Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Sightseeing Venture

Late Friday evening in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge turned out to be a sightseeing venture rather than a fishing trip.

Although I had several rods with me in the truck, I did little casting.

The grass in the refuge hasn't been mowed in quite some time which is both a pro and a con.

Higher grass means fewer visitors to contend with, but it also makes spotting and landing fish much more difficult.

It's difficult and almost impossible to skinny down a bank and retrieve a fish when you can't find it!

Anyway, when I traversed the refuge Friday evening, only two other groups of people were cruising Peacocks Pocket road and only one of them was actively fishing.

Midway up Peacocks Pocket road I fished several deep water areas trying for a sea trout or two and I did manage to briefly hook up with two fish.  Both were lost at the bank.

The refuge was thick with gators this evening.  From East Gator Creek through the end of Peacocks Pocket road I spotted over a dozen gators in the marsh and in the river.

This evening would not have been a good time to wade fish.

This particular gator was cruising the marsh canal and got in the way every time I stopped to cast.

Close to the kayak launch I met up with Craig and Mary.  Two friends who fish the area on a semi-regular basis.

Today they didn't have much luck but they shared some pics of recent catches they made of redfish, sea trout and Red Snapper they picked up last week during the short opening season.

I asked them to email me the pics so I could post them here, so when I get them, they will be posted.

Anyway, I left them to their fishing and headed out of the refuge.

On the way out I spotted two nice redfish and a couple of sea trout but didn't bother trying to catch them.  The brush was entirely too high and I value my Chug Bugs too much to lose them along side the bank.

The bugs in the refuge were insane.  They seem to zone in on anything remotely breathing or having a circulatory system.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted several wild hogs rooting along side the road and a couple of coons.

The wildlife was in abundance this evening in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, as were the insects.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Pissed Off Gator In The Road

My wife and I took Elmo and Odie (our wonder dogs) out for a ride around Peacocks Pocket Road yesterday and came across this pissed off gator in the road.

The air temperature was in the mid 80s and it was raining on and off most of the time we were out there.

The grass in the refuge hasn't been mowed in some time which is probably why there was very little vehicle traffic.

We saw only two other fishermen in the area all the time we were scouting out the area and they were close to Catfish Creek Loop.

The water in the refuge was still high and it was "glassy".  There was virtually no wind at all but I still tried tossing around a Chug Bug to see if I could stir up some interest.

I had several strikes and misses but caught no fish on the top water bait.

I had a couple of hits on a Johnson Sprite gold spoon in the East Gator Creek area as we were heading home but again, no fish.

Since this was planned as an outing for our dogs, Karen didn't even bring along a rod.

Anyway, we had a good time viewing the wildlife and evading the gators.

They were out in numbers yesterday and they were active.

Here's a couple of pics of  our crew enjoying the ride.

Elmo

Odie

    

I really need to get Odie a pair of goggles!

Till next time,

Tight lines.

Playalinda Beach Whiting

After my doctor's appointment this afternoon, I decided to head over to Playalinda Beach to see if I could catch a few whiting for dinner.

 

I picked up some shrimp at the local tackle shop and headed east to the beach.

Parking Lot #11

The air temperature was hovering in the mid 90s and there was very little wind on the water.

The tide was coming in and there were thunderclouds in the area.

There was almost no one at the beach today and those who were, parked at the closest parking lots.

I stopped briefly at lots # 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10 to see if anyone was fishing, and finally decided to fish lot #11 where I was the only one on the beach.

Shark Fishing

There was one surf fisherman who had a kayak and a shark outfit in a sand spike who was obviously fishing for shark at lot #8.

A couple of other guys who looked like they were fishing for whiting were with their families but other than that, there were no other fishermen on the beach today.

I took along a 12' Tournament surf rod mated to an Okuma bait runner reel and a 7' spinning rod that I use for sea trout along Peacocks Pocket road.

Since the surf was calm, I decided to try the short "river rod" for whiting.

I tied a small number 4 hook  on a short  piece of fluorocarbon leader above a small swivel and 1/4 oz. egg sinker and baited up with a "pinkie" size piece of peeled shrimp.

To save walking back to my cooler, I loaded up a baggie with fresh dead shrimp, stashed it in my pocket and waded out to a small rip.

There were a lot of glass minnows in the surf and some pogies here and there so I started out by flipping my bait only a few feet ahead of the dirty water in the surf.

My strategy paid off immediately.  A small whiting nailed the shrimp and was quickly landed and released.

I was hoping for some "bull" whiting but unfortunately all the fish caught today were 12" and under.

I used the same strategy to catch about two dozen whiting, some of which were placed in the cooler for dinner.

Just for the hell of it I decided to try casting out past the breakers but after wasting a half an hour without getting a single bite, I continued flipping peeled shrimp just past the dirty water in the surf.

After a thunderstorm passed by I caught and released a small black tip shark that ate a piece of shrimp right at my feet.  The pretty fish was only about two feet long but it put up a nice fight on light tackle before giving it up.

I was getting tired of fighting the waves in the rip so I packed up my two rods and headed for the truck.

On the way home I decided to see what Peacocks Pocket road had to offer in the way of fish.

The air temperature was 90 degrees when I drove up to the first set of culverts past the kayak launch and there was absolutely no air movement.  The water was like glass in both the Indian River side of the road and in the marsh.

I tried a gold spoon and a topwater "Bass" Chug Bug on the river side but the only thing it attracted was a large gator that finally caused me to leave the area.

Alligators were grunting and croaking all over the place this afternoon making topwater fishing a challenge.

They followed my Chug Bug at almost every stop I made.

A little way down Peacocks Pocket road I started pitching the Chug Bug around the deeper pools in the marsh canal and was rewarded with a nice slot size sea trout that blasted the lure right out of the water.

I took this pic and released the fish to grow up into a "gator trout".

 

At the next spot my Chug Bug stirred up some action but the fish would not eat the bait , so I switched to a gold spoon and after a couple of casts picked up this slot size trout.

Several casts later into the same area produced another sea trout on the same gold Johnson's Sprite spoon.

The fishing continued like this until I finally decided to give it up for the day.  In the course of an hour and a half, I managed to hook and release six sea trout on Chug Bugs and gold spoons.

The rains we had this past week has caused the water in the marsh areas to rise substantially.  This is causing the sea trout to spread out from their normal feeding areas.  

The redfish are still in the deeper pools of the salt marsh, the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon.

With any kind of luck I'll be able to take the boat out this weekend, weather permitting.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

A Windy Rainy 4th Of July

Well it was a windy rainy 4th of July but I still managed to wet a line in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge before the fireworks started.

It had just stopped raining when I left the house and the air temperature was still 85 degrees.

The plan for this afternoon was mainly to pick up some ladyfish for redfish bait, but I was also hoping to catch a sea trout or two.

I entered the refuge through East Gator Creek Road and stopped at the culverts when I spotted some nice wakes in the shallow flats.

The water was somewhat choppy but in the area I started fishing, it was relatively calm so I started tossing a Johnson's Sprite gold spoon to see if anything was in the area.

Several casts produced a brief hookup with a  ladyfish that promptly shook off the spoon so I changed rods and started fishing a silver and black backed Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

It was hard to fish the topwater bait in the wind but after a couple of followups, a nice ladyfish finally smacked the plug and firmly hooked itself.  After making several nice jumps, the fish reluctantly gave up the fight.

It was hooked by both sets of trebles and wasn't going anywhere.

I put the fish in a plastic bag and continued "chugging" the bait in the shallows.

Three more ladyfish were briefly hooked but got off after jumping around the shallow water flat.

Finally the fourth ladyfish that hit the Chug Bug got double hooked firmly enough for me to land it and put it on ice.

I moved up to Peacocks Pocket road where another ladyfish nailed the plug and wound up with the other two victims.

The wind started to pick up and the weather started to really get bad so I drove slowly up Peacocks Pocket road looking for signs of fish.

An oriental gentleman who I spoke with last week stopped and asked me if I had any luck today.  I told him about the ladyfish and asked if he was catching or just fishing.

He said the fishing today was terrible.  He told me that he fished the better part of the day and never got a fish but that he caught a couple of reds yesterday.

After we parted ways, I moved up the road to check out some of my favorite deep water spots that I hoped would hold some fish this afternoon.

The wind made the first hole too difficult to fish, so after a few misplaced casts I moved up to my second deep water location.

 It took two casts before I hooked up with a nice slot size sea trout that almost got off at the bank.

The grass in the refuge hasn't been cut in some time and it's tough landing anything you hook up with and are fortunate enough to land.

I almost took a swim on the slick rain soaked grass trying to land and release the trout, but I did manage to stay out of the water.

I moved up to my next deep water hole where I hooked up with an oversize sea trout.  The fish followed the Chug Bug out of the deeper water and nailed the plug almost on the bank .

This fish had some weight to it and took drag for a few seconds before changing direction and heading directly to the bank.   The fish wound the line around an underwater stickup and eventually broke loose, taking my favorite Chug Bug along with it.

I didn't have another Chug Bug with me of the same pattern, so I tied on a black and gold pattern that I normally use for redfish.

The wind started to abate, but so did the topwater bite, so when Karen called to see how I was doing, I told her I was heading for home.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted this huge gator at the first set of culverts just past the Peacocks Pocket kayak launch.

 

I hope the two guys who were wading this ditch a couple weeks ago take notice of the size of this gator.  It could do some serious damage to a wading fisherman.

The marsh side of Peacocks Pocket road is not a place to wade fish.

In any event, hope you all have a safe Independence Day this 4th of July.

Till next time, Tight Lines.