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For Sale- Ocean Kayak Drifter with seat and paddle- $400 firm. This kayak is very stable. If you have any sense of balance you can stand up in this boat. Call me at 407.977.5207. or email me at john@spottedtail.com.

HOHOHO- Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous, and fish-filled New Year to all!

Photos, as usual, at http://www.spottedtail.com/ThisWeeksFishingReport.htm

Shawn Healy and I took a no motor zone trip on Tuesday. It was mostly cloudy but the winds were light. The clouds made it hard to see. We didn’t see a fish until noon. Then I wouldn’t say the floodgates opened but once we found those first few we found them pretty steadily. We ended up with 14 or so reds to over 25 pounds and a single black drum. All were caught on a black redfish worm fly. It was a good afternoon!

Wednesday I went kayaking out of River Breeze. I had heard all of these red tide reports and was wondering what I would find. The water looked good, there was a lot of bait, birds, etc. I didn’t find too many fish but did get two slot sized reds that I found tailing. I left their buddies there since I was scouting. I didn’t see too many more though. They all seemed to be in that one area. The water was very low.

Thursday Lee and Tharen Dunn joined me for a day’s fly fishing in the no motor zone. Friend Tom Van Horn had told me there was a Delta rocket launch scheduled for a few minutes after 7 AM. We didn’t get there until almost 10, so I didn’t give it any thought. We launched the boats and went fishing. It was much slower than Tuesday. Lee and I combined for four slot reds all day. But the Delta went off and it couldn’t have been more than a mile away from us, a very exciting moment. I’m sure we weren’t supposed to be in there but Security never bothered us even though we were there five or six hours.

Friday I was supposed to fish Lee and Tharen again, but a large, windy and rainy storm came through Friday morning. We cancelled the trip.

Saturday my favorite brain researcher, Todd Preuss, joined me for a day’s kayak fly fishing. We launched out of River Breeze. The forecast was for 76 degrees, partly cloudy, northeast winds at 5-10. It was overcast, spitting rain, and blowing 10-15 out of the north when we launched. I had a few choice things to say about the weatherman.
We made it to one of my favorite holes where we combined for four reds and a trout while blind casting, a very encouraging sign. Then the clouds started breaking up. We went paddling again and started seeing fish working the shoreline, tailing, etc. Then we entered a shallow, grass-bottomed bay that was full of tailing reds. The sun was out, the wind layed down, the fish were feeding aggressively, and we got at least six between us while blowing numerous shots, missing strikes, the usual stupid stuff. It turned out to be a beautiful, fish-filled day and we both had a great time.

Yesterday son Maxx and his non-fishing friend Logan Katz joined me for a day’s paddle fishing, again out of River Breeze. Every year at Christmas dinner I stuff and bake a whole redfish, one of the few times I kill a fish during the year. We were hoping to catch this year’s dinner and brought some frozen mullet with us to that end. Maxx and I at least would have done better with fly tackle. Logan got a red in just a few minutes in one pond, just chunking. But when we started sight fishing it was very hard to get a fish. You’d cast to the fish, the bait would hit the water, and the fish would blow out. Or you’d cast away from the fish, reel the bait towards it, and the fish would blow out. And of course Logan, never having fished before, wasn’t terribly skilled. Nonetheless, he got two reds, I got one, and poor Maxx went fishless. Both Logan and I have a fish for Christmas dinner, so the mission eventually was accomplished. But I am sticking to fly tackle for all my shallow water sight fishing from now on.

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)