Indian River Lagoon & Banana River

This week's report on the upper Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon from Spotted Tail, updated 7/18 Sadly, tarpon season has ended. As aggravating as fishing for silver kings can be, I love those things. We had lots and lots of opportunities, many of which weren't capitalized on through anger and guide errors. We had lots and lots of perfect presentations which were ignored. Overall the season was just OK. Back on the home front fishing has been OK but business has been darned slow. Dow Jones is kicking the guide business's butt. Monday last I went out on the Mosquito Lagoon with Capt. Rob Blake for a little fly fishing. Fish were somewhat scarce. I got one redfish and had some missed shots, as did Rob. Weather drove us off the water early. Thursday I had a double charter with Capt. Karl Dienst, in the Indian River. Karl's anglers got a couple of trout and some crevalle. We found quite a few small tarpon, who were immune to our seductive ways. We didn't catch a fish. Saturday I had a charter on the Indian River with John Abbott, a fly fisher from Orlando. We found quite a few redfish, all of whom had their radar on full gain. We only had one fish even close enough to throw to. We did find an acre or two of ladyfish and bluefish just going nuts on rain minnows and we had an hour of furious action before approaching weather chased us off the water. Fishing is great, and I love my work! Capt. John Kumiski www.spottedtail.com