Another Windy Evening In The Marsh

It was another windy evening in the marsh but despite the handicap, I still managed to catch a few fish.

Because of the temperature, Karen and Elmo decided to stay home this afternoon and let me fish the "swamp" alone.

As I was driving down to the river, I was hoping that it wouldn't be as windy as it was yesterday in the marsh.  But as I crossed the bridge over the Indian River, I knew it was wishful thinking.

The wind surfers were out in force along the south side of the road, as well as a few shallow draft sail boats.

Since it was around 6:30 pm, I didn't waste any time and headed for a couple of spots that were holding sea trout in the refuge.yesterday.

I noticed some surface activity as I was driving over the dual culverts near Gator Creek road so I pulled over and pulled out a rod that had a Frog Pattern Chug Bug tied on.

The first cast attracted what I was hoping to be sea trout but turned out to be ladyfish.

Evidently there was a school of ladyfish around the mangrove islands that were chasing baitfish into the shallows.

The ladyfish that I hooked made a couple of insane leaps before shaking off the plug.

I decided to fish the area for a while and pitched out another cast.

I immediately hooked up with another ladyfish that provided me with some great aerial acrobatics before it too shook the Chug Bug off.

I spent about a half an hour playing with the smaller members of the Tarpon family before finally moving to the main spot I wanted to fish this afternoon.

I noticed a big redfish on the Indian River side of the road chasing baitfish, so I had to stop and give it a try.

Several casts into the wind at that spot only got me the small sea trout pictured to the right, so I quickly moved to "Pelican Cove" where I had picked up some nice fish yesterday and the week before.

I started casting my topwater Chug Bug as best I could but the wind was causing my retrieves to look very unnatural.

I missed four sea trout before I finally landed a slot sized fish on the "Baby Bass" pattern.

There was very little vehicle traffic in the area this evening but a couple stopped to ask how I was doing.

We introduced ourselves and chatted for a while about the fishing in the area.  Tim Foldy and his wife said they regularly read my website so I asked if he wanted to be "famous" and have his pic posted.

He agreed and here it is!

Tim said he was a Realtor and sometimes drove down to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with his wife to enjoy the scenery.

He mentioned that the algae bloom in the Edgewater area was coloring the water and making fishing difficult.

Another truck trying to pass on the narrow road cut off our conversation so we parted ways and I continued casting into the wind.

 

I switched rods and started throwing a Berkley Fire Tiger paddle tail bait to see if I could drum up a redfish, but after several unwieldy casts the only thing that hit the bait was an undersize sea trout.

I switched back to the frog pattern Chug Bug and caught another slot size sea trout on my third cast between the two grass islands in the picture above and missed three more sea trout in the same general area before the sun started dropping behind the horizon.

Tim and his wife had evidently turned around, and as they were leaving the refuge, they stopped to ask if I had caught any more fish.

I told them about the sea trout and the missed fish and bid them well.

Although it was another windy evening in the marsh, I expected the wind to subside as the sun started to set however, this evening it just continued to blow.

I was getting tired of fighting the wind while blind casting and was about to pack it in for the evening, when another slot sized sea trout hit my Baby Bass Chug Bug.

When I landed what was to be the last fish of the day, I took it's picture and promptly released it to grow up for someone else to catch.

Maybe Karen and Elmo will want to come along tomorrow.

Till next time, Tight Lines!