Late February Indian River Shrimping

Friday evenings on the Indian River Lagoon are always interesting.

If I get home early, which these days is seldom, I hit the river with my wife and trusty dog Elmo for a little "jump fishing". Unfortunately the rainfall has been close to zero and the water levels are the lowest in about ten years.

My usual spots are now on high ground, much to the delight of the waterfowl in the area, and since it was too late in the evening to bother launching my flats boat, I just chewed the fat with the fishermen and shrimpers, trying to get the latest "scoop".

This Friday, the wind was light to moderate on the bridge and all the regular shrimpers were complaining about the "bad shrimp run" this year.

The "regulars" I spoke with all had a reason for not getting their 5 gal. bucket limits. but the general opinion was that it was just a crappy season for shrimping.

I got to the bridge, that was crowded on both sides by shrimpers and fishermen, about 8:30 and stayed until about 10:00.

I saw quite a few people sporadically catching shrimp and a couple of fishermen picking up some medium sized sea trout that were competing with the shrimpers. One was using a D.O.A. glow shrimp and the other was using frozen shrimp. The artificial lure guy was out fishing the live bait guy about 3 to 1.

There were also the "huge" redfish patrolling the zone just inside the area of the shrimp lights. They started coming in around about 9:30 and were still there when I left. They looked a lot like torpedoes as they occasionally swam over the shrimp lights.

I plan on hitting the river on Sunday before the cold front comes in early next week.

Hope its a good day.

Tight lines to all.