Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 12/9/07


Those who read the report last week realize that this will be a “short week” report, since last week’s went into Tuesday of this week.

Wednesday I actually had a charter. Since my new boat is still not ready, Karl Dienst was kind enough to loan me his Bonefisher. My angler was Max Lupini, a snowbird who winters in Winter Haven. Max had never fished in saltwater before. As you might imagine his casting skills were somewhat suspect, although he certainly casts well enough to catch some fish!
The weather was splendid, the kind of day that makes you glad to live in Florida- temps in the low 70’s, clear skies, light breeze, just a perfect winter’s day. (It’s been like this all week!) There were fish everyplace. They were not eating very well. When fishing is decent I go weeks without changing flies. This day I changed six or eight times. Max got his first ever redfish, a dink of 18 inches or so, on an Electric Sushi. Any kind of a weighted fly spooked them when it hit the water. His next fish was a 20 inch red caught on a Dupre Spoonfly, and his last fish, caught on his last cast, was a 26 inch red, also on the spoonfly. If the fish had been biting reasonably well he would have gotten 10 or 12. You done good, Max!

Thursday Shawn Healy and I launched the kayaks at River Breeze. I thought to myself as I readied the boats for paddling that the water level was down to good kayaking depth, and I was licking my chops. The fish turned out to be less enthused about things. I had two shots all afternoon. Neither fish bit. There just weren’t many fish around. Shawn didn’t get a bite either. We ended up just before sunset (which was spectacular), both stinking big-time of skunk. That having been said, it would have been hard to have had a nicer paddle. I got some fair bird photos.

Friday Joe Mulson and I went kayak fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. Joe had never kayak fished before. He’s 79 years old and has had hip replacement surgery so I kept the paddle short. It still didn’t work real well for him. He just couldn’t get comfortable. We did get three reds and a trout between us, none of them particularly large (although two reds were in the slot), all on a sexyfly bendback. Again, any kind of weighted fly blew the fish out when it hit the water.

Today is another splendid day, although I’ll be watching the NFL on the tube this afternoon. This week, though, I’ll get some fishing in!

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)