Fishing The Marsh Canals In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this time of the year is an "iffy" proposition.

For the past couple of weeks, fishing has been pretty much "hit or miss" however, today my wife and I changed that scenario.

After mowing the lawn and working in the pond, I wasn't really in the mood to do any fishing but Karen and our wonder dog Elmo talked me into a late afternoon trip.

I packed up the truck with five spinning rods tipped with various lures, a cooler with drinks and some dead shrimp for Karen to use for bait and Elmo.

We didn't leave the house until 4:00 pm and since it was late, we headed for Peacocks Pocket road where Karen wanted to fish at one of her favorite "trees".

We stopped at a couple of places where there was a lot of finger mullet action but didn't get any hits.

Today was Mothers Day, which is why there was very little vehicle traffic.

The weather was overcast, the temperature was in the 70s and we didn't see one single fisherman all afternoon.

When we finally got to Karen's favorite spot, I pulled off the road and she flipped out a jumbo shrimp under a pencil float.

I was dubious about this particular area but I decided to try a Tsunami paddle tail bait to see if any sea trout were willing to get caught.

I walked down the dirt road to leave Karen fish her area in peace and started blind casting to fishy looking areas. 

I counted at least a dozen large red fish or black drum pushing wakes down the marsh canal towards where Karen was fishing around 7:00 pm but they weren't feeding.

I continued casting to fish and blind casting to the far bank when I hooked up to this nice 27" sea trout. 

The fish hit the paddle tail bait as I pulled it off the bank around a grassy inlet and put up a great fight before giving it up.

I got Karen to take the above pics before releasing the fish.

I caught another slot size sea trout and a couple of undersized fish like the one to the left in the same area as it was getting dark.

After several more casts I missed another trout that literally jumped out of the water after hitting the Tsunami bait.

A few casts later in the exact same area, I thought I had hooked another large sea trout until the fish started running down the marsh canal.

I was using 10# Cajun line and a 15# fluorocarbon shock leader with a light set drag to minimize losses from hooks pulling out of the sea trout's paper thin mouths. 

I tightened up the drag but the redfish ran at least 50 yards down the marsh canal before I could start to slow it down. 

The big fish was in the brush and all I could do was keep up the pressure hoping it wouldn't wrap around a stickup. 

Finally, the fish turned around and started to run directly towards me.  I never eased up on the pressure and just when I thought I had the fish in the bag, it made another run up the canal towards where Karen was fishing.

After I stopped the second run, the fish was starting to give up the battle.  Five minutes later, I slipped down the bank and lipped the big redfish out of the canal water.

The fish was well over the limit so I walked quickly so Karen could take these pics before I released it.  The heavy fish measured in at just over 32".

After the brief photo session, I revived the red and let her go on her merry way.  After all it was Mothers Day.

Although fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this time of the year is "hit or miss", today's outing was definitely a hit.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.