Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 11/11/07


Hi everyone- beautiful weather this week, splendid weather. In spite of having other obligations I actually got out to enjoy it several times.

Monday morning I had some work to do in the office. I finished it in time that I was going to go to KARS Park after a few errands. While running them I called Tom Van Horn who, unbelievably, was home with nothing important to do. I picked him and his kayak up and we went to the no motor zone together.
It was little windier than you’d like to see but of course we went fishing anyway. The water was still too high for effective kayak fishing, especially as off-color as it was. I ended up tying the painter around my waist and wading. Using a Twisty Tail Fly I had shots at one black drum, one sheepshead, and about a dozed reds. I had two bites from reds and landed one slot fish. Tom got three snook, although exactly how he did that I don’t know. I do know he was using a Clouser Minnow.

Tuesday Maxx and I took a canoe down the Econlockhatchee River, starting at SR 50 and ending at CR 419. We had never been down this stretch of river before. There’s less evidence of human intrusion on this section than on the 419 to Snow Hill Road stretch, but there are a lot of blowdowns where you have to get out and drag the boat around or over. It’s physical and time-consuming. Although we had a lovely paddle and really enjoyed the day we didn’t catch a fish. One possible explanation is that we didn’t bring any tackle.

After getting my office work done on Friday I drove out to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge to do some kayak fishing. As I went over the Max Brewer Causeway I couldn’t help notice that my truck was rocking back and forth and the Indian River Lagoon was solid whitecaps. I got to the place I intended to start fishing, got out of the car, and decided I didn’t want to kayak quite that badly. I decided to cruise the dike roads instead and look for running culverts. Both the dike roads I checked were barricaded. I took the hint and went home without wetting a line.

Yesterday D.C. resident Doug Britt and I went canoe fly fishing out of River Breeze. The water was lower than it had been, significantly so, a good thing. Fishing was not spectacular but was steady, with shots coming more or less continuously every 15 minutes or so. Using a Sili-Shrimp Doug managed nine bites with seven slot redfish boated and released in about six hours, not at all a bad day fly fishing. I think as the water drops and clears that action will only improve.

Remember- Life is short- GO FISHING!

Life is great and I love my work!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
member Florida Outdoor Writers Association (www.fowa.org), Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (www.seopa.org), Indian River Guides association (www.irga.org)