Reds In October

The best time to fish for Reds in October is whenever you can get out to do it!

My wife and I took Elmo out for our Saturday outing to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on the north Indian River lagoon to see if we could catch some redfish.

The weather was a pleasant 75 degrees and there was a brisk wind blowing most of the afternoon which made casting a challenge.

We went out about 2:30 p.m. and stopped at a couple culverts to cast net some finger mullet but today there were none to be had.

Undaunted, I decided to use artificial lures and fortunately Karen brought along some fresh jumbo shrimp to use in case we didn't net up any live bait.

We fished at a couple of stops along Peacocks Pocket road and neither one of us got a hit

The water levels in the marsh were at the highest levels I've seen this year and what had been dry mud flats this summer were now under at least a foot of water.  This is where the redfish were feeding.

The next stop was in an area like this.  I was using a gold Bagley spoon with a red tag and Karen was using shrimp under a chartreuse  clacker bobber.

On the fourth cast I missed what I thought was a nice redfish and two casts later I hooked up with a nice fat 24" redfish that belted the spoon right in the weeds.

 

 The fish put up a nice fight on the 10# rig I was using and after landing it and taking the pics below, I returned it to fight another day.

Several more casts later I had another hit but missed the red.  Karen wasn't having much fun casting into the wind and the alligator below was getting too interested in what we were doing so we decided to move on up the road to a more sheltered spot.

We stopped briefly at the "duck blind" where Karen missed a redfish.  I fished both sides of the road without getting a hit so we decided to move to another spot.

 

At the next spot, I dropped Karen off and walked back to fish about a 150 yard stretch of weed lines in the marsh.

After about two dozen unproductive casts, I finally nailed another sassy redfish.  The fish was a clone to the first one I caught and after taking it's picture, I released it to fight another day.

Karen missed two redfish and I missed two fish that were probably reds right in the weeds.

It was starting to get chilly and the wind never did let up much so we decided to call it a day and get an earlier start tomorrow.

There is a redfish tournament next week in this area and for good reason.  Fishing for Reds in October for me is the best time of the year.

The temperature makes for comfortable fishing, the mosquitoes aren't out in force and the fish are generally more active before the colder weather sets in.

Till next time, Tight Lines!