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.