Great Fishing During A Rainstorm

It's always great fishing during a rainstorm or shortly thereafter and this evening was no exception.

When I finally got home from work this evening it was just beginning to rain.  I waited a while hoping for a break but it looked like it would continue so I packed up six rods and headed for the river.

By the time I crossed the A. Max Brewer Memorial bridge it was beginning to slow down and by the time I got to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center it had stopped.

I drove down Peacocks Pocket Road and briefly stopped to fish at the kayak launch.  There were several large pods of mullet in the area being chased by either sea trout or redfish.

I tossed topwater Chug Bugs, a paddle tail jerk bait and a fluorescent Live Target shrimp with no hits or follow-ups.  

It started to rain again, much harder than when I left the house so I put on my Frog Toggs top, got in the truck and started to slowly drive down the road to see if any action was visible.

The temperature dropped to 73 degrees and the wind was blowing at a moderate rate with some heavy gusts.  Not great for casting.

I stopped to fish several places in the marsh canal and got several hits from sea trout and briefly hooked a large ladyfish.

              

Finally, the rain subsided enough for me to do some serious casting.  I stopped at a small pond that I knew held large fish and started casting a chartreuse and silver Chug Bug that was smeared up with Pro-Cure.

I caught two small sea trout which I released and hooked a very large ladyfish that got tangled in the mangrove roots and finally broke off.

I wasn't too happy about losing my Chug Bug, but it's part of the game in this area if you plan on catching any fish.

I tied on another Chug Bug pattern (Tennessee Shad I think) replaced the 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader with 30 pound leader and started casting my new lure.

At the next pond I fished, I caught three sea trout on the Chug Bug pattern and missed two more that got off.

 The one sea trout was under the slot and the others were all in or over the 24' slot. 

 

As the rain started up again, the sky was getting dark but I decided to keep fishing until dusk.  

I moved to another pond area and started making long casts to the shallow grassy flats and retrieving the bait over a drop-off.

The second cast brought me a hookup with a nice redfish that made a brief run and eventually pulled off.  Apparently, the fish wasn't hooked well.  

I was going to move on but I didn't want to waste fishing time so I decided to continue fishing the little pond.

About five long casts later, a redfish exploded on the topwater Chug Bug and headed for the middle of the pond. 

The rod I was fishing with was spooled with 30 pound green Power Pro and a length of 30 pound fluorocarbon leader but the redfish I had on tore off line like it was 4 pound mono.

The first run was almost 100 yards into the middle of the shallow pond and  I couldn't do anything but hang on.  The fish finally turned to the right and continued running around the pond.  I picked up some line and fought the fish for almost 20 minutes before it finally showed signs of giving up.

Finally the redfish started coming towards me, allowing me to pick up most of the line I lost on the first runs.

When the fish finally swam close enough for me to get a look at it's size, I was taken back.  The big redfish was almost four feet long.

Apparently it didn't like my looks because it took off again on another long run as soon as it saw me.

I turned the fish again, but this time it headed for a small mangrove island, got into the roots and broke off taking my Chug Bug with it.

I wanted the fish for pictures to post here, but it was not meant to be.  

I was going to tie on another Chug Bug but it was getting too dark, so I decided to head for home and give it a shot tomorrow.  

A couple of my buddies said they have caught really big Bull Redfish of this size in the marsh area but until this evening I chalked it off to braggadocio.  

Now I believe them!  Anyway like I said, it's great fishing during a rainstorm.

Till next time, Tight Lines.