Mosquito Lagoon, Capt John Kumiski 10/22/2016

Sunday I ran my On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar on the Mosquito Lagoon. We ran the Mitzi around the lagoon from Haulover Canal down to Max Hoeck Creek, up to the north entrance of the Pole-Troll area, and back to Haulover. The water is dirty everywhere, but it’s dirtiest down south.

There are almost-ridiculous numbers of manatees around. We’re seeing them in places we never used to.

We saw a float in the water, the kind used on the DOA Deadly Combo. The first thing that came to mind was, “I wonder if there’s a fish on it?” Slowing to idle, we approached the float. When we got close, it went down!

I put a jig head on one of my lines, then hooked the line between the float and the fish. It turned out to be a redfish of about four pounds! We released the fish and the float was added to my tackle stash. That was all the fishing we did, and the only fish we saw.

Monday Scott Radloff joined me for some Mosquito Lagoon fishing from the Mitzi. We started behind some islands in the pole-troll area. We couldn’t see the bottom, but I quickly got a slot red on a Johnson Minnow. Scott hit a small trout on a Deadly Combo a few minutes later. We stayed back there over an hour, but those were the only bites we got.

Scott with our only redfish.

Fishing along various bars we picked up about 15 seatrout using the Deadly Combo. Most of them were short, with a few decent ones. We did not see a redfish all day. The boat was on the trailer about 2 PM.

Tuesday son Alex and I went bass fishing together at a pond in Geneva. It was slow. He got one on a popper. I got four on Culprit worms.

Alex with the best fish of the day.

 

During the battle the worm got torn off.

Wednesday I took the kayak to River Breeze. In one way it was a crazy idea, since the water was high and dirty. I figured I could get into low traffic areas and look around. As it turned out, that was true.\

I looked in new spots and favorite spots. I tried sight fishing and blind casting. I used a spin rod, something I almost never do when kayaking. The water was cleaner up there than farther south. You could see the botton sometimes in almost two feet of water. I did not see a single fish, nor did I get a bite. I ran across two other kayakers who had the same report.

The boat was back on the roof of the car at about 230 PM.

Friday Dr. Greg Scible joined me for a day’s fishing on Mosquito Lagoon. Using Deadly Combos we picked at mostly undersized trout- one here, one there. We found a flat with fairly clean water. On that flat were just enough redfish to keep us there for over an hour. They were hard to see and although we had several not-particularly-good shots we did not get one, did not get an eat from one.

We ended the day using the Deadly Combo again. On the last cast of the day Greg got the best trout of the day, a fish that was maybe 19 inches long. He released it before I could get a picture.

None of the trout would be considered trophies.

And that is the High, Dirty Water Mosquito Lagoon fishing report!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com