Another Windy Afternoon On The Indian River

It was another windy day on the Indian River, but the wind coming out of the West made casting a bit easier than yesterday.

My wife, our wonder dog Elmo, and yours truly hit Shiloh Road on the northern Indian River directly across from the Scottsmoor boat launch.

The water was crystal clear and the fish were spooky on the river side. On the marsh side of the road, the water was cloudy and very shallow. All the fish today were difficult to catch.

Few people took advantage of the beautiful weather today in the drive and for the most part, except for the water birds, we had the place to ourselves.



My wife couldn't break her luck of the past couple of days and today caught ziltch. She missed several fish but wasn't holding her mouth right, or whatever.

I didn't do much better today. The first hour and a half produced only one trout slightly larger than the lure I was casting.

I was using a 2" gold Gator spoon and then switched to a Chug Bug with not hits at all. I then downsized my lures to mimic the 1 1/2 " small baitfish that were all around the culverts and started getting hits.

I changed to a Creme natural shad colored paddle tail lure and began catching more trout.

The day ended with 5 trout for myself and a goose egg for my wife.

On the way out of the drive, we stopped and talked with the only other fisherman who was still in the preserve.

Joseph was still fishing and reported catching a slot redfish and several slot sized trout. He said he caught the redfish on a dead shrimp and the trout on finger mullet he netted in the vicinity.

He was fishing the marsh side of the river and was trying to catch a shark he said he saw busting on schools of finger mullet.

Karen asked him how big the shark was and he replied "at least 4 feet from the dorsal to his tail".

From the description, it sounded like a very hungry bull shark.

I've seen several of them in the Indian River, but this is the first one I've ever heard about on the marsh side.

In any event, Joseph said he wouldn't be wading in that area again trying to net any finger mullet.



The sunset was again beautiful, and the day was perfect even if we didn't catch any huge fish.

Till next time, Tight Lines!