Playalinda Beach: How Not To Catch Pompano

Because all of the roads in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge are closed to vehicle traffic, I decided to ride out to Playalinda Beach late this afternoon and see if anything was happening.

I'd been told that the whiting were hitting and that the pompano were just beginning to bite.

Around 3:00 I loaded my Okuma baitrunner reel and 10' Tournament surf rod into the truck with a couple of bags of shrimp for bait.

My intention was to pick up a couple of pompano for dinner. When I got to the beach I stopped at a few of the parking lots to see what people were catching, if anything at all.

Lots #4 and #6 were full of bathers and only a few fishermen that didn't seem to be doing much.



Lots #8 and #9 had a few more fishermen, but no one seemed to be catching anything, so I moved on to Lot #10 where I knew there were a couple of shell areas and troughs closer to the beach.



When I unloaded, I realized I forgot my tacklebox with all my hooks and sinkers. Fortunately, my rod was rigged with a double dropper rig with large Khale hooks, that I later found out were dull.

There were fishermen in both directions and the tide was just beginning to come in. I talked to an old timer named George to see what was happening and he said he hadn't seen a fish all morning.

Undaunted, I moved down the beach towards a shell strewn area and cast out my shrimp baits between the first and second sand bars.

After 10 minutes or so, I missed a heavy strike that was definitely not a whiting or a pompano. I reeled in, rebaited and noticed that both khale hooks were dull as hell. I didn't have any hooks on me or in the truck that I knew about, so I continued fishing.

Bad move on my part. In about an hours time frame, I missed three more strikes that were probably whiting.

It was a beautiful day and the surf was relatively calm. With no seaweed to mess up the fishing, it should have been a great day for catching, but the fish apparently weren't in the area where I was fishing.

About the time I was ready to move to another spot where I saw some birds diving, I was beat out by a guy in a yellow shirt who didn't seem to know much about fishing.

If he did, he certainly didn't care much about his equipment. I saw him dunk his reel in the water several times then drop his rod in the sand only to wash it off with salt water. Both are No Nos if you plan on keeping your tackle for any length of time.

Anyway, the story goes on.... This guy lobbed his baits out just past the first sand bar and caught whiting on almost every cast. After the third fish, I noticed that other fishermen were starting to pay attention to this guy's luck.

Instead of leaving, I just had to stick around and see how long it would keep up, so I took my rod back to the truck and brought back my camera.

This guy was definitely in the only spot on the beach where there were any fish!

I watched him catch four more whiting before I finally decided that there was no justice in this world. Talk about beginners luck! Anyway, it was getting on towards 5:00 so I decided to call it a day.



I took some pics and videos of the area and of the space shuttle on the way out and even though I didn't slay the fish today, it was a wonderful day to be out on Playalinda Beach learning how not to catch pompano.

Till next time, Tight Lines!