After not posting to my kayak page for a long time, I am back sharing all the great news about kayak fishing here in Florida. Stay tuned for new and exciting updates coming out of the 2016 ICAST. ICAST starts next week at the Orange County Convention Center.
When thinking about adding an inflatable kayak to your fleet of fishing kayaks, do not pass up looking at the NRS Pike Fishing Inflatable Kayak (IK).
To get a closer look at this great fishing platform, visit the NRS website, http://www.nrsweb.com/ or visit a local kayak retailer in your area.
This is the time of the year when Tom Van Horn, Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando Staff Writer, holds the annual Central Florida Shad and Crappie Derby. This is third year of this great fishing event. It is held from December 17, 2011 to March 17, 2012 in the Greater Orlando area.
On September 29th, I set out for Sebastian Inlet around 9:00AM to test Solar Shield sunscreen and its affect on catching fish and killing live bait. I arrived at the Sebastian Inlet State Park around 10:15AM. It was sunny with a high temperature of 89 Degrees. There was a 20% chance of thunder storms. The wind was out of the east at 5 mph. I started fishing on the north side of the inlet on the beach. I used two surf rods. I opened one of the three sunscreen sample packets, see photo to the left and applied the sunscreen to my face, neck, arms and hands. I did not wash my hands after applying the sunscreen. I started the day using frozen shrimp on a two-hook pompono rig using the small 7'-0" rod. I applied sunscreen directly to the shrimp. See photo to the left. After my first cast, I caught a 12"-14" whiting which I returned to the sea. On my 12 foot surf rod, I was using a single hook set up and 2' square chunks of frozen lady fish. While fishing from the beach side, I did not catch any fish on the big surf rod and frozen lady fish. After about an hour, I caught a small stingray on the small rod using frozen shrimp that had been coated with sunscreen. After about 2 hours of fishing, I packed up and moved to fish along the channel inlet where it opens up into the the Indian River. I started with frozen shrimp on the small rod and caught many very small pin fish which I fed to the birds. Because I was able to net finger mullet, I switched to live bait. After putting the live finger mullet in to my bucket, I squeezed a packet of sunscreen into the live bait bucket. I took a live mullet from the bucket and tossed it out into the inlet using the small rod. After about 20 minutes, I caught a small 16" redfish. I released it back into the water. I rebaited my hook and tossed it out. I fished for another two hours with out any luck. I was fishing in an area where there were other anglers. During the time I fished, I could not see any other anglers catching fish. I stopped fishing around 3:30 PM. During my fishing, I did not see any affect on my live mullet or the ability to catch fish because I had sunscreen on my hands or in my bait bucket.
