Shiloh Marsh Road Fishing Trip

My wife and I decided to take our wonder dog Elmo for a trip to the North Indian River Shiloh Marsh Road area to see what we could pick up for dinner.

After I mowing the lawn and getting drenched by a mid afternoon thundershower, I was more than ready willing and eager to get some fishing in.

Because the wind was blowing in from the northeast; we opted to fish the Indian River's Shiloh Marsh Rd area instead of the flats around Mosquito Lagoon's Bio Lab road.

It had been raining and the road was sloppy, but we hoped that the rain would promote the redfish bite, so we plodded on looking for signs of fish.

I noticed some finger mullet activity in the very shallow waters on the marsh side of the road so we stopped to try our luck.

Another fisherman and his family stopped to see how we were doing and after talking to him a bit, discovered that he was a reader of this website. Small world!

I should have gotten his name but I didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, he was definitely in the right area to fish, especially with the kayak or canoe he had in his truck. I'm not sure which it was.

He left and we continued fishing.

My wife put on her usual dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder bobber rig and I tried a Johnson gold spoon.

After several casts without even a follow, I tied on a top water Zara Spook Jr. that looked like a pretty good imitation of the silver mullet in the shallows. Several casts later, I lost the lure to the swamp.

After a few choice cuss words, I decided to try a frozen finger mullet that we brought along from our last trip. I cut the tail off and stabbed it several times to get the "juices" flowing and pitched it into the area I though there should be redfish.

Meanwhile, my wife called out to me that she had caught a trout. I put my Okuma bait runner on free-line and went over to where she was fishing to help her out and take a couple of pictures.

The slot sized trout looked like dinner to me, but my wife wanted me to release it, so like any obliging husband I acquiesced to her wishes.

The water was high and both redfish and sea trout were in extremely shallow waters chasing down mullet and other crustaceans.

I walked farther down the road after spotting a redfish chasing something in water that was less than 6" deep. He was tailing and sloshing around enough for me to shoot the finger mullet right into the swirl.

The fish immediately picked up the bait and started running down the narrow creek. After a respectable battle and several strong runs, I finally managed to lip it out of the water.

The fish was gut hooked so deep that I decided to make fish sandwiches out of it. It measured out at 26" which was just enough for my wife and I to eat for dinner.

We moved out to another prime area where an open culvert was flowing. Karen chucked out her rig and I put on another gold spoon and started casting. I had a few hits from what probably were small trout and my wife lost another trout on her rig.

Since I already had my fish, I pulled out my Nikon CoolPix 8700 and started taking pics of the awesome sunset you get to see here.




There were some nice trout feeding in the running culvert but my wife was fishing the other side and I was just enjoying the sunset.

After losing some baits to trout, we decided to call it an evening and head for home.

Hope you enjoy the pics and until next time; Tight Lines!