Fishing In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge,

Late this afternoon my wife and I decided to see if the NASA folks still had the barriers up in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The shuttle launch has been rescheduled again until the 16th. so we decided to give the area a "shot".

It was late so we packed up the minimum of tackle and headed for Peacocks Pocket road to see if anything was happening.

The barriers were down so took the first open entrance.

As we stopped by one of my favorite trout fishing areas, we saw one of the wild boars that frequent the swamp in this area. He was walking around the opposite side of a salt water pond looking as if he didn't have a care in the world.

I took these pics and headed to another area to catch some trout for dinner.

We passed a half dozen gators before settling on a stretch that we usually have good luck with.

My wife Karen was fishing with frozen jumbo shrimp and I decided on a green DOA jig head and a green 4 " Strike King jerk bait in the stinger end to start with.

Even though we were fishing late in the afternoon, it had been raining in the area sporadically throughout the day and the fish didn't appear to be very active. We didn't even get to the area until about 7:00 p.m.

Walking the bank and fishing both sides of the unimproved road, I had hits from 6 sea trout using the jerk bait.

I couldn't hook a fish to save my life so I baited up a second rod with a dead shrimp and tossed it close to the opposite bank to see if I could pick up a redfish.

I switched baits and moved to a top water plug. I managed to attract a couple of half hearted smacks from small trout with the plug but again couldn't hook anything.

I was about to pull up stakes and move up the road when my other rod started bouncing up and down.

I set the hook and after a short fight landed a slot sized "rat" redfish that I took pics of and returned to grow up.

I was hoping for some top water trout action which is normally quite good this time of year, but I just couldn't hook any fish.

This large gator was sunning itself but slowly moved into the stretch of water we were fishing, so Karen and I decided to call it a day.

The mosquitoes were bad enough, but a 9 foot gator trying to sneak up on you when you're trying to land a fish is something I choose to avoid.

Anyway, I've got a pallet of sod to lay tomorrow morning but if I can still hold a fishing rod afterwards, I'll be out here again trying my luck.

Till next time, Tight Lines.