December 29, 2011 Fishing Report

The fishing for Dec 29th could according to the Almanac should have been pretty good, unfortunately the Almanac isn't gospel.

Today the air temperatures were in the low 60s and there was absolutely no wind on the Indian River.

The water in the marsh areas was dead flat which made for challenging conditions.

 The few people that were fishing around Catfish Creek loop were not catching anything, neither were the fishermen around Peacocks Pocket road.

My wife didn't want to go fishing with me this afternoon so I took Elmo our "wonder dog" along to give him some fresh air.

There was very little traffic this afternoon on the unimproved road and the people who were out were taking pictures of the wildlife.

To make a long story short, I fished several areas around Peacocks Pocket road with my favorite Bagley gold spoon, a "gold sardine" colored Heddon Saltwater Super Zara Spook Jr. -Black Shiner top water plug, a Creme Lures Spoiler Shad Swimbaits  and even dead shrimp without getting even a half hearted tug.

I spent the most time fishing "Bobcat Bay" where I missed two oversize redfish yesterday, but today they were either not in the area or they just weren't interested.

A FWC came by as I was getting ready to call it a day and we chatted a bit about the fishing.

 

Cody introduced himself and after a while continued down the road.

I took my time driving very slowly looking for signs of fish but the water was so calm that nothing except finger mullet were moving around.

As I drove up to the kayak launch, I stopped to talk to a fisherman that I occasionally see kayaking the area.

He reported that he caught some sea trout around the shallow flats near the creek to the Space Center and a couple of small reds on live shrimp under a cork.

He mentioned that the resident population of Black Drum were all over the place but that they were hard to target because of their erratic swimming patterns.

He spotted a lot of tailing redfish but they just weren't biting today. It could be the cold front or the lack of wind but whatever the reason, today's fishing report was dismal.

He mentioned that the fishing in the northern Indian River lagoon flats east of Scotsmoor wasn't that great right now and that there were a flock of fishing guides poling the Tiger Shoals area in the Mosquito Lagoon. This is a dead giveaway to where the big schools are located.

Tiger Shoals and the Whale Tail area in the southern Mosquito Lagoon are always good for redfish and sea trout.

I thanked him for the fishing report and headed for the house.

The temperature was 58 degrees as I left Peacocks Pocket road.

Tomorrow's another day, Tight Lines!

Another Great Day Fishing The Cold Fronts In December

My wife and I went out earlier than usual Wednesday to enjoy the beautiful weather and catch a few redfish.

We scouted several areas around the Mosquito Lagoon and decided on fishing the Indian River marsh areas where we usually have some success.

The temperature was in the low 70s and there was almost no wind to speak of. The water was like glass in the shallows and in the middle of the river, only a slight chop.

The alligators were out in force sunning themselves on the banks.  This is probably why there were so many visitors in the refuge today.  It looked like "Grand Central" with all the traffic.

I rigged a pencil float on Karen's rod with a 4/0 hook. She was using frozen shrimp while I opted for my favorite beat up Bagley gold spoon.

Because the water was so calm, I didn't really expect to catch many fish, so we slowly drove around Peacocks Pocket road from the first entrance to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge looking for signs of fish activity.

All I spotted were some cute little diving ducks that looked like feeding redfish.

We finally stopped at one of our favorite spots and started fishing.  I started fan casting in deeper water, working my gold Bagley spoon as slowly as possible and Karen cast her shrimp close to a weedy island.

Since a cold front came through the area yesterday when I was fishing Playalinda Beach, I correctly assumed that the water temperature dropped and the fish would start heading for deeper water.

Redfish and sea trout get sluggish during colder weather and don't like to chase after speeding baits.

My strategy was apparently right on because after a few casts, I hooked up to a nice 17" sea trout that I unceremoniously dragged from the marsh canal, just as a man and his dog were walking by.

Bob and his neat dog "Buck" stopped and we chatted a while about fishing the marsh and a couple of other areas I didn't know about.

He said that fishermen were now catching big Black Drum in Haulover Canal at the entrance to the Mosquito Lagoon.

Bob and Buck had walked all the way from the new bridge past where we were fishing and was on his way back when I picked up another sea trout that was a clone to the first one.

The sea trout were holding in deeper water and were viciously nailing the gold spoon on a slow drop.

I caught a couple more fish before we moved on to try a few other areas.

The trout were cooperating but we couldn't find any redfish until we came to "Bobcat Bay".

Karen parked herself at a culvert and tossed out her shrimp bait, while I walked around the bend to fish the Indian River side of the road.

It was getting late and the temperature was dropping. It was in the high 50s before I finally got a hit from a redfish.

The fish nailed my spoon on a slow drop but I missed the strike. Several casts later in the same general area I again had a tap on the spoon.

This time I jerked too soon and missed the fish, but as I quickly reeled in to re-cast, the fish swirled around and hit the spoon a second time. 

This time it hooked itself and took off like a shot but after only a couple of feet, the hook pulled loose.

As the big redfish swam by me only a few feet away in about a foot of water, I could see that it was well over 30" long.

I was going to keep fishing but Karen drove the truck up to where I was and wanted to move.

It was getting really cold and I didn't have my jacket on so we decided to call it a day.

Karen hooked a couple of fish but lost one that swam under a rock and another that made for a stickup and pulled loose.
.
For a change we left the refuge early and saw several more gators on the way out.

The sunset this evening was awesome as you can see by the pics below.

 

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Playalinda Beach Surf Fishing in December

Playalinda Beach surf fishing is picking up as the month of December comes to a close.

The weather today was close to the 80s that was predicted and with a southwest wind blowing across the Indian River, I decided to break out my two surf rods and try a little surf fishing.

I didn't start out until after 1:00 pm and decided that if I didn't get any bites within an hour or so, I was going to call it a day.

I left the house ill prepared. I forgot to get the bait out of the freezer and didn't bring any prepared pompano rigs. I did have some pyramid sinkers in the truck so I wasn't totally doomed.

For the first time in eons, I stopped at a bait shop and bought a cup of live sand fleas and some minute shrimp.

Captain Hooks Bait & Tackle was selling 50 live shrimp for $5.00 and since I also forgot to bring along a bucket, I picked up a dinky little bait bucket to keep them alive until I got to the beach.

The shrimp were obviously not local. They were much too small for that, but for pompano or whiting, they would do just fine.

When I got to the Ranger station, I showed them my lifetime pass and asked about the fishing. As usual, they had no advice to give on fishing conditions.

The lady at the bait shop told me that they were catching blues, whiting, pompano, a few shark and an occasional redfish in the surf from parking lots #7 to #10.

Since the rangers at the shack didn't know anything, I took the lady's advice and started scouting out the areas she suggested.

Lot #7 had a few surfers doing their thing in one area and a few fishermen who didn't seem to be catching anything. I took some pics that I compiled into the video below and moved on to Eddy Creek Lot #8.




This area was a clone to the other area. The only two fishermen I saw there were trying to stay on their feet and didn't seem to be catching much.

Finally, I decided to fish lot #9. That area has two nice spots where lots of shells accumulate on the beach. I've learned from experience that lots of shells means fish.

There were four groups of fishermen in the area when I started fishing but as the cold front moved into the area, everyone left the area except for a party of Spanish
guys and myself.

Both my surf rods are matched Ande Tournament series, with matching
Okuma Coronado Saltwater Spinning Reel  CD-65 spinning reels.

The one reel was spooled with 60# Power Pro and the other with 30#.

I was using a pompano double hook rig on the light rod with a 4 oz. pyramid sinker and larger hooks on a pompano rig with a 6 oz. pyramid sinker on the other rod.

The wind was at our back and you could easily cast a country mile to the second set of breakers where the pompano were.

I baited the heavy rig with shrimp and the 30# rig with live sand fleas.

I didn't do as well as the other guys but I managed a couple of whiting, a blue and a sailors choice that I foul hooked and used for bait.  Most of the fish were caught on sand fleas.

The tide was going out and I missed several bites that I should have hooked. I don't surf fish as often as I should, but today I learned a valuable lesson. Keep your hooks sharp!

The Spanish guys had 7 rods staked out and were hopping back and forth trying to keep bait on them and bringing in fish at the same time.

I stayed in the surf for about two hours until it started getting too cold for me handle.

There was a lot of bird feeding activity just off shore and this was one day that I wished I had brought my surf tackle box. A silver spoon would have killed the blues.

As I packed up to leave, I went back to the beach with my camera to get a video of the little kid of the group landing a nice eating sized bluefish.

They had quite a day. I saw them catch and release at least six undersize pompano in addition to what they kept.

Playalinda Beach surf fishing usually picks up from late November through the spring mullet run.

I'm taking a much deserved two week vacation and hope to get more surf fishing under my belt.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of our followers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

My wife and I didn't get a chance to do any fishing this weekend until late this afternoon.

Since time was a factor, we fished Peacocks Pocket road coming in from the easternmost entrance.

The temperature was in the high 70s and there was virtually no wind to speak of today. The marsh areas were dead calm and the river had only a slight ripple that totally dissipated as sunset approached.

Karen fished frozen jumbo shrimp under a pencil Cajun Thunder float and I started out fishing with my beat up Bagley gold hammered spoon.

We spent more time than we should have at the area in the video below, trying to get some tailing redfish to bite our baits.

I counted at least five oversize redfish tailing in an area where a flock of mud hens were feeding and causing a general commotion.

I've learned from experience that the ducks stir up the sediment in the shallow water causing the reds to start feeding on the crustaceans that are churned up.

But today, the fish were not cooperating at all.

Except for one small sea trout, nothing was hitting.

I had several followups with my gold spoon but at the last minute the fish veered away from my bait.

I switched to a root beer colored D.O.A. Shrimp, then to a D.O.A. CAL Jerkbait and finally to another heavier Johnson gold spoon, with absolutely no hits.

Karen wasn't having any better luck than I was.

I spoke briefly with a professional bass fisherman and his wife about how to fish the area we were in, but today all we did was fish. Not catch!

Frustrated, I suggested moving to another spot in the marsh area where we caught several 30 inch plus redfish in the past, but again we failed to score.

The alligators were out in force today. We counted over a dozen gators that were taking advantage of the beautiful weather either on the bank sunning themselves or cruising for a fresh duck dinner.

At our last spot, we spotted several fish moving up the marsh canal near just at dusk but the water was dead calm and nothing was hitting our baits.

When the mosquitoes began their blood thirsty activity, we decided to give up the fight for today and try it again tomorrow.

In any event, it was nice to get out and enjoy God's work.

Till next time, Tight Lines and a Merry Christmas!

Waiting For The Shrimp To Run

Last night everyone was waiting for the shrimp to run on the two fishing piers underneath the Max Brewer causeway bridge except for the party goers at the pavilion.

The temperature was in the low 70s and there was almost no wind blowing as I walked down to the lower fishing pier.

There were fewer people on the pier than I expected and most were shrimping.

As you can see by the video I compiled below, everyone was waiting for the shrimp to run and only a few regulars were netting anything of consequence.

I walked past the restaurant, where everyone was having a great time dancing and partaking of adult alcoholic beverages and moved to the longer fishing pier to see how the sport shrimpers were doing over there.



For some unknown reason, these guys were doing much better. The guys I chatted with were catching a few blue crabs and everyone had at least a few jumbo shrimp in their buckets.

Although no one expected to limit out with a 5 gallon bucket this evening, everyone was having a good time enjoying the atmosphere.

I asked about why some of the shrimp lights the guys were using were on batteries and found out that there was a "lottery" system that the County operators were using on the electrical outlets.

There is a name drawing every evening from a hat, to make things fair for everyone.

Some of the regulars bring their own 12 volt batteries (see pic below) to save on the $ 6.00 nightly electrical usage fee and to grab the place they want on the pier railing.

Generators are no longer allowed on either of the piers, although I don't believe there is any law in writing saying you can't operate one on the sea walls, so everyone either plugs in or brings their own battery power.

I didn't see many sea trout this evening,. The guys said they were down there but they were deep and since I didn't bother bringing my fishing rod, I decided to head for the comfort of the hacienda.

Waiting for the shrimp to run just isn't for me, I seriously lack the patience!

Hope to get out and do some fishing tomorrow and later check out the shrimping.

Till then, Tight Lines!

Fishing The Marsh Canals

Fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in December is one of my favorite pastimes.

Yesterday's outing was not much fun despite the fact that I picked up a nice 34" redfish. Fortunately, this afternoon's trip was much more pleasant.

I didn't start fishing until about 3:30 pm and the weather was great for this time of year. The temperature was 73 degrees and the wind was negligible.

Since time was not on my side, I made only one stop before going to the area where I caught my fish yesterday.

On the way into the refuge, I noticed some activity in the grass next to the bank so I pulled out my favorite Bagley gold spoon and started casting into the area.  I missed a fish on the third cast and after several more into the same area, I moved on to the spot below.



There were tons of noisy "mud hens" doing their thing (above) but no redfish were interested in my lure.

I saw a swirl on the river side that I thought was a red but my first cast into the area hooked me up with a slot size sea trout.

I released the fish and moved up the road.

A fellow fisherman stopped and asked me if I wanted some finger mullet but since I didn't have a container to keep them alive, I took only one small mullet from him and hooked it up for my next spot.

He said the only thing he was catching was "hard head" catfish.

As I sped up to the last area I planned to fish this evening, I flipped out the finger mullet on my Okuma bait runner outfit and propped up the rod on free spool.

I saw some reeds moving in the grass along the opposite shore so I pitched out a second rod with a frozen shrimp.

After a few minutes I hooked up with a nice redfish on the Okuma rig.  The fish took off down the marsh canal, promptly wound around the only tree limb in the damn canal and broke off.

I was snelling another 4/0 hook on the leader when the rod with the shrimp took off.

I was in too much of a hurry and pulled the circle hook from the fishes mouth.

Being totally pissed off at myself for missing two nice reds, I pitched out both rods with baited shrimp and started flipping a D.O.A.® C.A.L. Series Shad Tail - Lures to see if I could pick up a trout or two.

The third cast hooked me up with another nice redfish, below.








I had just spooled some new Cajun Line Cajun Advantage Monofilament - 10 lb. - Terminal tackle on this rod, so I decided to take a little extra care landing this fish. 

It made several strong runs up and down the marsh canal and finally gave up the fight.

Karen wasn't fishing with me today so I took these pics before releasing the fish.  It measured a clean 27" on my tape.  A perfect tournament red.

It was around 5:30 pm so I decided to head for home and call it another perfect trip.

Fishing the marsh canals in this area is a lot like fishing for rainbow trout in the streams of Pennsylvania where I grew up.  You have to sight fish them, stalk them and get a little bit lucky.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Catching Another 34" Redfish

Well catching another 34" redfish in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge wasn't exactly what I had planned for this afternoon but I'll take it!

My wife and I got "cabin fever" and decided to take Elmo our wonder dog fishing despite the windy overcast conditions.

We left the house a about 3:30 pm and went straight to a spot where we had been catching reds the last few weeks.

The first spot was too windy to fish but we gave it a shot anyway. It was so windy that the Bagley gold spoon I was using was being pulled over the surface on most of my casts.

After realizing that it was useless fishing this area, we moved on to a more sheltered spot up Peacocks Pocket road.

That spot was occupied by another fisherman and his family who had about 6 rods in the water.

I asked him if he had any luck and he said he caught a ladyfish, a 21" redfish, a trout and a turtle all on dead shrimp and cut ladyfish.

Not wanting to infringe on his area, we moved to the next spot where we spent another fruitless 20 minutes there with absolutely no bites. 

Karen wasn't used to casting directly into the wind and I would up unsnarling her spinning reel a couple of times.

The rig she was using was her usual Cajun Thunder pencil float with a dead shrimp underneath but the wind kept dragging the shrimp around creating a lousy presentation.

I finally gave up on artificial lures and switched two spinning rods over to frozen dead shrimp on a 4/0 hook.

We moved to an area we call "snook point" and started fishing a shallow water stretch where the wind wasn't killing us.

I was untangling another birds nest for Karen when she yelled that a redfish was taking my line down the canal.

I ran for the pole and briefly fought the fish but it got off the hook.

After pitching two more shrimp just off the bank in the same area, I hooked up with the 34" redfish in the short video below.

The fish took off like a shot down the canal and I yelled to Karen to get the camera and take a video of the fight.

She refuses to learn how to operate the video on the Nikon, so I took the camera and tried to change the settings while fighting the big redfish at the same time.

As you can see by the unprofessional video, it didn't turn out that well. I couldn't get the fish into frame and missed most of the fight.

Anyway, it is what it is.

As I was landing the red, the hook snapped off at the snell and I got a "wet foot" sliding down the bank trying not to lose the fish.

I finally got Karen to take a picture before releasing the oversize fish.

We could have probably caught a couple more fish in the same area but Karen was aggravated with me giving her orders about not being able to use the camera and I was getting wind chill.

We decided to head for home and call it a day.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be catching another 34" redfish!
Till then, Tight Lines.

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing In December

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing in December is as good as it gets anywhere in Florida.

The cold fronts have started to clear up the algae blooms in both the lagoons which should improve the sight fishing on the flats as the month progresses.

I got in about an hours worth of "jump" fishing late this afternoon around the Indian River and noticed that the water has gotten much clearer.

I picked up a new spinning reel for Karen today and loaded it with 10# red Cajun line, a 4foot piece of 20# fluorocarbon and a Strike King gold hammered spoon to "break it in" for her.

I quickly noticed that I was getting more strikes on Karen's new outfit than I was on my own well worn gold Bagley spoon.

The tannin colored water at first glance looked dirty but as I fished my Bagley gold spoon this afternoon, I noticed that I could easily see my well worn fluorocarbon leader in the water.

I replaced the worn 20# flurocarbon and after a few casts picked up my first small sea trout in the marsh canal.

If I hadn't noticed the difference, I probably would have continued using my outfit wondering why the fish weren't hitting.

Little things like this make a difference, especially during winter fishing conditions.

Fishing extra slow with long casts, light lines and stealth approaches will catch you more fish from now on into the spring.

I fished as many "new" locations as possible this afternoon to see if I was passing up any "good" spots.

I had several hits on both outfits using gold spoons and managed to catch and release two slot redfish, one oversized redfish and one stupid out of season sea trout in just over an hour of fishing.

The oversize red was about 30" long.  I hooked it in the grass shown in the picture below but didn't actually land it.

After I hooked the fish, it made a couple of nice short runs and I thought I had the fish "in the bag".  I had the fish right at the bank and decided to take a short video of what was left of the fight.

I held the rod with the fish on in one hand and started to the truck to get my Nikon to take the shot when the redfish decided he didn't want his picture taken.

The red got it's second wind, broke off and left for parts unknown.

Undaunted I kept fishing and as I got close to "bobcat bay" I shot a cast in slightly in front of where I noticed a small ripple next to the bank.

The spoon must have hit the redfish in the head because it literally exploded on the lure, knocking it completely out of the water and then swam downstream.

The sunset was gorgeous but it was getting dark, the mosquitoes were starting to get vicious and the bite stopped dead, so I decided to head home. 

On the way home, I decided to stop at the fishing piers to see if the shrimpers were getting set up for the evening.

The restaurant had a huge outdoor TV screen set up with a football game being televised. The lights on the lower shrimping pier were not turned on, so I didn't even bother getting out of the truck.

Next week I'll spend some time on the pier and get a shrimping report.

Till then, Tight Lines!

Catching December Redfish In The Marsh

In addition to Christmas, catching December redfish in the marsh canals of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is one the things I look forward to when I'm not working.

This afternoon after mowing the lawn and fixing some screens in our pool area, Karen and I decided to take Elmo fishing with us in the "swamp".

We didn't get out until about 2:30 pm; this left us only a couple hours of fishing.

We were going to try out  Shiloh Road, but remembered that it was closed for waterfowl hunting so we headed for our favorite spots off of Peacocks Pocket road.

Karen was using s small weighted Precision Tackle Cajun Thunder Float above a 4/0 hook and a jumbo frozen shrimp.

I decided to fish with my favorite well worn gold Bagley spoon.

The powers that be at the Space Center finally mowed the tall grass that lined Peacocks Pocket road, so we stopped at a couple of areas I haven't fished before to toss around the spoon and see if anything was interested.

After briefly stopping at a couple of new spots without getting any hits, we moved to one of our tried and true locations where Karen caught a nice redfish last week.

My first cast hooked me up with a two foot long ladyfish that jumped all over the place before I landed and released it.

After a while I wanted to move on and as Karen was reeling in her bait, she hooked a nice sea trout that we released after taking this short video.  I thought the camera was on auto.

Those two turned out to be the the only fish we caught at that spot, so after a short time we moved past several anglers to another "secret" spot to try our luck.

Again on the first cast I picked up a small sea trout on the spoon which I promptly released.

The fish wasn't much bigger than the spoon I was fishing with.

We moved about 30 yards up the road to a bend in the marsh canal that opened up into a small pond.

I thought the area looked "fishy" so we stopped and started fishing.


About 30 casts later, I hooked a nice 24" slot redfish that hit my spoon just off the point that opened up into the pond.

The fish put up a nice fight and after landing it I took this picture.  

I almost always release the fish I catch and I was planning to release this one but it's gills were injured so I decided to eat it for dinner.

Karen never got a hit so we moved on to our last spot, to fish until dusk.

The wind died down as dusk approached and so did the bite.

Karen missed a sea trout that ate the head off her shrimp and I never got another strike.

Elmo was looking plain miserable and the mosquitoes were starting to attack en mass, so we decided to call it a day.

The sunset was beautiful as usual as you can see from the pics below.

The heron in the one pic scored a nice ladyfish for dinner.

I managed to get it's picture before heading out.

 







On the was home, we drove by the fishing piers to see if anyone was shrimping this evening.

It was about 6:30 pm when we circled the parking area and it look like about fifteen people had their shrimp lights out or were in the process of setting them up.

I might drive down to the pier later on this evening to see how the shrimp are running.

Till next time, Tight Lines!