Gold Spoons Really Rock!

Gold spoons really rock, especially when you fish them before a rainstorm.

After driving 400 miles to make my late afternoon doctor's appointment, I didn't get a chance to wet a line this afternoon until about 5:00 pm.

My wife Karen opted to stay home because of the weather so I loaded three spinning rods into the truck and headed for the nearest potential hotspot. 

As I left the house it started sprinkling and before I got to Peacocks Pocket Road in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, it totally stopped.

The temperature was a pleasant 70 degrees and there was relatively little wind.  Since there was no one around the shallow water kayak launch, I decided to start fishing in the shall bay around the corner from it on the Indian River side of the road.

Nothing beats a gold spoon to locate fish if you know how to fish them right.

With a gold spoon, you can cover a lot of water very quickly and once you find them, you can switch to soft baits or whatever rocks your boat.

After about a dozen casts I finally hooked up to a slot size sea trout which I quickly released.

I continued fan casting the same area and around 6:00 pm, I hooked into this 26" male sea trout.

The fish put up a very bullish fight and at first I thought I had hooked into a redfish. 

I was fishing for meat this afternoon so I decided to keep one fish for dinner and this was it.

I hooked two more smaller trout in the area before it started to rain so I decided to move up the road to another favorite spot that my wife and I named "bobcat bay".

There were two fishermen wading the shallows and one of them was fighting a redfish that he brought to shore and quickly released.  I took a couple of quick picks of the action that didn't really turn out that well, but here they are despite being out of focus.

 

I made a few casts to a cruising redfish on the marsh side of the road but it wasn't eating so I moved up to another area where my wife caught redfish a few weeks ago.

Here I met Sean Mclaughlin with his fishing equipment neatly packed on the back of his bike.

I asked him how he was doing and he said "You're John, you're the reason I'm out here".

He obviously was a reader of this website and I was genuinely surprised anyone would recognize me.

He told me that he was from Orlando and that he hadn't been out to this area in a while. 

Although he wasn't catching any fish, he said the guy in the pickup just up the road from him had missed a nice "bull" redfish on the Indian River side. 

Sean said he was down on the shrimping pier the other evening and caught some nice sea trout but this afternoon he wasn't doing anything.

I gave him some advice along with a couple of the lures that I use in the area and decided to head for home to clean my fish.

I made a couple of halfhearted casts to the area where Jeff, the guy in the pickup truck, said he missed the big redfish but if there was anything in the area, it wasn't interested in my gold spoon.

Sean was packing it in and said he was heading back to Orlando before the lightning got too close. 

I took a few shots of the storm as I was leaving Peacocks Pocket road and was glad I didn't have to make the drive to Orlando that Sean was in for.

One thing is sure, gold spoons really rock if you're after big fish and need to cover large areas of water in a hurry.

In only an hour and a half I managed to land three fish and miss three others.

I just love refuge fishing!

Till next time, Tight Lines.

It Pays To Fish The Fronts

Despite the 6 1/2 hour drive that I made today from Columbia, S.C.,  I decided to fish the fronts that were coming through the Central part of the country, primarily around "Tornado Alley".

The hazardous weather conditions that were spawning the tornadoes out west were also having an effect on the Space Coast.

I knew from experience that fishing can be dynamite during these fronts and today's experience was no exception; the fish were moving around and biting savagely when you could cast to them.

I didn't get out to the Indian River lagoon until about 3:30 pm and the weather was balmy to say the least.

The temperature was a pleasant 76 degrees, it was beginning to rain,  and the wind was making it difficult to cast in most of the areas that I was fishing.

I brought four rods today each rigged with different baits.  A top water Heddon Zara Spook, a Tsunami "redfish" paddle tail swim bait, a Johnson's gold spoon and a D.O.A. jerkbait.

The fish were biting on both sides of Peacocks Pocket road but I caught most of my fish today on the marsh side.

The sea trout below was the one exception.  I caught this one on the gold Johnson's spoon near a partially open culvert on the Indian River side.

I noticed a swirl that I thought was a redfish, but when the fish nailed the spoon, it turned out to be a 26" sea trout.

The post spawn female put up a good fight but was gill hooked, so I had to keep it for dinner.

I caught two more trout on the "swamp" side of the road and released both fish to fight another day.

I made at least two dozen stops trying to catch a redfish before coming to one of my "all time" favorite spots.

I spied some finger mullet in a shallow pond area that looked like they were being chased, so I flipped out the paddle tail bait and promptly hooked up with a nice oversize redfish.

The fish made a couple of strong long runs before I could finally ease it to shore.  But as I was bending down to "lip" the red onto the bank, the small hook worked loose and the fish took off to parts unknown.

Undaunted, I kept fishing with the same bait and after a few more casts hooked up with another redfish around the same area.

This go around I took my time and didn't try to horse the fish in.  After a couple of nice runs I managed to grab the redfish by the lip and land it.

I got my pliers out of the truck and was trying to unhook the fish as a fellow photographer drove up to check out the scene.

He introduced himself as Dell Pamplin and as I unhooked the slot redfish, we swapped information.

Since he was also a shutterbug, I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking a picture of me holding the redfish.  And, he readily agreed. The results are below.

When my wife isn't fishing with me, I'm destined to take pictures of my catches on the grass or in the back of the truck.  Boring!

We chatted for a while about the fishing and when I asked him if he wouldn't mind having his picture being put on the website, he agreed.

We talked a bit more as I continued casting to another "swirl" before parting company.

I made several more casts into the same area to likely targets but the fish were stirred up and I only had one more light "tap" before I decided to move on.

It was getting late and as I slowly drove towards Peacocks Pocket boat launch and headed for the exit, I passed a couple of gators sunning themselves on the bank and managed to take a few quick pics of some spoonbills and a blue heron.

When you can tt pays to fish the fronts even when casting to the fish is a challenge.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

The April Gator Sea Trout Bite Is On

The April gator sea trout bite is on in the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon.

The mullet are in the lagoons and the big sea trout are eating them as fast as they can catch them on the flats.

My wife and I spent a windy Friday evening on the river but didn't catch much.

We saw a few fishermen in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge bank fishing and several fishermen wading in the shallow flats tossing silver spoons and jerkbaits with the wind at their backs.

Although I saw two waders catch nice sized sea trout on silver spoons, Karen and I didn't get a bite all afternoon.

This afternoon after I took care of some chores around the house, I decided to give it another try despite the windy conditions.

Karen didn't want to get beat to death by the wind again so she stayed home while I quickly packed three spinning rods into the truck.

I headed for the same place we fished Friday evening, but again the redfish were not in the area.

There were a lot of people bird watching but only a few fishermen in the area and I was really surprised that no one was wading the river.

The wind was not as bad as Friday, but it was enough to cause casting problems.

A cold front was moving in and the temperature was cooler than yesterday.  The fish didn't get really active until around 5:30 p.m. when the wind started to calm down.

Today I was tossing a Tsunami green paddle tail bait, a D.O.A. jerkbait, a Johnson gold spoon and a trout colored Zara Spook Jr. top water bait.

I missed a couple of very nice sized sea trout on the top water bait just before the wind died down.

One fish jumped completely out of the water and hit the plug on the way down.  I was so surprised that I missed the hookup.

The Johnson gold spoon gave me several follow ups and finally the 29" redfish seen in the pictures below.
 

I tried taking a video of the fish while I was landing it, but most of the video below had to be edited out because it was so shaky and out of focus.




This redfish was caught in very shallow water.  It hit my spoon on my first cast into the area and actually turned around to eat the lure.

I was taking videos of the fight with my Nikon in one hand and almost lost the redfish as I was trying to land it.  The fluorocarbon leader broke just as I pulled the fish onto the bank.

Fortunately the fish was tired out and didn't try to swim off as I reached down to "gill" it out of the water to take a couple of still pics.

I released the redfish to fight another day and on the way out of the preserve, picked up this nice 22" sea trout on Zara Spook Jr. top water bait.

I caught the fish on the Indian River side, around a bait pod.

It was getting late and I was getting hungry so I decided to take a few pics of the sunset and head back to the house.

I was almost all the way out of the refuge and was driving past a couple of culverts when I noticed a single bait fish jumping completely out of the water trying to evade a predator.

Not being one to pass up a possible gator trout, I backed up and quietly tossed out the green Tsunami paddle tail bait.

On the second cast, the lure didn't move a foot before this 27" almost gator trout hit the bait.

The fish was jumping all over the place and at first I thought I had hooked a Snook.

Finally I managed to tire the fish out enough to "gill" it onto the bank.

I was going to release it but it was bleeding, so I put it in the back of the truck for dinner.

For the past week, the number of large sea trout that are being caught in the 5 to 9 pound range should be evidence enough to prove that the April gator sea trout bite is on. 

I took these pics of the sunset before calling it a day.

All in all, it was another wonderful day on the Indian River.

Till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

The Indian River Bite Is On

The Indian River bite is on and the fish are nice and fat from feeding on bait fish that have been pouring into both lagoons.

My wife was working on a stained glass project today and I had a bunch of chores to take care of around the house so I couldn't get out until 4:30 pm or so.

After Karen decided not to go, I quickly loaded three rods and headed for Peacocks Pocket road.

I decided to enter via the easternmost road to see what the guys in the kayaks and canoes were doing, if anything.

I got to the unimproved launch ramp just as the angler in the picture below was pulling up from an afternoons fishing trip.

He told me that the river was boiling with redfish and big gator sea trout.

He said he caught around 40 sea trout and a few redfish all on Gulp scented baits.

I noticed that there were also several anglers wading in the general area where he said he caught the fish so I had no reason to doubt his voracity.

 

With the good news under my belt, I decided to see what was happening in the marsh areas.

The first two stops I made were fruitless but the third area I pulled up to was loaded with hungry redfish.

I noticed some wakes in the very shallow waters so I started casting a silver diamond spoon to them that my wife gave me for my birthday.

The second cast hooked me up with a nice two foot long redfish.  It made several runs before pulling off just at the bank.

The hooks on the spoon had narrow gaps, so I changed over to my favorite gold Bagley spoon a size larger.

The second cast hooked me up with another redfish that looked to be a bit larger than the first one.

I wanted to get a picture of the fish for the website so like a novice fisherman, I horsed it and pulled out the treble hook.

The fish took off like a shot into a large shallow pond leaving a large wake behind.

I waited a few minutes for the area to settle down a bit before fishing again.

I decided to change rods and chose a green Creme paddletail swim bait to see if I could nail a trout or two.

Instead of a sea trout, my second cast hooked me up to the redfish pictured below.   

 

This time I took my time and fought the fish until it tired enough for me to lip it.  

It took a good ten minutes before I got the fish out of the water for the shot.

I released the fat red which was just over the slot at 28" and continued pitching the Creme paddle tail bait.  

To make a long story short, I managed to hook up with six more redfish in the next hour and landed two more.  

All the fish landed today were between 25" and 30" and all of them were fat as hogs from feeding on finger mullet.

About this time I was really wishing that Karen was here to take some videos for YouTube but it was wishful thinking.

I continued hooking fish until just before sunset.   

The mosquitoes started getting to me and I was ready to go home and eat dinner.

Next week if everything goes as planned, I hope to take the Gheenoe out and hit the flats for some gator sea trout.

Hope the Indian River bite is on again in the same area.

Till next time, 

Tight Lines.