What Beautiful Wildlife!

The fishing today sucked! There is no better way to describe it. But the photography was great.

My wife and I decided to take our wonder dog Elmo fishing at the headwaters of the Indian River Lagoon.

We decided on Shiloh Road area since it had just reopened last weekend and the fishing had been relatively decent.

Unfortunately the fish had lockjaw. I fished a variety of lures and even broke down and tried fresh dead shrimp with absolutely no success. Nope, not even one single bite in over two hours of solid fishing.

But the waterfowl and spoonbills were in the area in mass. I even got to take a video of an American Bald Eagle that let me get to within ten feet of where it was roosting.

Check out the pics for yourself!

The water was still pretty cold and the wind was whipping up the river and marsh areas, making it hard to cast. However, we are hoping for a better excursion next week.

In any event, it's hard to beat the beautiful wildlife and scenery in the area.

Enjoy the pics, and until next time. Tight Lines!

Shiloh Road Opening

After several months of closure, Shiloh Road has finally opened for vehicle traffic along the northern most portion of the Indian River Lagoon.

The unimproved road is in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is closed by the powers that be during duck hunting season. Although opening day was a couple of days ago, today was a stellar day for viewing the waterfowl and just dunking a bait.

I compiled a short movie showing some of the wildlife my wife and I saw today along with some beautiful scenery.

At the beginning of the road closest to US1, the kayakers were doing their thing in water only around a foot deep. A couple were catching fish, but I couldn't make out what they were.

About a mile into the Refuge, the wildlife officers checked out our fishing licenses and refuge permits.

This is only the second time since I've been a resident of Florida that I've been checked for a valid license. The officer was very courteous and professional as he explained why the road had been closed this long.

When he left, Karen and I started fishing. She used her favorite shrimp bait and I started with white CAL paddle tail baits.

I caught a couple of undersized trout, missed something big that may have been a gator trout and wound up the day with only one keeper of about 17" that I released. My wife didn't get a bite all afternoon using her dead shrimp.

Anyway, this was mainly a scouting trip. We had originally planned to visit our normal fishing spot, but the causeway bridge was closed AGAIN, making us go up US1 past the Scootsmoor boat landing to gain access to the preserve.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we decided to check out the Shiloh area.

The Fish & Game Officer said the fishing conditions should get better in this area as the water warms up a bit. I suspect by next week if the temperatures hold, we should start getting some decent 30# plus redfish and gator sea trout.

Hope you enjoy the pics and till next time, Tight Lines!

Indian River Fishing - Fishing The Mud Bottom Shallows

February is a good month for Indian River Fishing, especially when fishing the the mud bottom shallows on the northeast portion of the river.

This weekend was the first really warm weekend in a long time that my wife, my wonder dog Elmo, and I got to enjoy fishing both the lagoons without taking a chance of contracting a case of pneumonia.

The fish are cruising the shallows over mud bottom areas around the Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge, and they are very spooky.

If you care to wade these areas and are careful about not making too much commotion; you can pick up slot sized redfish in singles and small schools using fresh cut bait, live shrimp, and slow moving soft baits.

I watched one wade fishermen catch a nice sized black drum on a white CAL bait wading north of Peacock Pocket, and just south of Catfish Creek. A couple other fishermen, not so interested in getting their feet wet, picked up slot redfish in the same area.

I was targeting sea trout for a friend of mine who wanted the fish and didn't fare so well. I picked up a couple of undersized fish on a natural colored Creme paddle tail bait, along with on legal fish of about 17" that I didn't bother keeping.

The trout weren't biting in their normal haunts for this time of year, which I believe is partially due to the recent cold snap fish kill. Last year, I was picking up good numbers of sea trout and even a couple of snook during this time period.

I predict when the water warms up a bit, the fish will move back into their old hunting grounds.

Towards evening I started targeting redfish that were cruising the mud bottom shallows. I tried gold spoons, a new Rapala "twitch" bait, and the usual array of soft bodied baits. I missed one slot redfish on a DOA CAL white paddletail swimbait and spooked two others because of badly placed casts.

On the way out of our fishing area, we found the road closed at the causeway bridge and had to get home via the long route over Haulover canal. Thank the Lord that the new bridge construction and fishing pier construction seems to be going full speed ahead. It seems like the every other week they can't get the turnstyle bridge to close and they have to redirect traffic.

Well, we hope to get out Sunday providing the bridge is open. Perhaps I'll have a better report.

In the meantime, enjoy the pics.

By the way, I have absolutely no idea why the house was being pushed down the ICW. If anyone knows about this please post a comment, I'd love to know.

Meanwhile, Tight Lines To All!

Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River Fishing Report - Feb. 2010 Update

Although I personally haven't been knocking em dead, a guide friend of mine said the fishing on the north Indian River flats has been pretty decent up till the cold front this week.

I've gotten reports of several large gator trout being landed in the 8 to 9 pound category just north of Mims, Fl. and sporadic landings of slot size redfish in the same general area.

Live shrimp, and DOA CAL jerk baits are what worked on the sea trout and almost all of the redfish were caught on DOA shrimp, live free lined shrimp, and CAL jerk baits.

The large bull redfish don't seem to be as numerous as the slot sized four to eight pounders that are on the shallow flats during the warmer parts of the day.

I noticed that the past few times I night fished the causeway with the shrimpers; the huge bull redfish that usually follow the sea trout into the lights, were AWOL.

I suspect during the cold fronts, they are spending their time in the deeper holes along the Indian River Lagoon canals or in the deeper waters of Haulover Canal.

This weekend I plan taking my wonder dog Elmo and finding out precisely where they are.

From my past experience and notes I have taken, the gator trout bite will definitely improve as the weather warms up and as we get closer towards spring.

March and April are the prime months for targeting the spawning female gator trout in the north part of the river, as well as the Mosquito Lagoon. Believe me, I'm 'jonesen' to get in some topwater action this spring.

I picked up some new subsurface, walk-the-dog lures from Gander Mountain on my way home from Savannah last week that I'm dying to try out.

My neighbor went crappie fishing last week somewhere in the St. Johns, and came back with a nice bucket full of fish. He caught them all drifting using small chartreuse and white jigs on light 4# line, with spinning tackle. He asked me to post his success, so here it is.

Until next time, hopefully this weekend, Tight Lines to All!

Last Shuttle Night Launch On The Indian River Ever?

Fishing this weekend on the Indian River Lagoon was pretty much out of the question this weekend.

NASA's scheduled night launch of Endeavour, that was supposed to go early Sunday morning never materialized due to the windy conditions and excessive cloud cover.

I managed to get down to the causeway bridge, amid thousands of out of town visitors hoping to get a last glimpse of history in the making, to see how the shrimpers were faring.

There were only 4 or 5 left on the bridge and all had about a quarter of a bucket filled with medium to large sized shrimp.

I asked Ralph, a regular who I have seen there on many a night, how the shrimp were running, and according to him; shrimping was beginning to "pick up". Pretty non committal to say the least, but that's how it goes.

Anyway, launch time approached and went, I didn't even get one hit on my lures, and I was freezing with only a light wrap on; so I went home to the comfort of my bed.

Since the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was closed to the launch, my wife and I decided to work around the house and get caught up with some work.

After I learned why the shuttle was never lit, I decided to try again Monday morning to get a glimpse of history.

This time the results were somewhat better; here is the video I took of the last launch possibly ever from the cape.



Hope you enjoy the sound, much of the video looks like a UFO after the initial launch but being there live is much more impressive.

If the weather warms up next weekend, I plan on taking the Maverick out on the Lagoon to snatch up some of the redfish I hear are hitting.

The cold water is crystal clear, the fish are extremely wary, and the fun is about to begin.

Till next time, Tight Lines!