Capt John Kumiski, 10/1/2016

Mullet Run Orlando Fishing Report 93016

The mullets are pretty thick along the beaches right now, thus the mullet run Orlando Fishing Report.

Because they spend so much time in the sun, fishermen are at greater-than-normal risk for skin cancer. Visit this link for tips on avoiding this dangerous but preventable illness: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/pdf/skincancer_family.pdf

Here in central Florida, the beautyberries are ripe. While you can find tastier berries, beautyberries certainly are edible. It’s so nice of nature to leave these out where we can gather and enjoy them, at no charge other than a few moments of our time!

BLOG POSTS THIS WEEK
What A Fish Knows- A Review. http://www.spottedtail.com/blog/what-a-fish-knows-a-review/ A great book, of interest to anyone who cares about fish!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 15; http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/
Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, October 16; http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/

FOR SALE
EZ Loader Trailer- http://orlando.craigslist.org/bpo/5764303987.html
Wurlitzer Piano- http://orlando.craigslist.org/msg/5764347708.html

Sunday an email came in from Chris Myers. Paraphrased, it said he’d found a bunch of tarpon in the Mosquito Lagoon from 5-30 pounds, and they were eating. Did I want to fish on Monday?

I met him a 0545 and off we went. The fish were not where they had been. Still, he looked around and found a different bunch of tarpon. They were less than five pounds, and way less than 30. Still, they were tarpon. I missed a bunch and boated two on a small minnow pattern.

When that stopped working we went looking for redfish. We found an area where there were quite a few, with enough tailing that you could see where they were. I would like to report that we got several, but we didn’t get any, on either fly or spin tackle. It was good to see them, though.

My bait freezer was as bare as old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, and something needed to be done about that, so Tuesday son Alex and I went to Port Canaveral. We caught a few mullet at the boat ramp, then pointed the bow of the Mitzi at Satellite Beach, hoping to find something scintillating along the way.

There were menhaden just north of the Cocoa Beach pier. Nothing other than a few pelicans was working them. We kept going.

We found a big pod of feeding Spanish mackerel before we got to Patrick AFB, and got six or eight on fly (in my case the same one I got the tarpon on the previous day). Then we continued looking. I wanted big tarpon.

We got to Satellite Beach without seeing anything else, so I turned the boat towards Spain and went out a couple of miles. There was nothing out there either.

We ended up back at the pogie pods north of the pier. Alex caught a small blacktip shark there.

We went north of the north jetty. Aha! That’s where all the mullet were hiding! Using mullet for bait we got several fish, including a small lemon shark, bluefish, jacks, and Spanish mackerel. I got some mullet for my freezer. So it was a modestly successful with outstanding weather.

Wednesday Scott Radloff joined me for another go at Port Canaveral. Not having seen much when running south the previous day, this time we headed north. There was a large pod of pogies in Canaveral Bight. We netted some, then used them for bait. We hooked several sharks of various sizes. We did not see or get bites from anything else. Not wanting sharks, we continued our quest.

North of Cape Canaveral the water turned a lovely emerald green color. There were fair numbers of mullet in the surf. We got some jacks and bluefish when we fished. We did not see any tarpon, or catch any other species of fish.

The sea breeze came up so we headed back down to the jetty and tried fishing among the commercial mullet netters. Man, they do some damage. Jacks, blues, Spanish macs, and sharks was what we got. So it was a modestly successful with outstanding weather.

Friday Scott Bryant and his son Greg joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon spin fishing. Were the redfish where they were Monday? Of course not.

We looked in shallow areas (the Mitzi kept hitting bottom) and saw a fish here, a fish there. Greg got a small slot fish on a gold Johnson Minnow. A while later Scott got one a little larger on an identical bait. We had shots at several tailers, none of which converted.

One thing which is easily noticed this time of year- there are hardly any finger mullet in the lagoon. There aren’t enough on the beach to make one think that they all chose that route. Where are they???

All in all it was a slow day, with only a couple of fish for which we worked quite hard. So it was a modestly successful with outstanding weather.

And that is this week’s Mullet Run Orlando Fishing Report, courtesy of Spotted Tail.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
www.johnkumiski.com
www.rentafishingbuddy.com
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All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2016. All rights are reserved.