cold weather impacts fishing
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By John Kumiski
Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 1/9/10 Greetings from sunny central Florida! The rain was bouncing off my car just now because it was frozen. I have lived here for 25 years and it's the first time I've seen that. The temperature right now in Oviedo is 34 degrees, rainy and breezy. It feels like a nasty summer's day in southeast Alaska. The air temperature did not hit 60 here this past week. Water temperatures in the lagoons are in the 40s. I haven't heard about any dead manatees yet but we will. Dead fish and turtles will be found, too. In 1989 there was a freeze for three days and all kinds of stuff died in the lagoons. This is likely to be a repeat of that. Most of this week I've been studying, but I did go out on the St. Johns River on Thursday afternoon. Although it was cool there was no wind, nor a cloud in the sky, just a beautiful day. I thought maybe I could catch a couple of crappie, or maybe find a few shad. I went out onto Lake Harney, arbitrarily stopped, and started casting a Road Runner. Of course I caught nothing. Then I looked around and saw several boats fishing on the west side of the lake. I figured they had to know more about crappie fishing than I did so I went over there. No one caught anything while I was there, 40 minutes or so. I ran back upriver to the mouth of the Econ. An FWC boat was there, electroshocking. They'd gotten two shad and not much else. I managed to get one four inch bluegill on the Road Runner. I saw a guy in a boat catch a Plecostamus that he'd foul-hooked. I ran up the Econ a ways and tried a couple spots up there but didn't get a bite. The people I spoke to on the river and at the boat ramp hadn't gotten anything either. We're going to need a warming trend to get the fishies moving again. It's supposed to hit 70 by the middle of next week. I hope so; I'm tired of hearing our heater running. Cha-ching, cha-ching! This body needs some paddling exercise, too. Life is short- GO FISHING! And life is great and I really love my work! John Kumiski www.spottedtail.com