Late Afternoon Indian River Redfish

The Indian River redfish bite north of the Peacocks Pocket shallow boat launch has been reported good by wade fishermen and kayakers.

Unfortunately, I spent most of this weekend laying sod in our front yard and painting the house.

Late Saturday, my wife and I took a brief run around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to get some pics of the area and talk to some fishermen about their catches.

There was a carnival was in town complete with Ferris wheel, tilt a whirl, and the usual array of vendors so we thought the area would be mostly free of vehicle traffic.

We were wrong! The area was loaded with sightseers, fishermen, sun worshippers, and people just generally enjoying the beautiful day.

Most of the people we encountered fishing from the bank weren't having much luck.

They were catching stingrays, catfish, and a few small trout.

We did see several groups of fishermen who were wading out and staking out their rods in the shallow water just shy of where the water drops off from the flats.

Most of them were using live finger mullet and a couple of them were pitching jerkbaits.

We saw several of these fishermen reeling in redfish and black drum.

Apparently, fishing the dropoffs near dusk is the ticket to success.

I took some pics of kayakers who were scoring sea trout using live shrimp and finger mullet.

Karen and I did stop at the "duck blind" area for a few minutes and managed to pick up a couple of stingrays on dead shrimp, that we thought were tailing redfish.

In any event, the water on the canal side of the road was dead calm with no fish visible.

The river side was just as calm until you reach the deeper water areas.

Since I was dog tired and aching from laying sod; I took these pics and proceeded to the local Subway shop for a couple of subs before heading home.

I've got some house painting tomorrow, so I probably won't be on the water.

Until next trip, Tight Lines.