Indian River Trout Fishing

The Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River fishing is still going gangbusters in East Central Florida's Space Coast.

With all the construction work that's going on, some fishermen who normally opt for an early morning boat launch, are turning to bank and wade fishing.

The new bridge construction on the Max Brewer Causeway, along with refurbishing of the boat ramps at Parrish Park and the Titusville Marina, are causing some minor irritations to public boaters and fishermen.

Additionally, the closures of Shiloh road to vehicle traffic, and some other prime fishing pathways to the public, in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, have caused irritation with the management bureaucracy.

When I called about the closures, the reasons given for the closures varied from, the "shuttle launch", to insufficient funding to repair the "potholes" in Shiloh road, to flooding, to whatever else they can think of as an excuse. It seems like they are intentionally trying to keep the public away from the area, at least by land traffic.

In any event, late Saturday afternoon, after trying to get into the north part of the Indian River at Shiloh road, my wife and I resigned ourselves to the fact that we were relegated to fishing Peacock Pocket road.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great area to fish if you know how! My wife and I do.

Sticking to the golden rule of Central Florida fishing, "fish early and fish late", we struck out at aobut 6:30 for an evening of "jump fishig" in the marsh areas.

The weather was hot but not blistering, there was a nice breeze and a slight ripple on the water, that helped the fishing.

My wife was using a weighted jerkbait hook baited with a large dead shrimp with the tail removed. When you hook the shrimp through the tail and pull it slowly along the bottom, it usually produces nice redfish and trout.

I used my usual variety of baits that included; D.O.A. paddle tail jerk baits in green/white body, Creme swimbait, Johnson gold spoon, and my trusty Chug Bug.

We stopped by several areas and decided to finish at our "secret spot" where my wife had previously caught nice redfish and black drum. Today however, she only caught a catfish that acted like a sea trout!

I caught about a dozen smaller trout. which were all released. And just at dusk, my favorite time to fish, I switched to my Chug Bug.

After about two dozen casts to the far bank in the narrow canal, I got an explosive hit right on the bank in about 4 inches of water.

After about a 10 minute battle up and down the canal, I pulled in a "sub gator" trout that measured 26 inches. The pics of the scenery and the fish are here for your viewing.

We plan on doing the whole thing again tomorrow, after my household chores are finished with, so until then.... tight lines!