Indian River Lagoon & Banana River
Capt. John Kumiski
December 24, 2005
Titusville - Saltwater Fishing Report
Spotted Tail Mosquito Lagoon report 12/24
Spotted Tail Mosquito Lagoon fishing report, 12/24/05
First off, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanza, etc. I hope you enjoy whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year! And, most sincere wishes to all for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
Fishing, yes, that's important too. Just to give you an idea of the kind of weather we had this week, last week the surf temperature at Port Canaveral was 67 degrees. Yesterday it was 59. It's hard to catch fish this time of year when the water temperature is dropping. On the bright side, the water in the lagoon has cleared up as if by magic. It's now very clear.
Monday afternoon I drove to Titusville with the kayak on the roof, hoping to get a couple of hours of fishing in. The puddles had whitecaps, not a good sign. When I got out of the truck I had to hang on to it to keep from blowing away. I should have had a kite instead of a fly rod. The kayak stayed on the racks, and I returned home without incident.
Tuesday fly caster Dr. Todd Preuss, a fly caster from Atlanta, joined me for a windy, cold, and somewhat overcast day on the Mosquito Lagoon. By working hard and blindcasting a rattle fly all day long, Todd managed not only to catch a fish, but several fairly nice ones. He ended up with four reds to about 25 inches, and a couple small trout too. God sure smiled on us, that's all I can say.
Wednesday Tom Van Horn brought Maxx and I into the no motor zone for some cold, windy fishing. I started things off by catching six or eight 10 inch trout, not real exciting fishing. Then Tom got a red about 10 or 12 pounds on a Wedgetail Minnow. Then Maxx got a five pound trout on a jig. Now almost frostbitten, we heated up in a hurry paddling against a 20 knot wind to get back to the truck. The things people do for fun, I tell ya!
Thursday we had more cold north winds, but at least the skies were clear. Mike Wong and his brother in law Chris Wenkle joined me for a day on the Mosquito Lagoon. We worked hard and very unsuccessfully all morning. Finally, just before lunch, we found some reds and trout. We ended up getting seven or eight reds to 25 inches and a dozen or so trout to about 12"on 4" DOA CAL jerk baits, DOA Glow Shrimp, and RipTide weedless jigs. Not a great day, but I'll take it gladly given the conditions. I've certainly had worse days!
One note for those of you who like to use those stinky baits, one of the reds I cleaned yesterday had a Gulp in its stomach. It was the second fish I've cleaned that had a Gulp, and I also cleaned one a while back that had ingested an Exude. How many fish are dying from these things blocking their intestines, I wonder? There's not a lot of nutritive value in a Gulp or an Exude, and I bet they take a REAL long time to digest.
Today son Maxx and I went to the Mosquito Lagoon. It was slick calm, and that was like a whole new experience! We found a load of fish, but they were very spooky, and were completely boogered up by all the boat traffic. Every time they'd start to relax here would come another boat and off they'd go again. We managed to get three reds, Maxx getting one on a black Redfish Worm fly, me getting two on a RipTide weedless shrimp. As we were leaving the wind was coming up, and a front is supposed to come through tomorrow. Another cold, windy week coming up, perhaps?
I asked last week if anyone had any good methods of casting flies with spinning tackle. I was surprised and gratified that about 20 folks responded with a variety of answers. I would like to, and will, summarize the results and choose the raffle winner but since it's Christmas Eve I'm going to do it next week instead of right now.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Upcoming Events-
January-
-I will be giving a talk about fishing the Indian River Lagoon system and signing books at the Orange County Public Library in Orlando on January 8 at 2 PM.
-On January 14 I will be speaking at the Daytona Boat Show.
-On January 16 I'll be speaking to the North Florida Fly Fishers in Gainesville.
-A MINWR Show and Tell Fishing Seminar is scheduled for 1/28.
Remember- life is short. GO FISHING!
Life is great and I love my work!!
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at [email protected], or call at 407 977 5207.
John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com
member, Indian River Guides Association,
Florida Outdoor Writers Association
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