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Indian River Lagoon & Banana River
Capt. John Kumiski
May 1, 2006
Titusville - Saltwater Fishing Report
Mosquito Lagoon report from Spotted Tail 5/1/06
Mosquito Lagoon fishing report from Spotted Tail, 5/1/06
Now booking tarpon trips for May and June along the Lee County Coast!
I apologize for the late report, and for any inconvenience it may have caused. I have been busy fishing and time has been tight.
I did have last Tuesday off though, and used some of that day to stock my tarpon stretcher box with flies. Today is May 1, and tarpon time is here, gentlemen! I can't wait to cast to those big, bad boys!
Last week reader Stephen L. Baker called and asked me, "If Cajun Red line disappears in the water, why do Bleeding Bait hooks stimulate strikes?" I had eight responses to this question, all of which can be seen at this link:
http://www.spottedtail.com
My sincere thanks to everyone who participated. As far as the winner of the prize pack, Frank Gidus wins one for his excellent taste in literature, and Kirk Dunaway wins one for the amount of research he did to give a very complete answer to the question. Gentlemen, email me your snail mail addresses and I will get your prizes off in the mail!
Who turned the cosmic fan on, and how do we switch it off? It's been a little breezy, no? . Mosquito Lagoon was the only place I fished this week. See such photos as I have at http://www.spottedtail.com
Monday, 4/24 - Gus Paul joined me on Spotted Tail. He got three reds and a trout (all in the slot) at our first stop, and a crevalle at our second. We used a chug bug, Johnson minnow, and an assortment of soft plastic baits. We saw fish all day long and could not buy another strike. It turned out to be the theme of the week. We enjoyed ourselves, though.
Wednesday, 4/26 - David and Michael Edgar, Floridians both and a father and son team, joined me. Michael, an eighth grader, got to play hookey to go fishing, that lucky boy! He wasn't that lucky, though, because bites were hard to come by. Dad got a nice red on a chug bug almost immediately. We got an assortment of fish after that, including trout, crevalle, and ladyfish, but we worked hard for every one of them, and none of them were particularly impressive size-wise. We found a school of redfish and got off exactly two casts before they sped off, leaving us in the mud, so to speak. The only three baits that worked at all were the chug bug, the Johnson minnow, and the DOA glow shrimp. We did have a good time!
Thursday- Bill Angevine, a NH native, joined me. Again, we saw quite a few fish, even the same school as the previous day (we didn't even get a cast off this time). Even a tailer! We ended up getting two reds (slot fish) and a slot trout. Bill had quite a few fish smack the chug bug, fish that seemed quite expert at avoiding the hook. I talked to Bill on the phone last night and he said he had a wonderful time down here, with the day of fishing being the highlight. We had fun tossing baits to the uncooperative fish we did see.
Friday - Jeff Check, a Coloradoan (is that a word?) joined me. Jeff used plugging tackle to toss a Zara Spook. Again, we saw quite a few fish, and actually we ended up getting three slot reds, six or seven trout to maybe 20 inches, and a half dozen ladyfish. In terms of numbers it was by far the best day of the week. The fish just didn't want to eat, every opportunity had to be a sales job. Jeff is a great guy, and we had a great time.
Saturday, Sunday, and today I fished one of my favorite anglers, Dr. Bud Robertson, a fly fisherman from Savannah. He brought another doctor/fly caster with him, Steve Carpenter. We went out on Saturday to a surprisingly uncrowded Mosquito Lagoon. Oh, that's right, people don't enjoy fishing in 20-25 mph winds! We had four legitimate fly shots at reds all day and managed to hook two, but only boated one. We also got some smallish trout and ladyfish on jigs, and that was it for the day. I talked to Tom Van Horn, who fished the Redbone, who told me that half the boats didn't get a fish that day. I saw Mark Wright at the dock, and he had gotten one trout and one red. At least it wasn't just us.
Sunday, just to increase the degree of difficulty, we went kayak fly fishing. It was still blowing like mad, and was overcast on top of everything else. We started off with a bang. I got a black drum almost immediately, and then Steve got a nice 27 inch red. Things slowed down then, I'll tell you that. We ended up hooking seven reds and one black drum, landing five reds and the one black drum. It was a lot of work for a fairly small payoff, but we had the entire area to ourselves because of the yucky weather.
This morning we went wading for our breakfast fishing. Dr. Bud had a hot rod, getting four reds in a row and having crevalle for dessert, all on an Electric Sushi fly, all in about 20 minutes. Then the bottom fell out. We fished hard from the skiff the rest of the morning, with Steve getting one red on a CAL jig, and we missed a couple of marginal opportunities for both reds and trout. We were off the water at noon.
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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