Banana River Report 6/13
Capt. John Kumiski
June 13, 2010
Orlando - Saltwater Fishing Report
Orlando Area Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 6/13/10
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who braved the blazing mid-90s heat yesterday to come out to the Coastal Angler Magazine Boating and Fishing Expo in Rockledge. It was a small but enthusiastic crowd, and we were all sure that if someone was there, they reallllly wanted to be there. So thanks!
Next, there's a strong chance that next week will be reportless. My bride and I are going away for a few days to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Fishing is not on the agenda. I am also in the middle of painting my house, as well as packing for the summer. So I probably won't get to fish this coming week.
Which is really a shame because word on the street is that fishing along the beaches is red hot, with tarpon, sharks, king mackerel, big crevalle, and cobia all working it. If you get a chance to fish this week, that's the place to go, from Cape Canaveral at least as far south as Satellite Beach.
I went scouting on the Banana River Lagoon on Wednesday, accompanied by my favorite bassoonist, Scott Radloff. I hadn't been there in a while and was not sure what if anything to expect. We found a school of ladyfish working under gulls and hooked several. Then I got on a eastside shoreline and started poling.
We didn't catch any fish there, but we did see quite a few baby tarpon and redfish, surprisingly in the same areas. When I felt I had seen enough we idled out of the manatee zone and ran over to the west side. It wasn't a good idea.
The wind was northwest at about 12 and the waves were coming over the bow over there. We saw a few baby tarpon rolling but fishing was next to impossible. One hardhead cat was the reward for that particular effort.
Casting jigs over a deeper grassflat Scott got a small trout. By this time it was about noon, getting hot, too windy, and I had other things to do. So we bagged it.
I was back the next morning. I met Bob Brinck, a fly fisher from Vermont. The ladyfish were not breaking, so we went back to the spot where the baby tarpon were. They were still there strangely enough, but Bob didn't get a sniff. We could only see them when they rolled and Bob seemed less than thrilled about casting blindly to them.
We poled the shoreline looking for reds. We saw one here and one there but there were fewer than the previous day, and it's not like Scott and I had seen a load of them. So Bob had a couple of shots casting to fish I could see but he couldn't. Need I say that that didn't work?
We headed over to the west side to see if the tarpon were still there. I was glad I idled the entire way out of the manatee zone because an FWC officer stopped us on the way over. He'd been watching me the entire time. We were good, though, and continued without incident.
The tarpon weren't where they had been the previous day. We checked a couple spots for reds but didn't see any. So off to another spot we went.
We poled down a bar for about a mile. We had a few shots there at both trout and reds, but it was slow. There weren't many fish and the ones there were all laid up, hard to see with the clouds and discolored water.
By now it was after noon. By mutual consent we decided we'd had enough, and returned to the dock.
Doug Blanton was there. I hadn't seen him in a long while and we chatted for a while. It was good to see him and it should happen more often!
Embrace simplicity.
Life is great!
Life is short- go fishing!
John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
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