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!