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!