"Good jacks", the Florida pompano. These come home.

Mercury Rising Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

Observing the heavens is one of my passions. I’ve known for years that it’s possible to see the planet Mercury with the naked eye. I could never find it- until this week. Now I’ve seen it three times. And such fishing as got done by me this week happened in the Mosquito Lagoon. Combine the two and you get the Mercury Rising Mosquito Lagoon fishing report.
For those of you who would like to observe this planet, get outside about 6-6:15 am. Look to the east and you will see a bright star above the horizon. It’s the planet Venus. Below Venus and a few degrees to the north is a much dimmer star- that’s Mercury. Check it out now while you’ve got Venus to point the way.

Upcoming Events- Lots of ’em!
– 2/28-3/5 Wekiva Paint Out. Thirty nationally-renowned artists come here and paint our beautiful scenery for one week. They start painting on Monday, February 29th and continue through Saturday, March 5th.  The event culminates with a Gala at Wekiva Island, an event not to be missed! http://keepseminole.org/event/wekiva-paint-out/
– Ocala Outdoor Expo, 3/5 and 3/6. http://www.ocalaexpo.com/
– Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 5. http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/
– Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Fishing Seminar, March 6. http://www.spottedtail.com/mosquito-lagoon-on-the-water-show-and-tell-fishing-seminar/

State Forest Update-
Last week I wrote, “I wrote letters to the manager of the state forest and the commissioner of agriculture. We’ll see what they say.” Nothin’, yet.

Fishing!
Sunday I brought my valentine to see the Big Bugs at Leu Gardens. Very cool exhibit in a very cool place. You’ve got a few more weeks before the bugs march off to a different venue. $10 admission per person. http://www.leugardens.org/category/events/

Monday it blew like snot. I don’t even remember what I did.

Tuesday, a beautiful day, I spent the morning at the car dealership getting the wife’s chariot repaired. In the afternoon I did a little local exploring. Stop one was at Riverside Park in Oviedo. Several years ago son Maxx talked me into launching a canoe there (not a hard thing to do) and paddling down to SR 419. What an obstacle course. Anyway, that’s the only time I went to that park. Turns out it’s quite lovely and the Little Econ, although little more than a drainage ditch for east Orlando, actually looks quite nice coming through here. Further investigation required.
Stop two was a little pond off of Lockwood Road. Walked around it twice, the second time with a fishing rod with a plastic worm on the line. Did not get a bite. Did not see anything other than guppies.
Stop three was the Econ River Wilderness area, off Old Lockwood Road, a rather pretentious name for a 300 acre property that is certainly not a wilderness. It’s a nice enough place to go for a walk or go running though, a valuable patch of woods in an area of crowded housing developments.

Wednesday Tom Van Horn (the fishing guide, not the comedian) met me at Haulover Canal so we could do a little Mosquito Lagoon scouting. The water south of Georges Bar looks TERRIBLE, brown and turbid. Even spots that were clean a couple weeks ago look awful now. We found nothing there.
Up by Oak Hill we found some clean water and a few fish, and managed one redfish and one seatrout each, on (not surprisingly if you read this report very often) 3″ DOA CAL Shad. Not a great day by any means, but better than no cheese.

Thursday’s charter postponed until next week because of the wind.

Friday Mr. Ryan Houlihan, a fly fisher from Virginia, met me at River Breeze. It was a tough day, with lots of clouds and considerable wind, hard for a fly fisher. Ryan missed one bite at the first spot, but most of the fish we saw we had already run over and they ignored the fly.
He missed another bite at the second spot, this one from a trout (we could see the action). None of the other fish we saw cooperated.
We checked a couple other spots with few visible fish. At this point the clouds were pretty solid and we just couldn’t see. In the places we could see there was nothing to see. It ended up Mr. Houlihan did not get another bite and we went fishless. I don’t like that but hey, that’s fishing.

And that is the Mercury Rising Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com

Neil Taylor
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