Two Days Fishing, Two BIG Lagoon Redfish

[Fishing Report]

Two Days Fishing, Two BIG Lagoon Redfish

The Report from Spotted Tail 4/22/11

Upcoming Events-
-Space Shuttle Endeavour is targeted to launch 3:47 p.m. EDT, April 29. I am actively soliciting a charter for this date. Rumor has it that this will be the final Space Shuttle flight EVER. Watch the launch and fish, simultaneously!
-On May 7 I'll be giving free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. We'll be tying Clouser Minnows.
Come out and see us, and walk out with some new flies!
-On May 21 I'll be giving a seminar called Fly Fishing for West Coast Tarpon at Mosquito Creek Outdoors, starting at 10 AM. Tom Van Horn will also be giving a tarpon seminar aimed at east coast fish.

Tuesday night at 9 PM I made a last check of the answering machine.
There was a message on it that I immediately responded to. Because I did I had a charter on Wednesday with two delightful young men. Austin Warmus and his buddy Jonathan, both 17 years old, both from Raleigh NC, joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. Austin had been on several fishing charters prior to this one and had never really caught anything. Nothing like a little pressure on the guide.
For most of the day we did not have great success.
Redfish were fairly scarce and those we did find were uncooperative.
We got several trout (mostly small) on DOA Shrimp, a couple ladyfish, and a bluefish. I stashed the ladies for future reference.
With 30 minutes left I went to a chunking spot, staked out, and chunked some ladyfish pieces. Pinfish ate us up. On the last piece, almost out of time, the rod went off. Austin grabbed it and the battle was on.
Austin won. Here he is with the conquered. The fish was released. Austin kicked his bad luck in the teeth.

Friday morning I dragged my butt out of bed at 115 AM and drove over to Tom Van Horn's house. On the way to the Indian River Lagoon we picked up Scott Radloff. We launched the boat before three and went plugging. I had several bites that I missed before we got a decent trout. Tom decided that since the surface plug bite was slow we should chunk. Good call.
We got five reds, one in the slot, the rest well over, and one Buulll that I subdued with a new Stradic and an old Cape Fear rod.

So I was only out two days and didn't touch a fly rod this week. Still haven't caught a fish on any of the new rods I bought a couple weeks ago. Have tied a lot of flies though!

Embrace simplicity.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

[Fishing Report]

The Report from Spotted Tail 4/17/11

Upcoming Events-
-Space Shuttle Endeavour is targeted to launch 3:47 p.m. EDT, April 29. I am actively soliciting a charter for this date. Rumor has it that this will be the final Space Shuttle flight EVER. Watch the launch and fish, simultaneously!
-On May 7 I'll be giving free fly tying lessons at Mosquito Creek Outdoors in Apopka, starting at noon. We'll be tying Clouser Minnows.
Come out and see us, and walk out with some new flies!
-On May 21 I'll be giving a seminar called Fly Fishing for West Coast Tarpon at Mosquito Creek Outdoors, starting at 10 AM. Tom Van Horn will also be giving a tarpon seminar aimed at east coast fish.

I thought the Bang-O-Craft was ready to rumble, so I took it for a spin on Wednesday. It made it about 300 yards and then it dies. Had to pole back to the ramp. Arrrrghgghhh- so aggravating. No scouting accomplished.

Friday my fishermen were Shane Arline and his friend Lieutenant Colonel Big Ed, both from North Dakota. It was cloudy and windy, hard out of the southeast. We started in the Mosquito Lagoon. Ed caught a redfish almost immediately on a gold Johnson Minnow. Then we went a good while without a bite so we moved to deeper water and tried trout fishing. Using DOA Glow Shrimp we got quite a few, although they were all small. We also got a couple bluefish and a few ladyfish. I tossed a ladyfish into the bucket for future reference.
The bite slowed so I took the boat through the Haulover Canal and tried the east side of the Indian River Lagoon, thinking we could get out of the wind. HA! no chance. We fished all the way up to Griffis Bay with a few small trout and ladies to show for it.
We ran back to the Mosquito Lagoon and put out a couple of cut ladyfish lines where we had seen a few reds earlier. The action wasn't hot but we got two more to about 28 inches. Considering the weather I thought it was a pretty fair day.

Today, Sunday, John Ramsey bought the birthday boy Alejandro aboard for a nice birthday present of a fishing trip. Alejandro was 14 years old today- Happy birthday, buddy! We started by fishing for trout, again using DOA Glow Shrimp. It was a pretty good bite. Although most of the fish were undersized, we did get a few decent ones. There were no blues today, but a few ladies came aboard. I again threw one in the bucket for future reference.
Toward the end of the fare I poled in close to shore and tossed a couple ladyfish chunks out. Alejandro was rewarded with a strong bite from a surprising large redfish. I was considering chasing it, as the fish ran a long way and the line level on the spool got dangerously low. However, and very sadly, the fish broke off before I could put my plan into action. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we ended our fishing trip.

Embrace simplicity.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/