Windy November Evening On The Indian River

After returning home late from another week on the road, my wife and I decided to spend another windy November evening on the Indian River in the hopes of picking up a redfish or at least a few trout.

Bank fishing in November is iffy to say the least; but if you watch the water for telltale signs of fish movement, you can sometimes hook on to some very large fish in relatively shallow water even during windy conditions. The pic below is just one example.


This evening wasn't what I would call optimum fishing conditions because of what looked like a front moving in and some extremely windy conditions.

We headed for the closest water, which this time was the entrance to Gator Creek and the Catfish Creek areas.

We drove around looking on both sides of the unimproved road for signs of feeding fish and stopped several times when we saw fish chasing bait fish up on the banks.

At the first stop I saw a swirl that was definitely a redfish after some minnows. I tossed a blue Creme paddle tail swim bait at the fish, but it showed no interest as it continued moving down the shoreline.

After a couple more stops with the same result, we decided to stop at "Bobcat Bay" and let Elmo do his duty.

Using the same bait, I missed several taps that I'm sure were sea trout and finally landed one that confirmed my suspicion. The fish was just under the slot, so I put it back to grow up.

Several casts later I hooked and lost another trout right at the shore that was a clone to the first fish.

My wife wanted to fish one of her spots right before dusk, so we moved up the path to where she normally does quite well.

She fished her usual shrimp and Cajun Thunder rig, while I tossed out a dead shrimp on one of my casting rods and then started peppering the shoreline with my Creme lure.

After a short while Karen picked up a catfish and missed another. I missed something that I thought was a redfish but might have been a cat. Regardless, we didn't do much of anything at her spot.

The wind was whipping up and I was getting chilly, so I got the Nikon and took some pics of the awesome sunset and a few birds winging their way into their night roosting areas.



The windy November evening on the Indian River reminded me of a gator trout I picked up a couple of years ago around this same area. Unfortunately, this evening wasn't a repeat performance.

Till next time, Tight Lines!