Oops, I did it again

Oops, I did it again! Got another gator sea trout.

The gator trout are definitely biting in the Indian River lagoon.

It was raining and lightning when I got home from work late this afternoon but when it slowed down a bit, my wife and I decided to go fishing and try for another gator trout or two.

The alligators were out in full force looking for food in the marsh area and there were plenty of fish around for them to feed on.

We didn't get to the river until about 6:30 and the weather was just plain nasty.

I netted up a few 6" mullet for bait and we drove to an area where I caught a near gator trout earlier this week.

We made a couple of stops and I had a few hits on a gold Johnson spoon but missed both fish. It seemed like everything was chasing finger mullet.

The weather got progressively worse as a huge thunderstorm moved in. The wind started really blowing and the temperature must have dropped at least 10 degrees.

Karen was afraid of the lightening and stayed in the car while I pitched out a finger mullet on one rod and started casting to fish with my gold spoon.

After only a couple of minutes, I saw the line with the mullet paying out and after a few seconds I set the hook.

The water exploded as a gator sea trout jumped clear out of the water and made a couple of super quick runs. The fish reacted just like a snook.

After the second run I played the fish to the bank, landed it and got Karen to take a couple of pics. The fish measured in at hair over 27".

I was going to let the fish go but the fish was bleeding and I wanted some fresh trout for dinner so I put it in the back of the truck. It couldn't fit in the small cooler we were using.

The weather didn't let up a bit but after I caught my fish, Karen decided to start fishing despite the lightening.

She pitched out a mullet on her clacker bobber rig and after a brief wait hooked onto a nice sea trout.

As she got it to the bank she tried to pull it up but the fish was too big and broke off at the hook.

For a brief couple of seconds the sea trout just sat there in the shallow water so not thinking about the alligators, I just slid down the bank and grabbed the trout around it's midsection.

The fish was at least 20" and as I tried to stand up I lost my balance and almost slid head first into the canal.

Karen was laughing herself silly and I wasn't having a good day at this point.

As she pulled me out of the water and I figured "what the hell" as long as I was drenched, why not keep fishing.

The thunderstorm activity sparked a feeding frenzy and the baitfish were being chased all over the place by big sea trout and redfish.

We continued fishing and just as it started getting dark, I hooked onto another gator trout that was quite a bit larger than the one I landed earlier. This fish was at least 30" and jumped three times before the hook pulled out.

Karen and I were drenched to the bone and we were both getting cold, so we decided to head for home to change our clothes and fillet the sea trout for dinner.

I believe we could have caught more fish if we had stayed out there but it wasn't worth getting a case of pneumonia.

Maybe we can repeat the performance tomorrow.

Until then, Tight Lines!