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!