Pre July 4th Outing On The Indian River

Saturday afternoon on the Indian River proved to be lonely and relatively unfruitful.

For the first time in a long time, there were almost NO people on the North Indian River flats off of Shiloh Marsh Road.

Late Saturday afternoon the entire river was as smooth as glass, with only an occasional mullet breaking the surface and the serenity of the moment.

On the way into the unimproved drive, my wife and I spotted only one other vehicle. The fishermen had waded out about 50 yards from the bank and set up folding chairs with sand spikes to hold their rods that were baited with finger mullet.

My wife and I stopped twice trying to entice some trout for dinner with little luck.

I have a hurt shoulder and had to work hard at casting my usual array of top water plugs, spoons, jigs, and soft baits. The fish just weren't interested in any of my offerings and my shoulder couldn't take the repeated abuse.

My wife tied on her Cajun Thunder bobber with a 4/0 hook, baited with frozen dead shrimp.

The first few stops yielded nothing but a throbbing shoulder, so we continued to one of Karen's favorite coves.

Once we got there, we noted that the water level was down considerably from the normal for this time of year and that the fish were dormant. Absolutely nothing was moving around.

I threw every lure I could think of to raise a fish as I walked along the road to the far point, where the other fishermen were sitting on their chairs out in the river, enjoying the day .

They weren't catching anything on their live mullet; just having a good day on the water.

I gave up on artificial lures and put out two rods baited with chunks of ladyfish in the hope of getting one of those 40" plus bull redfish.

After catching a couple of blue crabs, my wife finally caught a nice slot sized trout on her shrimp that we kept for dinner.

I caught a blue crab, a ton of ant bites on my ankle by standing on an ant hill, and not a thing more.

How humiliating! Except for a blue crab, I got skunked!

On the way out of the area, I grabbed my camera to take some pics of feeding spoonbills and some of the other scenery, some of which I have here.

Tomorrow is the 4th. and if my shoulder can take it, my wife and I hope to try it again at another area; possibly Haulover Canal.

I hear the mangrove snapper are biting!

Till then, Tight Lines!