and his son Christian joined me for two days of fly fishing. We went out by kayak to the place Maxx and I had gone to on Wednesday. Did we find tailing black drum? No, of course not. Bud went one way and Chris and I went the other. We saw some crawler reds and while Chris threw to one I threw to another. I got the fish on the first cast, then thought it best that I put the rod away. I spent the rest of the morning trying to get Chris hooked up without success. Bud didn't hook up, either.
The fishing died so we put the boats back on the roof and drove to the Mosquito Lagoon. A paddle of about a mile put us into some crawler reds. Chris had three or four wonderful shots at fish in three or four inches of water but couldn't seal the deal. Bud had some shots too, but likewise didn't connect. By this time we had a solid 12-15 out of the southeast and fishing was getting very tough, so we bagged it for the day.
Today we took out the Mitzi, launching at Haulover. We fished the entire morning in one spot. Although it was overcast we had no trouble seeing the fish since they were tailing in groups as small as three to as large as 100 or so. We saw lots and lots of tailing fish! However, they weren't exactly suicidal.
Bud got one on a Slider fairly quickly but we went a long time and spooked a lot of fish before we got another bite. Chris had two hit a CAL jerkworm but he missed both of them. Bud hooked another on a Merkin and then another on the Slider and both came unbuttoned.
All the while we watched the sky to the northwest get darker and more ominous, and watched the dark sky get closer and closer to us. It got to a point where you could clearly see the edge of the frontal boundary stretching off to the east. Then the front passed us. The temperature dropped 10 degrees in a flash, and the wind turned to the north and started blowing at least 20 mph. Incredibly, we had shots at two more schools of tailing fish before the rain started pelting.
At that point we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the boat ramp. It had been an entertaining if somewhat frustrating morning.
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)
