[John Kumiski]

Space Coast Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 2/25/08


Monday last week I sat down and got my taxes done. It’s not fishing, but it is necessary.

Tuesday I took care of other administrative business.

See this week’s photos at ThisWeeksFishingReport

Wednesday Chris Myers and Marcia Foosaner joined me for a no motor zone trip. The day started off just beautifully, but ended up all cloudy. The fish were scarce. I didn’t see one until after 10 AM. I didn’t get a shot until after noon time, and that was because an ibis flew over a shallow water red, causing it to jump. I heard the splash and went to investigate. My cast was good, the fish rushed the fly, and I missed it. The fish wouldn’t look at the fly again. I missed another half-hearted bite later in the day and got a redfish at 330 PM on my final cast. Marcia got one trout, and Chris was skunked. It was tough fishing.

Thursday Tom Van Horn wanted me to join him, again in the no motor zone. He wanted to test a new outrigger system for his canoe. I told him we wouldn’t see much. It was cloudy and windy. We did see tons (literally) of manatees! I had two shots. Both fish fled in terror. We were off the water by 11 AM.

Friday Tom and I went out in the Mitzi, scouting in the Mosquito Lagoon. It was mostly cloudy and windy, about 15 mph. Although we saw a few everywhere we looked, fish were scarce and we didn’t get a bite.

Friday night my fisherman for Saturday called to tell me he had to cancel because his brother had passed away that day. Events like that put fishing in its proper perspective.

Yesterday I joined Shawn and Daniel Healy on Shawn’s Sea Pro for an Atlantic Ocean trip. Shawn’s friend Ken was out in his boat and we were double-dating so to speak. Before we even got out of the Port I saw a mackerel jump. I tossed a jig in the vicinity twice, and hooked and landed the little guy (about 12 inches) on the second cast.
We netted some menhaden right outside of the port entrance and then went fishing.
It was overcast and sometimes foggy. Off the beach a couple miles out you couldn’t see land and it was very disorienting. I was glad we had a compass and GPS.
We fished the first place, off Patrick AFB, for 30-40 minutes without success. On the way to the next spot Ken veered hard to the right and came off plane. He’d spotted a manta ray. I cast a large jig over that ray a half dozen times without success, so I asked Shawn for a menhaden. He handed me a rod all rigged. The menhaden landed by the ray and a fish bit it. I stuck it and handed the rod to Daniel and grabbed a camera.
In the meantime the ray got away. Ken went looking for it but we never did find it, or any others, the rest of the day.
Meanwhile Daniel had his hands very full with what turned out to be by far the largest fish he’d ever caught, a cobia in the 38 inch range, probably about 20 pounds. Shawn eventually gaffed it and we all had fish for supper last night.
The next stop netted Daniel 5 blacktip sharks, small ones in the 10-15 pound range.
Tiring of that we checked out a few other spots, then headed in to fish along the beach. I got a weakfish on a jig, and then a whiting. Then such bite as there was shut down completely. We were back at the dock about 330 PM.

The next couple of days I have a home maintenance project to work on, always a good time!

Life is short- GO FISHING!!!

Life is great and I love my work!

John Kumiski