Night Shrimping On The Indian River

Night shrimping on the Indian River causeway is beginning to pick up shrimpers but not shrimp.

Saturday evening, I decided to check out the "happenings" at the causeway bridge. The shrimpers were out in droves despite the windy conditions.

The moon phase looked to be about 3/4 full and there was a moderate chop in the river. The shrimpers I spoke with were not filling their bucket limits, but they were all having a good time.

Guy and Cathy, two of the Titusville residents who shrimp at least two days out of the week, said that the water is still too cold for the shrimp to really start the "big" runs.

The shrimp that were caught were BIG. See the pics below of the one I took that was at least 8" long.



There were others caught in the net socks that were at least that size and several that were larger.

This seems to be the trend in this part of the Indian River.



Generally, there are more shrimp netted in the Oak Hill area, but they run very small compared to the jumbos that are regularly netted in Titusville.

The shrimpers were blaming the sea trout for eating all the "good ones" and I really couldn't argue their point. There were a lot of small sand trout schools and many larger slot limit trout swimming over the shrimp lights this Saturday evening.

Anyway, enjoy the pics. I hope to get some fishing in tomorrow if the wind cooperates.

Tight Lines to All!

Indian River Lagoon Fishing - The Fishing Is Getting Better!

Late Friday, my wife and our wonder dog Elmo took me fishing on the Indian River near Peacocks Pocket.

The wind was blowing just enough to make fishing difficult but not enough to prevent anybody from trying their luck.

The unimproved road was crowded with fishermen trying to catch whatever they could catch.

My wife used her tried and proven dead shrimp, Cajun Thunder rig for redfish and I used a variety of soft baits trying to get a trout or two to bite.

After fishing only about 15 minutes, I picked up a nice keeper trout on a Mann's soft bodied lure that resembles a small mud minnow.

I missed several more trout and because of the wind, decided to trade my spinning reel for my Nikon Cool Pix 8700 camera and take some pics of the beautiful birds in the area.

There were white pelicans, roseatte spoonbills, storks, all kinds of ducks, herons, and egrets all over the place feeding and just having a great time in the shallow marsh area.

Some of the pics are here for your enjoyment.



My wife gave up fishing at her favorite spot, when a 10 foot alligator decided to check out what she was doing.



For some reason the redfish were not in the same area that she caught her red in last week, so after an hour or so without any action, we decided to call it a day.

I hope I never get used to the scenery in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Till next time,

Tight Lines!

March Indian River Lagoon Redfish

Saturday afternoon on the Indian River Lagoon was just breathtaking. The weather was in the 70s and the fish were biting.

My wife and I decided to load up the truck and hit the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in hopes of getting a redfish or two.

I also took a ton of pictures of the wildlife that was out in droves.



The roseatte spoonbills, purple ibis, white pelicans, and numerous duck and heron species were all over the swamp shallows competing for food and squatting rights.

The gators were also out sunning themselves; and I counted over 20, in only a 6 mile stretch.

We started fishing by looking for active fish feeding in the shallows, and almost immediately rolled up on a large redfish busting the bank after some baitfish.

I pulled ahead of the fish, stopped the truck and started casting but the fish was not interested in my offering. A small Johnson gold spoon.

I continued with the spoon until I finally lost confidence, so I tied on a new "Mann's" soft bodied lure that resembles and swims like the original Heddon Soinc lures.

After a few casts to likely looking spots and several misses, I finally picked up a keeper trout that I released to fight another day. See pic.



My wife kept our wonder dog Elmo in the car, being somewhat paranoid of the gators getting their chops around him. Some we saw could devour a human with very little effort.

Karen was fishing a dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder bobber setup, and was catching some pretty nice sized catfish. We moved several times and finally came to one of her favorite "hot spots" where we decided to fish until it was time to leave.

She hadn't caught a decent redfish in a while, so I left her to her spot and continued with my lures hoping to catch a larger trout or passing redfish.

After about 20 minutes I heard her yelling and knew she finally hooked up with a red, so I grabbed my camera and captured the results below for all to comment on.

The fish was over the slot limit so we returned it to grow even larger and catch it another day.

On the way out of the refuge, we decided to explore a road right at Peacock Pocket, that I've never seen open to traffic. The cable barrier was down, so we proceeded with caution and found the neatest wildlife drive ever. The only problem was that it went nowhere.

After venturing in over 5 miles, the scenic trail finally came to a dead end near the entrance to Gator Creek. The swamp trail was kind of eerie, and there was absolutely no one else around except for the birds, buzzards, and gators.

I turned the truck around and retraced our steps back to the "Pocket" with new knowledge under our belt.

Personally, I'm glad that the road is normally closed to traffic. There was no litter anywhere, like in the openly traveled sections, and the beauty of the swamp will remain pristine, at least for now.

Till next time.
Tight Lines!

The Bridge Is Open Again!

Glad to report that the Max Brewer Causeway Bridge - SR 402 as of this afternoon is now operational. The guides using the Parrish Park boat ramps will be happy as clams; so will the workers at N.A.S.A.

High Winds On The Mosquito Lagoon

The windy conditions on the Mosquito Lagoon for most of the day were the same as yesterday, with gusts around 30 knots.

Casting was difficult, to say the least and the fishing was dissapointingly slow.

Sight fishing is impossible when the winds are this heavy, so I took pics of wildlife instead.



Everyone I spoke with had little to no success catching redfish or even trout. I'm sure the fish were eating, but because of the wind, you just couldn't feel the bites.

Haulover Canal fisherman were having trouble with the current, but a couple of fishermen reported catching slot sized black drum on shrimp baits, close to cover near the banks.

No one was catching redfish.

Well, it was still a beautiful day on the Space Coast, so enjoy the pics.

Tight Lines Folks!

Windy Weekend On The Indian River Lagoon

It was a windy weekend on the Indian River Lagoon which made the fishing almost impossible!

The winds were gusting in excess of 30 mph on the river which made casting challenging, to say the least.

My wife and I, and of course our wonder dog Elmo, tried our best to pick up a redfish or two with no success. The fish were out there but casting to them from shore was just impossible.

I used spoons, jigs, DOA CAL, and Creme paddle tail swim baits without coaxing a single hit from a redfish, and my wife used dead shrimp with the same negative result.

We spoke with one local gentleman, that had a cute Cocker Spaniel riding in the back of his truck tool chest, who said he caught three nice redfish the previous day on "peeled" shrimp.

He saide in his most secretive manner, not to bother paying over $3 a dozen for live shrimp, because they didn't get him a single bite. He told us his "secret" that the reds, for some unknown reason, were only hitting on "peeled" shrimp.

All I know for sure is that he caught redfish the previous day and we didn't.

We decided instead to fish the marsh side of Shiloh Road to try for some trout.

This strategy produced a couple of really dumb trout that had to be starving to death. Only j
joking!

In any event, they were hitting watermelon CAL baits coming off a dropoff, in a section of the river we call Eagle Point. I missed a couple of trout that I could feel hit the lure, and I probably had a few more taps that I couldn't feel because of the brutal wind.

Hopefully, it will calm down a bit tomorrow so we can catch some of those big bruisers.

By the way, the causeway bridge at Parrish Park is still not open to traffic.

It's a long drive to our favorite fishing spots these days!

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Birdwatching In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Sunday was a beautiful day for birdwatching in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I took my wife, our wonder dog Elmo, my Nikon CoolPix 8700 camera, and a few fishing rods to search for fish and birdlife.

Instead of taking the long drive through unimproved Shiloh road, we went directly over Haulover canal to the section near Black Point Drive around the Indian River Lagoon.

There seemed to be more different types of birds in the area, congregating mainly in the marshes adjacent to the river.

The warm temperature also brought out the alligators en masse. They were all over the drives sunning themselves along the banks in the marsh areas.

I'll let the pics and movie clips speak for themselves.



We halfheartedly dropped baits in a couple of areas, mainly around Peacock Pocket, with nothing to really write home about.

I believe that the extreme cold fronts killed off the vast percentage of fish in the very shallow water areas we normally frequent. The Wildlife Officers that I spoke with about the poor fishing in these areas, agreed with my observation.

Fishing in the Indian River side is still decent for black drum and redfish. There are a lot of drum in the river, and they are biting on shrimp, cut baits, and whole blue crab.

Enjoy the pics.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Haulover Canal and Indian River Fishing

Except for the breezy conditions, Saturday afternoon was beautiful on the Space Coast.

Since the causeway bridge to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is still closed due to bridge construction; my wife, our wonder dog Elmo and yours truly, took the long route to Haulover Canal to try our luck with some Black Drum fishing.

We decided to take the unimproved road next to the Indian River to check for any fish activity in the shallow waters.

The clear water in the shallows made spotting the fish easy however, the windy conditions made casting extremely difficult.

To make a long story brief, we didn't do too well. The fish were not in their usual areas for this time of year, probably because of the extended periods of cold weather.

The other anglers we encountered during our scouting trip didn't seem to be doing any better either. No one was catching fish, but everyone was having a good time watching the wildlife in the area.

I took several pics and the video below of the Roseatte Spoonbills that arrived a few weeks ago. These apparently found a great place to chow down.

After cruising the unimproved Shiloh Road we parked on the North side of Haulover Canal to try our luck with the drum.

The current in the canal was flowing towards the Indian River at a fast clip. I was using an Okumo baitrunner surf outfit with 60# PowerPro braid, and I set my wife up with a similar outfit.

We could not hold bottom with either rig even with 6 oz. pyramid surf sinkers and kept getting snagged on submerged ledges where we were fishing. I had a couple of hits on cut mullet and dead shrimp, as did my wife on the shrimp, but we couldn't hookup with any fish. We also tried using cut squid with no luck.

I got tired of tying on new rigs and decided to leave only to top off the day with a dead battery.

Fortunately another angler down the canal agreed to give me a jump. He and his friend did better on the fishing front. Using dead shrimp tipped jigs and fishing in only about four feet of water just off the bank, they caught and released two black drum in the high end of the slot limit.

My wife and I were both using heavier tackle, fishing in the deepest part of the canal, trying to get one of those 40# plus bull redfish, or up to 100# black drum that hold there.

Several other anglers were catching sheepshead at the end of the canal on the Indian River side using shrimp and cut clams. The rock outcrops there are always a good area to catch these tasty fish.

In any event, I guess it just wasn't my day for fishing or I wasn't holding my mouth right.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

Till then, Tight Lines!

March 6, 2010 Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report

As of this afternoon, this is the most recent Mosquito Lagoon fishing report I can pass on.

As you probably know, the Central Florida weather has been unpredictable and cold. The reports I've been receiving from a couple of the local guides here, say that the flats fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon in particular, has been pretty decent this past week or so.

The Redfish and black drum have been feeding in very shallow water, mostly in schools of 20 to 100 fish, and have been hitting on imitation crab flies, and a variety of small plastic baits.

My favorites are the DOA CAL, Creme paddle tails and shrimp baits, fished on light line with no leader.

The Redfish that were caught were running from slot sized, to occasional 30 pounders.

The black drum that were caught were all around slot limit size. The giant black drum this time of year, hang in the deepest holes near the bridges and around the pilings.

Because of the crystal clear waters this time of year, the fish tend to be spooky and slow, stealthy approaches, with long casts are necessary if you plan on catching anything.

The fish usually see you before you see them, and misplaced casts send them off to the races. Accurate casting is the name of the game this time of year. I have a tendency to cast too close to the fish and spook them about half the time, but I'm getting better at it.

Anyway, that's why they call it fishing, not catching.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Max Brewer Causeway Bridge Closure

The Max Brewer Causeway Bridge, at Parrish Park on SR 406 has been closed since Feb 21, 2010.

Initially I believed it was due to the swing bridge being stuck, however several people I have spoken with said that the closure was due to the ongoing bridge construction. No one seems to have any idea when or if the bridge will be reopened to vehicle traffic.

Several subscribers emailed me on this and all I can report to date is that it is still closed.

For now, anyone wanting to launch their boat at the Parrish Park ramps, will have to enter the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge from North US 1, then going onto Kennedy Parkway (Co Hwy 3), and then to Max Brewer Memorial Parkway.


When I visited the bridge late this afternoon, I spoke with a couple of shrimpers to get an updated report.

The general consensus is that the shrimping still 'sucks' compared to prior years.

The gentleman in the picture has been wintering in Titusville, from his home in Ohio and shrimping here since the 80's. He said the shrimping has been gradually going downhill.



The colder than average weather, along with the commotion from the new bridge construction, has caused the shrimp to run deeper than normal, making them harder to net.

I was surprised that they were still loading their generators onto the bridge, even though it was officially closed, but I guess that's what die hard shrimpers do.

In any event Bart, I believe he said his name was, said that the last good shrimp run this year was back in late January, and that he was still hoping for better shrimping when the water gets a bit warmer.

Although he seemed genuinely disgusted with the shrimping, it couldn't have been that bad if he bothered to unpack all his gear and lug it on to the bridge for the night.

I might get out with my wife and our wonder dog Elmo tomorrow to try some fishing and get some fishing reports on both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing.

Till then, Tight Lines and enjoy the pics!