Haulover Canal and Indian River Fishing

Except for the breezy conditions, Saturday afternoon was beautiful on the Space Coast.

Since the causeway bridge to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is still closed due to bridge construction; my wife, our wonder dog Elmo and yours truly, took the long route to Haulover Canal to try our luck with some Black Drum fishing.

We decided to take the unimproved road next to the Indian River to check for any fish activity in the shallow waters.

The clear water in the shallows made spotting the fish easy however, the windy conditions made casting extremely difficult.

To make a long story brief, we didn't do too well. The fish were not in their usual areas for this time of year, probably because of the extended periods of cold weather.

The other anglers we encountered during our scouting trip didn't seem to be doing any better either. No one was catching fish, but everyone was having a good time watching the wildlife in the area.

I took several pics and the video below of the Roseatte Spoonbills that arrived a few weeks ago. These apparently found a great place to chow down.

After cruising the unimproved Shiloh Road we parked on the North side of Haulover Canal to try our luck with the drum.

The current in the canal was flowing towards the Indian River at a fast clip. I was using an Okumo baitrunner surf outfit with 60# PowerPro braid, and I set my wife up with a similar outfit.

We could not hold bottom with either rig even with 6 oz. pyramid surf sinkers and kept getting snagged on submerged ledges where we were fishing. I had a couple of hits on cut mullet and dead shrimp, as did my wife on the shrimp, but we couldn't hookup with any fish. We also tried using cut squid with no luck.

I got tired of tying on new rigs and decided to leave only to top off the day with a dead battery.

Fortunately another angler down the canal agreed to give me a jump. He and his friend did better on the fishing front. Using dead shrimp tipped jigs and fishing in only about four feet of water just off the bank, they caught and released two black drum in the high end of the slot limit.

My wife and I were both using heavier tackle, fishing in the deepest part of the canal, trying to get one of those 40# plus bull redfish, or up to 100# black drum that hold there.

Several other anglers were catching sheepshead at the end of the canal on the Indian River side using shrimp and cut clams. The rock outcrops there are always a good area to catch these tasty fish.

In any event, I guess it just wasn't my day for fishing or I wasn't holding my mouth right.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

Till then, Tight Lines!