Another Windy Day Fishing The Marsh

Today turned out to be just another windy day fishing the marsh areas.

Saturday afternoon's short fishing trip was more of a photographic outing than a fishing trip.

I got a late start and only had a couple of hours actual fishing time.

The weather on Saturday was in the mid 60s with mildly windy conditions. It was just windy enough to make casting with light mono a pain in the butt.

The alligators and the tourists were out in force.

I took pics of some of the 14 or so gators I spotted but didn't bother taking any pics of the tourists that turned Peacocks Pocket road into a third world country freeway.

 

 

To make a long story short, I got some nice photos and missed some nice redfish and sea trout.

There were some wade fishermen in the Indian River who were catching fish but I couldn't make out what they were catching.

I hooked two oversized redfish which both got off and missed two more hits,  all on my favorite Bagley gold spoon.

I tried catching a 33" plus redfish that was busting glass minnows about an inch long, along a stretch of marsh canal that parallels the road just past the entrance to Catfish Creek Loop.

I made at least 30 casts to that fish before it finally bumped the gold spoon and swam up the marsh canal.

Other than those fish, it was just another windy day fishing the marsh.

Today was no different. In fact the weather turned out to be a bit colder with the air temperature at 64 degrees and the wind a bit more brisk.

Today I brought my ultralight Bill Dance Quantum spinning combo loaded with 6# test Cajun Red line and a small Lazer Eye jig that I hoped would "match the hatch" to what the fish were feeding on.

As it turned out, I never spotted any fish busting small minnows along the bank   And, even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to make a decent cast because of the wind direction.

The water was much more choppy this afternoon so I fell back to using my gold Bagley spoon.

Today I didn't get out until almost 4:00pm so I hit the exact same spots where I missed fish yesterday.

My strategy worked. At the second spot I stopped at, I briefly hooked a nice oversized redfish that immediately spit the lure.

My next spot just off a grassy point next to the marsh canal yielded a "rat" redfish of about 19".



I took some pics before releasing the fish and moved on to my next spot where I missed another large fish.

I couldn't tell if it was a gator sea trout or a redfish.

It hit and made a brief run before the hook pulled out.

I continued casting the area and had two more half hearted hits before moving to my last spot.

Here is where I missed a large sea trout a couple weeks ago so I continued with my gold spoon and hooked up to a couple more "rat" redfish.

I wasn't really expecting to hook up with the same gator trout but it never hurts to try.

Anyway, the wind was making me chilly and the sun was setting so I took some more pics and headed home.

Maybe next week the wind will settle down enough to catch some decent fish.

Till then, Tight Lines.

The Shrimp Are Running Good In The Indian River

Several sport shrimpers this evening told me that "the shrimp are running good" in the Indian River.

For the past several weeks the shrimp run on the Indian River has been sporadic at best.

Every time I drove down to the fishing piers to see what was being netted, the locals were making excuses for the less than stellar shrimp run.

Tonight was a totally different story.

As I drove into the parking area underneath the new bridge, the absence of parking spaces told me that either a hell of a party was going on or the shrimping was shifting into high gear.

   

 

  
Both the fishing piers were loaded with people. I estimated at least a hundred people were shrimping, fishing or just walking around enjoying the evening on both of the fishing piers.

Even though everyone seemed to be catching shrimp, the shrimpers on the lower pier weren't doing as well as those who were on the higher, longer fishing pier.

I talked to several sport shrimpers on the lower pier who said they were "killing em" on the upper one, so I took some of these pics and moved on to check out the action on the other pier.

As you can see by the pictures most of the shrimp netted this evening were medium to jumbos.

I didn't see any small shrimp in any of the buckets or any blue crabs this evening.

As I walked the pier, I talked to several people who were all having a good time shrimping. I learned that a few people had already limited out and left.

Two of the guys I spoke with had netted half a bucket of medium to large size shrimp and several other shrimpers were quickly getting there.

The shrimp "are running good" in the Indian River right now and from what I was told, it's just the beginning of the run.

I heard that two shrimpers had half buckets of shrimp but went to their trucks to "dump" them into coolers so they could continue shrimping. Not Kosher!

The videos I took and edited below show some of the action and inaction during the time I spent there. I only stayed about an hour and left at about 10:00 pm.

I could have stayed all night, but since I didn't bring my net or any of my fishing gear, I just took some pictures along with these videos.

The weather this evening was superb. The temperature was in the low 70s or high 60s with no wind and the water was clear for this part of the river.

Shirtsleeve weather in January! You gotta love it!

Before leaving, I asked about the shrimping in Haulover Canal and was told by a couple of knowledgeable old salts that the run had not yet reached that far.

As of right now, the shrimping is best around the Titusville bridges up to the south side of the railroad bridge that runs into the Cape.

As far as Oak Hill is concerned, the shrimp that are being caught there are all small. "Bait shrimp" as some of the locals refer to them.

I had planned to go fishing this afternoon and try to catch that big gator sea trout I missed last week, but I had to clean out our Koi pond and do some work around the hacienda instead.

With any kind of luck, I'll get out tomorrow and see how the fish are biting.

Till then, Tight Lines to your all!

Gator Trout In The Marsh Canals

January is one of my favorite months for catching gator trout in the marsh canals of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I didn't get a chance to get any fishing time in this week end until late this afternoon.

The air temperature hovered just above 60 degrees and there was virtually no wind on the water.

The waters I fished were exceptionally clear and lower than I expected.  And, there no apparent fish activity anywhere.

The only thing breaking the calm were the "mud hens" which could be seen all over the marsh.

I didn't start fishing until about 4:00 pm and didn't waste time trying to find any new "hot spots"/.

I drove into the refuge through Gator Creek road where I took these pics and continued up through Peacocks Pocket road where I started fishing.

In my haste to leave the house, I only brought two rods.  One was rigged with a DOA Cal jerkbait with a green head and the other with my favorite beat up Bagley gold spoon.

I "jump fished" several spots using the gold spoon to locate fish and missed two slot redfish.

I was fishing too fast so I slowed down my presentation.

I caught a couple of slot size sea trout in areas where I usually fish before moving to a shallow pond area that usually holds redfish.
      



I picked up another slot size sea trout that I decided to keep for dinner and around 5:30 pm I hooked up with a huge gator trout that creamed the gold spoon.

At first I thought I had a big red on the line but as the fish started sloshing around in the shallow water, I knew by the way it was fighting that it definitely wasn't a redfish.

After a surprisingly short fight I managed to get the fish to the bank.

That's when I realized it was probably the biggest sea trout I've caught to date. 

The fish was at least 33" long and about as fat around as a slot redfish.

I didn't have my Boga grip and in the area where I was fishing there were too many trees at the water line to land the fish.

I started leading the fish around the brush to where I could get down the bank and land it and as I started sliding down the bank to grab it, the damn treble hook fell out of the side of the fish's mouth.

The fight wore a hole in the side of the fish's paper thin mouth and when I slackened up on the line as I was slipping down the bank, it let go.

To say the least, I was aggravated but I would have let the fish go anyway.

I continued fishing in a couple of areas down the road from where I caught the big trout but I didn't have my heart in it.

It was getting colder when my wife called asking me when I was heading home,  so I decided to call it a day.

 

There were only a couple of vehicles in the refuge this afternoon which is common for this time of the year and I was the only person fishing.

Fishing for gator trout in the marsh canals this time of year doesn't seem to be very popular with the local fishermen but it certainly is productive if you know how to do it.

I plan on hitting the same spot tomorrow to see if the gator trout is still in the area.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Saturday Afternoon At Playalinda Beach

Saturday afternoon at Playalinda Beach didn't turn out as I hoped.

An anonymous angler commented on Dec. 29th. that lot #8 was pretty hot for bluefish, so I decided to give it a try.

I didn't get out until about 1:00 pm Saturday and the weather was great.  The surf was calm, the tide was coming in and there were no strong currents to speak of.

When I got to the beach, I first stopped at lots #6 and #7 to see what the water conditions were like..

There were only a few surf fishermen at both lots and after I spoke with them, found that they were catching only a few whiting.

When I got to lot #8, there weren't many cars in the lot so I loaded up my two surf rods with Okuma reels, some fresh dead shrimp, sand fleas, a couple of Luhr Jensen Krocodile Spoons - 5 8 oz - Chrome Silver Prism - Lures and took off to find a spot on the beach to fish.

 

 

I settled on a spot near the entrance of the beach where there were a lot of shells.  This is normally where you can find black drum, redfish, croaker, whiting, etc.

There was a slough about 25 feet from the beach before a long sandbar, that lead to a second drop off and another shallow bar where I thought there should be some fish.

I baited up with sand fleas on one rod and fresh dead shrimp on the other 60# rig and tossed both out past the farthermost breakers.

I waited about 20 minutes without getting even a nibble and being the impatient guy that I am, started walking around checking on what everybody else was catching..

There were surf rods lined up and down the beach and after talking to several fishermen quickly realized that nobody was catching fish.

One gentleman in the pic to the left caught a couple of whiting well before noon but other than that, no one was catching fish.



The guys next to me said they were catching some nice Pompano yesterday about this time of day at lot #10 on sand fleas.

When I asked them why they were fishing at #8 they told me that the nudists ran them off. 

Evidently work was being done at lots #11 and above where the nudists usually sport their goods but they gradually moved south.

I did see a couple of sea manatees swimming north, parallel to the beach.  Evidently the cold snap got their migrating instincts going.

At about 3:30 pm I finally had enough and packed up my gear.

On the way out on a whim, I decided to take Bio Lab Road to see if anyone was doing any better in the Mosquito Lagoon.

The water levels were dangerously low in the south end and the places I planned on fishing were now dry mud.

I took a few pictures of the area and decided to drive around Peacocks Pocket before heading home to see if I missed any fishing opportunities.

I talked to a couple of cast netters at Gator Creek who said they saw a bunch of redfish tailing in the marsh canal and that yesterday they saw several small schools of black drum in the same area.

The water was dead calm but I was already in the area, I decided to check it out.

I counted over a dozen alligators sunning on the bank and in the shallows but I didn't see any redfish or black drum anywhere in the marsh canal.

I flipped my gold spoon around a couple of spots and did get a couple of hits from sea trout before I decided to head to the hacienda.

I don't know if was because of the full moon or what but the fishing today was just that; fishing.

Anyway, as usual the sunset was awesome and the Pizza I got us for dinner was delicious.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Skunked

My wife and I went fishing late Friday afternoon mainly to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

We didn't have any fresh bait so I brought my cast net along in case there were any finger mullet in the shallows...

We fished Peacocks Pocket road and started at the eastern entrance where I know a few holes that are frequented by ladyfish and finger mullet.

On the way in we saw an young otter swimming in the ditch that parallels the road.

I tried to take a pic but by the time I got my Nikkon, the otter was going up the bank and all I got was a short video of it's tail going through the underbrush.

The water on the Indian River was dead flat.  The air temperature was 68 degrees and it was a beautiful day in the refuge.

 
Perfectly flat conditions make fishing this area challenging to say the least and today was a perfect example.

Since there were no finger mullet in the area to cast net for, Karen was using fresh dead shrimp that I picked up at the bait shop and I was using a variety of soft baits and my favorite Bagley gold spoon.

We saw some spoonbills, lots of coot, and about a dozen alligators sunning themselves on the bank but no sign of fish.

I was hoping we wouldn't get skunked but the longer we fished, the more it seemed like we weren't going to do much catching.

There was a lot of vehicle traffic which made the fishing much more difficult.  The fish I did spot were spooky and were not interested in biting.

After a while I decided to turn the trip into a photo opportunity and started taking pics of the abundant wildlife.

There were kayakers around the island where several resident schools of black drum always frequent, but none of them were catching any fish.

  

There were also a few wade fishermen out in the river that didn't seem to be catching anything either.

   

As it neared dusk and the battery in my camera gave up the ghost, Karen had enough of the mosquitoes and I was ready to go home and make some dinner.  Anyway, the sunset was awesome.



It's been a while since we both got skunked, but it happens to the best of us.

Till next time, Tight Lines.