Another Windy Day On The Indian River Lagoon

Today was a windy day on the Indian River Lagoon which almost caused my wife and I to forgo our late afternoon fishing trip.

At the last minute, we decided to just pack up Elmo and the rest of our gear and see what was biting on the river.

Because I had caught a nice redfish on Friday; Karen and I decided to see if we could duplicate our success in the same area.

Unbelievably, almost no one was out on Shiloh Marsh road.

On the way into one of our "spots"; I managed to net about a dozen finger mullet and a small croaker for bait. The wind made it difficult to cast properly but I managed filling our bucket after only three casts.

We passed a family who set up a makeshift tent on the back of their truck and seemed to be just enjoying the balmy day. They didn't appear to be doing any serious fishing, so I didn't bother getting any information from them.

We finally pulled off the unimproved road at a running culvert where fish normally congreate.

Running culverts on the Indian River Lagoon are like a dinner bell to roaming redfish and sea trout. Unfortunately, the hard head catfish also find the culverts to their liking.

I baited up one of my rods and cast out to see if anything was hungry. While the finger mullet was doing it's thing, I began casting a gold Johnson spoon with my other rod hoping to duplicate my redfish catch of the previous day.

I hooked a catfish on the rod that had on a finger mullet and promptly threw it back.

Karen lost a fish on her Cajun Thunder & mullet rig that was probably a redfish, but she couldn't be sure.

I had a couple of hits on my gold spoon that felt like trout and finally did manage to catch one of about 18" that I returned to fight another day.

The only other person we saw in the area was a local fisherman we often see in our travels named Glenn. He stopped and we shared some information on local fishing areas for gator trout and redfish, and the lures used to catch them.

He was partial to DOA jerk baits fished snagless on a weighted worm hook and a small topwater bait in "baby bass" attire that looked like Heddon Zara Spook Jr . He also showed me a DOA type shrimp bait that he uses primarily for gator sea trout.

After trying to get him to buy my other tri hull boat, he left and I continued fishing with my Johnson spoon.

After about a dozen casts, I had a hefty strike from something that felt like a big redfish but it shook loose.

About the time I was getting my camera out to capture the awesome sunset, a Florida Fish & Wildlife officer came around the bend to check our licenses and preserve permits.

He was a nice gentleman named Michael Slocum, (hope I didn't butcher the spelling too much) and among other things, we talked about why more people didn't take advantage of the beautiful scenery and fishing the open culverts.

The only things I can attribute it to is the windy conditions or the televised football games. Anyway, after chatting a bit, he left to patrol the rest of the area and I continued fishing, missing another redfish.

Karen switched sides and also missed a good sized redfish that tried to engulf her finger mullet.

Since it was getting towards dusk and the mosquitoes were starting to suck on my body fluids; we decided to call it a weekend and head to the house.




Hope you enjoy the pics of the scenery and until next time;
Tight Lines to your all!