Labor Day North Indian River Redfish

Well folks, it was another great fishing outing on the north Indian River estuary.

The balmy afternoon gave way to a dead calm when my wife and I finally got to Peacock Pocket road. After stopping long enough at the shallow water canoe launch to throw a cast net for some finger mullet, we started looking for the telltale wakes of large redfish that frequent the area.

We didn't have to wait long. There were several large oversize redfish cruising the shallows and occasionally swirling on finger mullet.

I netted about a dozen 3 to 4 in. finger mullet, several shad like baitfish, and a small ladyfish when we stopped for bait. In addition to the live bait, we had frozen shrimp and my tried and true Chug Bugs.

I caught a couple slot sized trout on lures and Karen picked up a medium sized garfish on a finger mullet. It's unusual to land gar on hooks because of their ability to clip off a hook with their sharp teeth, but Karen managed to land this one. See the pics.



We chased several other wakes from large redfish but had no luck until dusk.

My wife had one rod with a shrimp bait and the other with a live free lined finger mullet.

I was trying my best to catch a redfish that looked to be at least 30" long to no avail.

Just at dusk, both of Karen's rods got hits. The rod with the shrimp peeled line up stream, so she grabbed it first and tied on to a slot sized redfish.

The fish got tangled in the brush alongside the bank, but she finally got it free for me to lip it out of the water for her.



It measured just at the top end of the slot and will be diner tomorrow evening. I haven't had blackened redfish in a while and we're both looking forward to it.

I didn't do too well this evening, but tomorrow is another day!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and until our next venture, Tight Lines!