Another Gator Sea Trout

Late this afternoon, my wife and I decided to try our luck in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for some redfish and hopefully another gator sea trout.

The temperature was 94 degrees when we left the house and settled in at 89 degrees as we pulled into Peacocks Pocket road.

I didn't forget my cast net for a change, so I stopped at a place I know where there are always some small ladyfish and finger mullet.

After netting a few for bait we moved to the first of four stops we made today.

The first was at the culverts just past the Peacocks Pocket kayak launch.

Karen fished dead shrimp and a small ladyfish under a bobber and I used a gold Johnson's spoon.

After about 20 minutes of fishing we decided to move on up the road. I caught a long nose gar fish of about 28" and Karen never got a bite.

The next two stops didn't produce anything but a couple of light taps. We saw feeding redfish but they weren't hungry.

Our last stop proved to be the best spot of today's trip.

I stopped when I saw a lot of feeding activity in the shallows next to the opposite bank of the marsh canal.

Karen tossed out her two rigs and I loaded up a rod with a lively 9" ladyfish on a 4/0 Owner hook.

I put out a second rod with a dead ladyfish cut in half while I tossed a white D.O.A. Paddle tail bait around the opposite bank of the canal.

After about 15 minutes, I hooked onto a nice redfish on the ladyfish baited rod.

I fought the fish for about 10 minutes or so before the fish wrapped around a stickup and broke off. That fish was at least 30" long and definitely not a keeper.

After only a few minutes, Karen yelled that she had a redfish on.

I grabbed my camera and took a few pics of her fish. It was just legal size but we let it go anyway.

I hooked up with a lively fat 7" mullet and tossed it out to where I saw a fish swirl.

It took only a few minutes before the fish took off with the mullet in it's gut.

At first I thought it was a redfish because of it's size but I quickly realized it was a gator sea trout by the way the fish fought. It just sloshed around instead of making a long run like redfish are notorious for.

I landed the fish and had Karen take these pics with my Nikon.

Although I look like hell, it was a nice sea trout (about 24") so I decided to crop the pic and post it. The second pic is what the fish looks like just before I cleaned and ate it.

We were both tired and because it was getting dark we decided to call it a day.

It's nice fishing on a weekday in the Refuge. We only saw two other people in the drive and the fish were feeding just about everywhere.

Weekend fishing is much more challenging because of all the activity. The fish get spooked and you don't usually catch anything until just at dusk.

Till next time.

Tight Lines.