Shiloh Marsh Road Bull Redfish

On Labor Day, Monday afternoon, my wife Karen talked me into another late fishing trip; this time in the Shiloh Marsh Road area of the northern Indian River Lagoon.

As usual we left late and entered via US1 before the Kennedy Parkway turn.

The water on the opposite side of the river was extremely shallow, despite the rains we had over the weekend; so we decided to fish the river side where the larger "bull" redfish frequent.

As we drove into the northernmost part of the Indian River Lagoon,
several fishermen had several poles in the water, baited up with live finger mullet, waiting for the "big one".

We passed them by and continued to a cove where we usually catch redfish and trout this time of year.

On the way I picked up a few finger mullet for bait and one small ladyfish. These guys are like candy to big bull redfish.

After a couple of stops where we caught catfish and missed a few small trout, we finally hit "our cove" and staked out our spots.

Karen baited up one rod with finger mullet and another with dead shrimp.

I saw no topwater action, so I started throwing artificials and had absolutely no luck whatsoever.

The wind was blowing and continued to increase towards evening as we sat back and waited for some action.

Karen had a couple of misses and finally caught a catfish and later a trout.

I fished in another nearby area with my finger mullet and caught a respectable sea trout.

I missed two others and was out of bait except for the ladyfish, so I hooked her up and shot out a long cast into water that was about two feet deep.

For about 20 minutes or so, the ladyfish didn't do much. Finally it started going crazy pulling my bobber all over the place. I waited until the Cajun Thunder bobber was being towed at a good clip out of the cove before I set the hook into a very large redfish.

I could see it's tail when it came out of the water and it was about 12" across.

The fish took off and the drag screamed but after a short run, it spit out the ladyfish.

Evidently the 4/0 Owner hook didn't get a good enough bite. Anyway, I reeled in and cut about a 6" long piece from the midsection of a dead ladyfish that washed onto the rocks where I was fishing. Since I was out of live bait, it would have to do.

Another long cast under the bobber and about a ten minute wait got me hooked up to another "bull redfish".

This time I waited for the fish to eat the bait before striking and again had the same result. The fish surfaced, sloshed around like a baby manatee out of water, and took off for parts unknown.

It was getting dark, I was getting disgusted, so we decided to leave and return next week powered with heavier gear.

Anyway, the scenery was great!