Another Windy Sunday On The Indian River

Well it's been another windy Sunday on the Indian River and I can't hook a fish to save my life.

Saturday afternoon my wife and I took Elmo our "wonder dog" to the refuge to scope out the fishing prospects.

We fished for about two hours without any success.

I missed six fish and hooked two but both got off.  The sea trout were nailing my lures but I kept missing them.

The one good trout I hooked up with, I thought was a snag and like a novice, I jerked the hook out of it's paper thin mouth.

The "near gator trout" was so heavy that I could only pull it's head out of the water.

Karen didn't have much success with her dead shrimp rig.  She was after big redfish but the sea trout were eating the heads off the jumbo shrimp she was using and she never got a hookup with a red all afternoon.

On Sunday, I didn't even bother to get out until about 2:30 pm.  The westerly wind was blowing enough to make casting a real pain and feeling a bite next to impossible.

The air temperature hit 91degrees but with the wind, it didn't feel like it.

I entered the refuge from east gator creek road to see if there was any activity in the area.  The water was extremely clear and there were no finger mullet in the area.

I crossed a culvert into Peacocks Pocket road and cast netted enough medium sized silver mullet for bait, just in case.

There was a serious brush fire going on around the Mosquito Lagoon.  It was probably a controlled burn but as you can see by the pics, they sure picked a hell of a day to do it.

  

There was a lot of activity in the refuge today, primarily bird watchers taking pics of the spoonbills, egrets, herons, pelicans, etc.  I didn't see many fishermen except for several wading the Indian River.

Spending another windy Sunday on the Indian River wasn't exactly what I envisioned when I left the house but I decided to give it shot anyway.

I used a hammered silver spoon that my wife gave me for my birthday, a couple of gold spoons, Creme swimbaits, DOA CAL jerkbaits, a topwater chug bug and even the live finger mullet without getting a single bite.

I was casting my favorite Bagley gold spoon when Ron, a fellow fisherman who fishes the area as frequently as I do stopped by to see how I was doing.

I told him I couldn't hook a fish if my life depended on it and found out that he caught a nice slot redfish on a dead finger mullet just up the road from where I was fishing on the river side.

We swapped information for awhile and I got his approval to take these pics of his catch.

 

We parted ways and I continued to where he said he caught his red but after about 20 minutes of fishing with live finger mullet and casting a few lures, I decided to give it up and head for home.

It was about 5:30 pm and I was getting hungry so I packed it up and headed out of the refuge.

When I hit the Max Brewer Memorial Parkway (SR 402), I thought there was an accident up the road. 

There were several cars parked along side the road but as I got closer, I realized they had pulled over to take pictures of a huge flock of white pelicans.

 

 

I decided to pull over and take a few pics of the flock for posterity.  As I was taking these pictures I ran up on a green vine snake that was doing it's best to blend into the brush so I took a few pics of him for posterity too.

 

Next time instead of another windy Sunday on the Indian River, I think I'll head over to Haulover Canal and drop a finger mullet into the channel to pickup a bull redfish.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Sunday Fishing On The Indian River Lagoon

Sunday fishing on the Indian River Lagoon for redfish and sea trout is one of my favorite activities.

This past Sunday, the weather was less than perfect. The air temperature was in the high 60s, the wind was blowing steadily and it looked like rain for most of the afternoon.

I left my Elmo and my wife Karen at home, packed a cooler and a few spinning rods into the truck and took off for Catfish Creek hoping to catch some redfish.

I wasn't feeling all that great so I didn't stay out long but I needed to see if the fishing had improved any since Saturday's outing.

There was plenty of vehicle traffic in the area but only a few fellow fishermen actually fishing.

I tried my usual array of artificial baits with only a few hits from some under size sea trout.

 I saw two tailing redfish on the river side but never got a chance to toss a lure to them. I fished both sides of the unimproved road in several areas but never got a solid hookup with a red.

After about a couple hours of fishing, I decided to take some pics and head home early to cook some dinner.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted a fisherman on the river side fighting what looked like a redfish.

   

I pulled over and took out my camera to take a few pics and get some details to post to the blog.

 After a respectable fight, the guy landed a nice fat 29" redfish.

 I lent him my orange measuring tape so he could document the size of the fish.

 

He said he caught the redfish on live finger mullet and that yesterday (Saturday) he and his buddy caught 5 trout, all over 20", on live finger mullet in the same spot.

With his permission, I took these pics and continued to head out of Peacocks Pocket road.

About a mile from where the two guys caught the redfish, I spotted another fisherman walking down the road carrying a sea trout of about 23".

 He caught the trout on the marsh side of the road in the canal using a white 5" plastic jerkbait.

I didn't bother taking his picture because the camera's battery was out, so I just made a mental note of his catch and headed for the house.

I probably could have caught some sea trout on the marsh side of the road but since I wasn't feeling all that great and was really looking for redfish,  I just called it a day.

The mullet are starting to come into the river in better numbers, so we can expect the fishing to get better, especially for the bigger redfish throughout the rest of this month.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Fishing Patillo Creek

Fishing Patillo Creek was the last thing I had in mind today, but it turned out to be a productive afternoon fishing.

After I finished weeding the lawn and taking care of some other chores, I decided to give Shiloh Marsh road a try.

It looked like rain and the wind was blowing up a storm so she decided to stay home and work on my sister's stained glass suncatcher project.

I packed up several rods and a cooler to put the fish in and headed for Shiloh road.

As I got on I-95 heading towards the Scottsmoor exit, it began to rain and continued until I got to the barrier that closed Shiloh Marsh road to vehicle traffic.

I don't know why it was closed but I wasn't all too thrilled about it.

I decided to head to Haulover Canal and try for a big redfish.

As I got close to the geodetic tracking dome, I remembered a promise I made to one of my readers and decided to give Patillo Creek a shot.

I turned into the muddy road and headed for the deep canal.  No one was fishing in the area.

 I drove slowly avoiding the potholes, looking for signs of fish and finally decided to stop at a likely looking culvert.

The tannin colored water was clear so I decided to try a natural colored soft paddletail bait that I picked up from Bass Pro.

The lure looked like a Creme lure but I think it was manufactured by Offshore Anglers.

Anyway, it looked real so I tied it on and started blind casting.

I had a couple of taps but no solid hits until I flipped a cast to a culvert opposite where I was fishing.








The bait didn't travel more than a couple feet before a nice 20" sea trout nailed it.

The fish put up a respectable fight on my 10# outfit but I finally landed the fish and put it on ice in the cooler.

I normally don't keep what I catch, but I promised some friends of mine some fresh sea trout or redfish so today was the exception.

I had a couple more hits before I switched off to a topwater Zara Spook Jr.

On the first cast as I was "walking the dog" back, a ladyfish about two feet long hit the plug and danced all over the small creek.

I unhooked the fish and decided to move on to the deeper canal and try for a drum or sea trout.

This area produces some nice sea trout, redfish, black drum and occasionally small tarpon; but today, nothing was hitting any of my offerings.

   

I was wet and getting chilly so I decided to head for home.

On the way out, I stopped at the culvert and decided to try the "pond" side of the road to see if a redfish was in the vicinity.

On my second cast into water that was no more that two feet deep, I thought I snagged some weeds.

When I tried to jerk off the "weeds", a redfish that was at least 36 inches long took off leaving a huge wake.

I ripped the gold Johnson spoon right out of it's mouth.

I made several fruitless casts in the same area before moving on.

I got to the last culvert before the main road to the VAB complex and it looked "fishy".

The water was extremely shallow and colored, so I decided on the paddle tail bait again.

My second cast hooked me up to a 26" redfish that put up a nice battle before giving it up.

I stumbled down the bank, lipped the fish and crawled back up the bank to the road.


It started raining again so I put the fish on ice and headed for the house and some dry clothes.

Although fishing Patillo Creek didn't pan out, fishing the culverts into the area made my day.

Until next time,

Tight Lines.

Another Windy Day On The River

It was another windy day on the river and a cold front was moving in to boot, but I had to get out of the house and away from my damn computer, if only for a little bit.

I left Elmo our "wonder dog" and Karen at the house, loaded up four light spinning outfits and headed for Peacocks Pocked road in search of redfish.

I thought about hitting north Shiloh Road, but I didn't feel like making the drive only to find the road closed because of the waterfowl hunting season.

I got a late start (around 4:00 p.m.) so I just headed for the closest entrance.

As I crossed the bridge over the Indian River lagoon, I spotted several wind boarders on the north side of the road enjoying another windy day on the river.  The para-sailors in their wet suits looked worn out and were packing up their gear to go home.

The temperature was in the high 60s and the wind was blowing steadily but the sun was out which made the fishing enjoyable.

I was targeting redfish today but after fishing almost until dusk, I only spotted one one swirl which could have been a red.

On the way into the refuge, I met a nice couple who were subscribers to my website.

They asked where Elmo was and we talked briefly about the fishing.  I'm terrible with names so I apologize that I didn't remember them but they said they were catching sea trout on a white plastic jig with a green tail.

He told me he started using it when he caught a redfish at the "duck blind" with the jig in it's mouth.  Evidently it worked then and is still producing.

I headed on up the road and continued fishing with several baits.

I started with my gold Bagley spoon and switched off to a no name plastic paddle tail swim bait and finally settled on a white Creme bait.

I missed a couple of fish on the gold spoon and switched to the no name bait.

I missed two more fish before a slot sized sea trout finally decided to nail my bait.

I got tired of the short strikes so I got rid of the no name lure,  changed to the Creme paddle tail bait and started hooking fish.

I landed four sea trout in the slot and one that was just shy of the 15" minimum before I started getting chilly and decided to head for home.

 

There were lots of birds out on the marsh as well as a few gators sunning on the bank.  And, as usual there were lots of out of town visitors enjoying the wildlife.

  

Even though this afternoon was just another windy day on the river, all in all it turned out to be a really enjoyable afternoon.

The fishing should be improving during the upcoming month as the finger mullet begin to invade the estuaries and along the beaches.

Till next time, Tight Lines!