Went Walking The Dog This Afternoon

This afternoon my wife and I decided to get out and try for some of the slot sized redfish that abound in the Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River.

We got a late start and decided not to take the boat because of the Redfish Tournament and the local fair that is ending this weekend. Parking spaces are hard to come by.

For some reason, Peacocks Pocket road was still closed; so instead, we fished a small feeder creek that empties into a larger shallow marsh area that almost everybody passes up when entering the wildlife refuge.

We jumped two nice sized redfish in water that was no more than a foot deep, but they weren't interested in our offerings.

We moved on and fished a point on the Indian River side for about an hour with no luck except for a large catfish that my wife picked up on her Cajun Thunder rig.

I was wading , the wind was picking up, and I was clammy, so when some rude people decided to park their car directly next to ours, we decided to leave.

On the way out of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve we decided to give our first spot one last shot, so we pulled alongside the area which now had a flock of spoonbills feeding in it, and resumed our fishing.



My wife was using fresh frozen xlarge shrimp, and I was "walking the dog" with my Heddon Super Spook, Jr. top water.

In about an hours worth of fishing before dusk, I landed six slot sized trout, and missed at least three or four others, including one huge fish that blew the plug right out of the water.



There were 5 or 6 very large redfish busting baitfish in the shallows, almost into the grass. I tried casting to them, but they were way out of range and with the gators in the area, I decided to use discretion and not go wading in after them.

My wife didn't fare so well this trip, but we enjoyed the day none the less.

On the way back home, we saw at least a dozen shrimpers setting up for night shrimping on the Indian River, so we decided to stop and see how they were doing.

Guy and Cathy who regularly shrimp the area said the shrimp were "on and off" again. Guy got about 50 large shrimp the previous night and some of the other people I spoke with on the bridge reported about the same or less.



I promised to post their pictures, so here they are. Last time I spoke with them, I took a picture of a Jumbo shrimp in his hand and neglected to post his pic. Hope he can find my website!

Anyway, I took some pics and wished everyone well with their shrimping.

With any kind of luck, my wife and I (and of course our wonder dog Elmo) will get to wet a line tomorrow.

Till then, Tight Lines!