Oversized Indian River Redfish

Lots of oversize redfish are being caught all over the northern part of the Indian River.

More mullet are starting to congregate in the river and small schools of the larger sized breeder redfish are staging for their spawn.

Bull redfish of up to 50" are now being caught north of Titusville, from the Scotsmoor boat launch area, all the way down to the shallow flats across from the FPL power plant at Port St. John, Florida.

My wife and I went out Friday evening, after I drove back from Savannah, to scout some of the areas we normally frequent and do some fishing. Because it was late in the afternoon and thunderstorms were pounding the area, we decided to hit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and look for signs of active redfish or trout.

I tried a gold Mepps spoon, and my wife used her tried and proven shrimp under the bobber technique.

The first place we stopped at where we normally pick up fish, yielded nothing. It started to rain and get really sloppy on the dirt road so we moved on until we saw some actively feeding fish in the canal next to the Indian River.

I made several casts to a large redfish of over 30", but it spurned the spoon and moved up the canal.  Two casts later I missed a small redfish and picked up a ladyfish that jumped all over the place.

It started raining harder, so we decided to leave for home and come back tomorrow but my wife wanted to try one last spot.

We quietly pulled up to the area and she tossed out her rig. After only a few minutes, she hooked on to an almost "bull" redfish of just over 34" in water that was no more than a couple of feet deep.

The fish was putting up quite a nice battle in the shallow water so I decided to take a few pictures.

I ran for my camera to get a movie or take some pics as she was fighting the fish, and wound up with only one usable picture.

Because of the weather, the camera lens got fogged up and I lost the focus on almost all of the pictures I took. Anyway, you can see by this picture how big the redfish was.

It was her lucky day! If it had been a slot red; she would have been heading home for the dinner table. Anyway, after measuring the fish we unhooked it and released her to fight another day.

I took some pictures of the awesome sunset as we headed home to dry off.

Tomorrow's another day, so until then; Tight Lines!