My first Indian River Snook

Today my wife and I drove around the swamp near Peacocks Pocket area and fished the culverts with some success, not knowing that today I would land my first Indian River Snook.

I caught several sea trout on Creme lures and two legal size snook in the river.

Both fish put up a spectacular jumping fight and surprised the hell out of me when they hit.

Apparently, they were cruising for minnows around the shallow mud bottom and enjoying the warmth.

Just prior to snagging the snook in this pic, I also tricked a slot redfish into giving up the ghost using the same Blue Creme Spoiler Shad Swimbait that you see hanging out of the fishes mouth in the picture.

I ate the redfish and put back both of the snook. (Remind me to get a Snook Stamp next year)

My wife Karen caught a nice redfish on a Cajun Thunder rig using dead shrimp for bait.

All in all it was a beautiful outing with flocks of migrating spoonbills chowing down on whatever they chow down on all over the place.

I never expected snook to be in this area of the Indian River, but now that I know they are here, I'll spend more time targeting them.

Till next outing,
Tight Lines.

Gator Trout Evening

After a pleasant day of fishing with my wife, she wanted to have "one last cast"; so I decided to free line a live croaker that I had netted earlier in another section of the river in a narrow marsh canal that nobody ever fishes.

My wife had caught some trout earlier and just at dusk, when I was ready to call it a day, I hooked up to what I thought was a large redfish in about a foot of water.

The fish literally inhaled the croaker when it hit.

The small canal adjacent to the river was very narrow and shallow, which kept the trout from putting up much of a fight.

The fish flopped around more than anything, with no room to run anywhere in the narrow canal but despite the lack of a fight, it was still an exciting catch.

Although Gator Trout are more and more common in this area since the net ban; they are still a prized commodity.

After bringing it home for dinner; the fish measured in at more than 27 inches.

I didn't have a scale but the girth was 13" at the widest point. You figure out the weight..... It was a rough day with the cast net as you can see by my pic.

Gator sea trout this time of the year are hard to catch in very shallow water but today luck was with me.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.