Exploring Shiloh Marsh Road

Exploring Shiloh Marsh Road can be detrimental to your vehicle if you don't pay attention to the many deep ruts you will undoubtedly encounter.

My wife and I decided to take Elmo, our wonder dog, out to the Indian River to see if the fish were biting.

Last week we tried to venture into this same area but the barriers were up for another couple of days.

This evening when I finally got home from work, we decided to explore Shiloh Marsh Road to scout for promising areas to fish.

The water levels in the northern Indian River Lagoon are unbelievably low. Many of the spots we fished last year at this time are now completely dry on the marsh side of the road and less than a foot deep on the river side.

Despite the low water levels, Karen and I plodded on and tried several promising locations even though we didn't spot any fish activity.

Usually during extreme low water conditions the fish are concentrated in tight deep water areas where they hold until the water levels rise.

This evening, even though some of the culverts were open and feeding water into the marsh canals, the fish just were not around. If they were, they definitely weren't feeding.

I was tossing two sizes of gold spoons and a DOA CAL jerkbait most of the time and only succeeded in enticing two hits which were probably from sea trout.

Karen was using dead shrimp for bait and managed to lose a sea trout when we first entered the road, and later on caught a large catfish near an open culvert that we had occasionally fished.

By exploring Shiloh Marsh Road this evening, we learned that until the water levels increase dramatically, we would be better off fishing either the Peacocks Pocket road, Haulover Canal, or the Mosquito Lagoon.

With only a few exceptions, Karen and I are putting Shiloh Marsh Road off limits for fishing for the time being. The unimproved road has 15 mph speed limit signs posted in a couple of locations, but unless you own a hovercraft to get you safely over the deep ruts in the road, or you just want to destroy your car's suspension; you will never hit the speed limit.

One thing I can't complain about are the awesome sunsets you get to see from this road. Karen and I saw only one other vehicle all the time we were exploring Shiloh Marsh road and they looked like bird watchers.

Here are some pics of the area for your enjoyment.

Tomorrow after getting some work done around the house, we plan to take out the Maverick around the Mosquito Lagoon flats. I hear that the redfish and black drum schools are all over the place.

Till then,

Tight Lines.