Night Time Trout Fishing

Well it was a beautiful day in central Florida today. The wind was gusting to 20 mph and both the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoons were choppy.

I had intentions of taking out my Maverick and hitting the flats for some of those April gator sea trout everyone has been catching, but mowing the lawn, cutting down some dead trees and working around the house seemed like a better idea, according to my wife.

Not content to giving up a beautiful day without going fishing, I grabbed a spare rod I just respooled with 10 lb. Cajun Red Lightnin' line, put on a black and silver D.O.A. Terror Eye and scooted down to the bridge near dusk.

When I got to the causeway, it was sparsely populated with shrimpers and a few bridge fishermen.

The shrimping this past week was "so, so" according to Hank, one of the regulars. He said the shrimp were running sporadic and were "Oak Hill" sized. (Meaning mediums to small)

The week before, as I have already posted in this blog, they were "loading up on 9 to 12 inch shrimp" but this week the shrimping has not been consistent. Five gallon limits were were being scooped up, but "they weren't Titusville shrimp", as on gentleman told me.

Knowing that night time trout fishing is pretty much overlooked in this area, I decided to see if I could pick up a gator sow sea trout.

When it got dark I started pitching the D.O.A. outside the shrimp lights and caught and missed several small trout.



Moving out to deeper water just outside the shrimp lights, a good sub-gator sized trout grabbed the D.O.A. lure and tried her best to run under the bridge. After a couple of very nice runs, I finally landed the respectable 21 inch trout.

Fish for dinner tomorrow evening! I usually don't keep them but it's been a dry spell for nice sized keepers.

Last week end, my wife and I hit the preserve area of the northern Indian River and didn't do as well as we hoped.

I caught 13 or 14 small trout and missed a nice over sized redfish, and Karen missed one red and only caught several catfish. That is the main reason I almost exclusively use lures and not bait.

I took a few fish pics and am posting the collage here for your viewing.

Maybe the fishing will be better tomorrow. The weather should be great.

Tight lines to all!