October Marsh Fishing

October marsh fishing usually picks up when water temperatures start to drop.

This month the water table in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has risen considerably and the areas where I normally catch fish this time of the year aren't as productive.

The redfish and larger sea trout are feeding in the newly flooded shallows chasing finger mullet, eating crabs and other crustaceans.

Because of time constraints, I didn't get a chance to do any real fishing this weekend.

Friday night Karen and I took Elmo our "wonder dog" out for a spin in the marsh just to see what was shaking. We were surprised at the number of people out there fishing and taking pictures.

The sunset was beautiful enough for me to take these photos.

       

 

Unfortunately, the fishing wasn't so great. Karen had a couple of hits and I never got a bite.

I started out using a gold spoon to locate fish and after a while switched to a jerk bait.

Karen was using dead jumbo shrimp and later we both changed over to live finger mullet.

We fished about an hour and a half until the mosquitoes drove us off.

Saturday, I spent most of the day working around the house and trying to fix our riding lawn mower's steering.

We didn't get out until about six in the afternoon and the water was dead calm on both the river side and marsh side of the road.

We saw four fishermen in the area and the only people who were catching anything were an older couple fishing at the "duck blind", a spot Karen and I occasionally frequent.

The gentleman had just landed an upper slot redfish that he caught on a live finger mullet.

All his wife could say was "finally"!

Saturday evening's sunset was awesome as you can see from the pics below.

 

Hopefully, next week the water levels will be down a bit and the fish will come back out of the shallows into their normal feeding areas.

Till next time.

Tight Lines.