Fishing With Spoiler Shad

Trout fishing with spoiler shad baits has become a big thing with me lately.

It seems that almost every time I hit the river or the Mosquito Lagoon, the Creme spoiler shad is the first choice of baits.

This afternoon, my wife and Elmo didn't feel like fishing with me so I hit Bio Lab road and fished the shallows of the Mosquito Lagoon.

I began wade fishing about a quarter mile from the boat launch and about 50 yards from the bank.

The sea trout were hitting the 3" blue back spoiler shad that I was using but they were all smaller slot sized fish.

I was hoping for a red but I never got a hookup so after an hour or so, I trudged back to the truck and headed for the Indian River where I saw some big gator trout in an area last week.

On the way into the refuge, I spotted a huge solitary wild boar that had to go over 200 pounds.  I tried to get a good pic but only managed the out of focus shot below.

Moving to my usual fishing spots turned out to be a bummer.

I used the same baits but only got a few taps from smaller fish in the marsh canals.

The water was dead calm and the gators were out in force.

The big gator in the short video above prevented me from fishing one of my favorite spots but it really didn't matter much.

I only managed to pick up one small sea trout in the area and spooked a couple of nice reds.

Fishing with spoiler shad paddle tail baits isn't always a sure bet, but they do usually catch sea trout and redfish in the preserve.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Indian River Fish Kill

An Indian River fish kill is rare but this afternoon there were tons of pogies floating in the shallows throughout Peacocks Pocket.

Despite the hot weather, I decided to take a run around Peacocks Pocket and do some "jump fishing" for sea trout and reds.

As usual, I got a late start. I entered the Pocket road by first driving around Catfish Creek.

As I got to the first culvert, the smell of decaying fish was almost overpowering.

The temperature was in the high 80s and as you can see by the short video below, dead pogies were everywhere.

Some of the live pogies were being chased by predators, probably jacks but I never hooked up with anything to confirm my suspicions.

I stopped at the first set of culverts and fished with paddletail baits but never got a hit.

After about 20 minutes of fishing, the friendly game warden below pulled up to check on my license, which I no longer need.

I asked her about all the dead fish but she didn't have any idea why the fish were dying.

As I fished both sides of the road, I noticed that the fish kill was concentrated in the Indian River lagoon side and not the salt marsh.

I picked up a couple of small sea trout and missed a nice red, but other than that, nothing was happening.

There were several people wading hip deep in the river but they didn't seem to be catching much either.

After about an hour of fishing, I decided to give it up for the day and try again hopefully tomorrow.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Playalinda Beach Was A Bust

Playalinda Beach was a bust today as far as fishing was concerned but the surfers and sun goddesses had a great time.

I didn't get a chance to get out today until about 3:30 pm and since my wife didn't want to burn in the sun with me, I decided to hit Playalinda Beach to see what was hitting.

I stopped at several of the lower lots but there were too many surfers and beach goers to do any serious fishing.

 

I finally settled on parking lot #9 to start fishing.  There were beach goers but also a few fishermen who seemed to know what they were doing.

 

I brought along a bag of fresh dead bait shrimp that I picked up at the local bait shop and tied on a pompano rig with a 6 oz. pyramid sinker.

The tide was coming in and although there was not a heavy wind, the waves were heavy enough to make feeling a bite a problem.

Today I brought along two matched surf rods with Okuma bait runner reels.  One was loaded with 30# Power Pro and the other with 60# and a Krocodile spoon, just in case blues were in the surf.

To make a long story short, Playalinda Beach was a bust this afternoon.

The fish were biting well, especially around 6:00 pm but I couldn't hook anything on my three hook pompano rig.

It took about two hours to run completely out of bait.

I didn't feel too bad about it because the guys all around me were having the same problem.

There were a few croaker and small whiting being caught and except for a guy who landed a juvenile black drum, no one was catching anything of any size.

I thought about changing the khale hooks out on my pompano rig to small circle hooks but I didn't feel like walking back to the truck and leaving my gear alone on the beach.  So, I continued feeding the fish until the bait ran out.

I finally packed up my gear and headed home via Peacocks Pocket road.

I didn't feel like coming home skunked so I decided to see if I could lure up a few sea trout.

I used a Fire Tiger paddle tail bait and at my third stop picked up the small trout below.

I got a passerby to take the pic and put the fish back.

I made a quick run of the Pocket road and picked up two more small sea trout before calling it a day.

Although Playalinda Beach was a bust, Peacocks Pocket always seems to come through.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Sunday trout fishing on the Indian River

Sunday trout fishing on the Indian River was rather uneventful compared to Saturday's outing during a thunderstorm.

My wife and I decided to take Elmo out to get a "smoothie" and a fish sandwich at the local Burger King and drive by the river to see if anyone was catching any fish.

I packed up a few rods "just in case" and we headed out relatively late in the afternoon.

We didn't plan to go fishing because it was really too hot, so we just ate and took a slow drive around Peacocks Pocket road.

There were quite a few fishermen bank fishing but no one seemed to be catching anything or, if they were they weren't telling me about it.

The temperature was in the high 80s and there was a light wind over the Indian River.

Karen and I made a few stops where I saw sign of fish activity and we picked up a few slot size and smaller sea trout using Creme and Berkley "Fire Tiger" paddle tail baits.

We saw two redfish in the shallows but they weren't eating what I was trying to feed them so we moved on and continued "jump fishing" the area until the mosquitoes forced us back to the house.

Since I had a Dentist appointment this morning, I had to stay around the house catching up on bills and making phone calls.  Around 5:00 pm Karen suggested getting a frappaccino at StarBucks so I packed some rods and we headed to Merritt Island.

After sucking down our drinks, we toured the Banana River and eventually made our way to the fishing spots we hit yesterday.

Today the temperature was in the high 80s and the wind was negligible.

The spots where Karen and I caught trout yesterday didn't produce any fish.

Karen had the tail of her Creme paddle tail bait nipped off and had a couple of followups and I never had a hit.

We moved to another area that I seldom fish.

The brush along the marsh canal in this area makes casting a challenge and landing a fish extremely difficult however, the water is deeper and I correctly guessed that the fish were holding along the deeper edges.

I picked up four sea trout in about 20 minutes along a stretch that was less than 30 yards long.

Two fish were under size and the other two weren't much over the minimum but they were fun to catch.


The mosquitoes weren't bad today but the horse flies were miniature vampires.

We were surprised at the amount of visitors in the area today.   It looked like a holiday week end.

Anyway, we caught a couple more trout and were given a view of an awesome sunset.

 

Hope you enjoy it!

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Mosquito Lagoon And Indian River Fishing During Thunderstorms

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing during thunderstorms isn't something I recommend unless you want to catch a mess of fish and you're as crazy about fishing as I am.

I started mowing the lawn and had to give it up before I finished because of the predicted thunderstorm activity around the Space Coast.

Since I couldn't work around the house I decided to grab some poles and get some quality fishing time in.

My wife sensibly decided to stay home and bid me farewell to the mosquitoes and rain.

I drove into Bio Lab road to see what the conditions were on the Mosquito Lagoon flats and decided to gun up to Peacocks Pocket road instead. The wind was blowing the rain much too hard to do any serious wade fishing on the west side of the Mosquito Lagoon today.

I drove past the shallow water boat launch at Peacocks Pocket where there were a couple of fishermen tossing artificial jerk baits. Both guys said they had just started fishing and didn't have anything yet.

At the culverts around the bend from the boat launch, two families were dunking live finger mullet trying to catch some of the big trout in the Indian River that were targeting bait pods in the area.

Again, no one was having any luck.

I wished them well and drove down the soggy road in search of sea trout or redfish in the marsh.

The rain was coming down steady and the temperature was a mild 72 degrees at about 5:30 pm.

I decided to fish the marsh areas today mainly because the water levels were way up from last week.

My first two stops didn't produce anything but a couple of taps and a followup but down the road around a bend where I knew there was a deep hole,  I hooked up with this  slot sea trout on a Fire Tiger  Berkley PowerBait Swim Shad Swimbaits - 4'' - 5 8 oz. - 3 pack - Bunker - Softbait.

The fish put up a brief scuffle, after which I took it's picture and let  it go to grow into a gator sea trout for me to catch another day.

A few more casts produced another hit but no fish.

I moved down to another hole and started casting to the opposite bank of the marsh canal.  I was putting the baits as close to the grass as possible and slowly pulling the lure into deeper water giving it a lifelike jerk every now and then.

The third cast produced a slight tap and a followup but the fish was skittish and wouldn't eat.

I cast away from the follow up into the same area and had another hit. 

This time the fish picked up the bait on the drop and swam directly to me.

I thought I hooked a redfish as the fish pulled line off the drag but after a couple nice runs I realized it was a big sea trout.

The fish put up a great fight and I managed to get a "wet foot" as I slipped down the bank trying to land the trout.

I finally "gilled" the fish and tossed it onto the bank as I ungracefully pulled myself up onto the road.

The stocky fish measured in at a little over 26" and was nice and fat.  A typical June "almost gator trout."

I took it's picture and decided to keep the fish for dinner.  Something I rarely do.

 

It was raining off and on and as I put  the fish into the truck, the rain really started coming down in buckets.  The thunderstorm was moving over towards the Cape complete with sporadic lightning.

I waited in the truck for the rain to slow down and moved off towards another spot that Karen and I sometimes find productive.

Here I picked up another slot size sea trout again using the same Fire Tiger bait.

 The mosquitoes seem to be particularly vicious  during thunderstorms and this evening was no exception.

I'm not sure what is worse.  Suffering from blood loss due to mosquito bites or inhaling the bug spray.  Anyway, I continued fishing until I couldn't take the bites any more.

I only fished about a third of Peacocks Pocket road and in a three hour period managed to catch six keeper sea trout and one under size fish.

I missed several trout and a nice redfish in an area where Karen caught one a couple of weeks ago.  The red picked up the Fire Tiger paddle tail bait as it was coming off the bank and just took off upstream.

The rod I was using was a light weight action and I didn't set the hook properly.  I thought the fish was a sea trout and as I felt the weight of the fish and tried to set the hook, it simply dropped the bait.

When the fish felt the tension of the rod, it swirled around and I could see that it was well over the slot.

I caught two more slot sea trout after I missed the red and decided I had enough of the mosquitoes and rain for one day.

On the way out of the refuge, I almost ran over an alligator that was sitting in the middle of the road.  As I turned the corner I'm not sure who was surprised the most.  Anyway, it reared up and scooted off into the river.

Usually, Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing during thunderstorms produces some nice fish if you can put up with the mosquitoes and don't mind getting soaked.

I do it every chance I can.

Till next time, Tight Lines!
 

Sea Trout Fishing In June

Sea trout fishing in June can still be rewarding if you remember to fish early and late.

On both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon the fish bite will begin to subside as summer temperatures take over.

My wife and I didn't bother getting out Saturday until later in the afternoon.

We decided to start fishing the Catfish Creek area to see if the fishing pressure was affecting the areas that we sometimes frequent.

We packed up Elmo and seven rods all tipped with different types of artificial baits.

Karen decided to start using artificial baits since her recent good fortune the past couple of days but still brought along some frozen shrimp, "just in case".

The air temperature was in the low 90s when we left the house and there was a slight wind over the Indian River, but as we entered Gator Creek road, the temperature dropped into the mid 80s.

We scouted several areas and fished a couple of culverts with only limited success.

Karen had a couple of hits using a Fire Tiger  Berkley PowerBait Swim Shad Swimbaits - 4'' - 5 8 oz. - 3 pack - Bunker - Softbait and I briefly hooked two sea trout and missed at least three others using a Fire Tiger pattern Creme Lures Spoiler Shad Swimbaits - Killer Shad - 2" - Softbait around the same culvert.

We made our way around Catfish Creek loop and as the sun was setting, had the area virtually to ourselves.

We saw only two other vehicles all the time we fished the area.

As the wind died down, fishing became more difficult.  The fish were spooky and would follow the baits without striking.

I missed a couple of trout in the salt marsh shallows and spooked a nice sized redfish in the same area.

Karen missed a couple of trout before hooking up with this one that hit right on the bank.


The fish was in the slot but we were just fishing for fun so Karen released it after having it's picture taken.

The sunset was gorgeous and the full moon left the area well lit up.  If it wasn't for the mosquitoes that were treating us as if we were a smorgasbord, I would have loved to take the boat out and do some night fishing.



Anyway, we spotted several more redfish chasing mullet in the shallows but they weren't having anything to do with our lures or the frozen shrimp that Karen was using.

She had one nice fish eat a shrimp on the river side, but missed a hookup.

After a while we both got fed up with the mosquitoes and decided to call it a day.

As I said, sea trout fishing in June can be rewarding if you fish early and late and this evening was typical.  The fish never really started feeding aggressively until the sun began to drop to the horizon.

 

I'll never get tired of fishing this area, even when I don't catch a fish.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Fishing The Marsh Canals In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge during a rainstorm can provide some great opportunities for gator sea trout and big redfish.

After driving in from onion city this afternoon I was eager to get out and fish the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  

After last weeks successful initiation into artificial lure fishing, Karen was also ready to "hit the swamp" and try for another 29" redfish.

It was raining off and on but that didn't stop us from packing up a half dozen rods tipped with a variety of paddle tail swim baits and Elmo our "wonder dog".

Since I didn't get home until late this evening, we headed for a few spots that I knew probably held fish especially since it was raining.

There was little to no wind and the water had only a light ripple on the surface.  Perfect for artificial top water and  soft plastic baits.

Coming into the entrance I stopped at the fourth culvert and started flipping a redfish colored paddle tail bait.

On the first cast I had a good hit but jerked the bait out of the fish's mouth.

Several casts into the same area didn't yield any fish so we moved on to a small pond area that looked "fishy" but didn't give up a hit.

It was still raining pretty heavy and Karen stayed in the truck while I continued trying out likely looking spots.

At a small "honey hole" in the marsh canal, I  changed rods and pitched a natural black backed colored Creme paddle tail lure towards the bank.

The lure didn't go three feet before a nice sea trout hit the bait and started up the marsh canal.

I skinned down the bank  to get the fish away from the heavy brush and after a brief battle gilled the fish onto the bank.

The fish was about 28" and what I call a "near gator trout".

Karen took the picture to the left, before I released the fish to fight another day.

The rain slowed down and we moved off to another pond area to see if we could spot some more fish.

Karen suddenly got interested in fishing and started slowly bouncing her baits to likely looking spots as I did the same with another pattern down the road from her.

I saw two nice oversize reds chasing mullet in the shallows but they weren't taking my baits.

I tied on a fresh Creme swim bait in a different pattern with a loop knot to give it more action and picked up another sea trout a bit smaller but fatter than the first in a pond area down the road from where Karen was fishing.

I got her to take another pic and released the fish.

Karen had the tail of her lure bit off so I tied another lure on her rod with a loop knot so she could continue fishing.

We both saw some nice redfish busting finger mullet in the shallows but they were not interested in our offerings.

It was getting late and the mosquitoes were out in force so we moved on towards the last area for the day.

I cast to a couple of redfish that were cruising down the marsh canal but only picked up another small sea trout.

Karen lost a couple more lures in the shrubbery and I finally lost my lure on an over cast to the far bank.

I was tired from the long drive while Karen and Elmo were fed up with the mosquitoes, so we decided to "pack it in".

The sunset this evening was absolutely awesome and as luck would have it, the battery in my camera gave out after I took this pic of a rainbow next to the Space Center.

Evidently fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge during a rainstorm has become a more popular pastime.

We saw several small groups of fishermen wading in the shallows of the Indian River and fishing from the banks on both sides of Peacocks Pocket road.

I saw one wade fisherman in an area we call "the duck blind" landing a slot redfish and another guy up the road from him picking up a fat sea trout both on the Indian River side of the road.


Fishing the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge can be extremely productive for redfish and sea trout during most of the year if you know how to do it.

Till next time, Tight Lines!