Fishing The Ditches In East Gator Creek

After the first set of storms blew through our area this afternoon, I decided to try fishing the ditches in East Gator Creek with topwater baits.

I already had my rods in the truck so I didn't waste any time getting to the first set of culverts.

As I drove over the A. Max Brewer Causeway Bridge, I wasn't sure topwater baits would be a good choice.  There were whitecaps on the river and a few dudes were windsurfing along the north side of the road.

I stopped at the culverts and started fishing a gold Johnson Sprite spoon to see if the fish were hitting deep.

After several casts without a hit I changed rods and started pitching my "baby bass" patterned Chug Bug.

The wind made fishing the bait tough, but after the third cast I had a nice hit from a big sea trout.  The fish nailed the plug out of the water but didn't get hooked up.

I switched sides and started tossing the Chug Bug into the shallower mud flats on the east side of the road and got a hookup with a nice ladyfish that put up a surprisingly good fight.

I forgot my Samsung smart phone at the house, so I couldn't take any pics but I remembered to take my GoPro so I compiled this short video of some of the catches.

I changed sides and started casting into the deeper areas around the flowing culvert and hooked up with a slot size sea trout that I also released.

In an hour of fishing, I managed to catch two ladyfish and three sea trout that were all in the slot.

The one fish I missed just before I quit fishing was a very large sea trout that hit the Chug Bug out of the water right at the base of the culvert.   The fish was at least 25 inches but I couldn't get a hook into the fish.

I made about a dozen casts back into the area, but the fish was gone for the day.

It was getting dark and the wind was picking up so I decided to head for the house.

As I drove around East Gator Creek road on the way out of the refuge, I stopped to cast a couple of areas just for the hell of it, but the high wind made it almost impossible to make the plug look natural so I gave it up for the day.

Till next time,
Tight Lines and Bent Rods.