Another Rainy Afternoon Fishing Trip

It was another rainy afternoon fishing trip in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and I was definitely stoked for it.

Karen wanted to work on one of her stained glass projects so I decided to pack some rods and head for the Indian River to catch some sea trout.

Since I couldn't mow a wet lawn, I left relatively early today. It was about 3:30 pm when I got to Peacocks Pocket road and it was drizzling. 

The air temperature was  75 degrees and there was almost no wind blowing on the water in the marsh area.  Almost perfect conditions for catching sea trout on a top water plug.

There were no small gators on the road to rescue this afternoon so I headed for the spot where I lost a big sea trout and my favorite Chug Bug yesterday.

Today there was almost no action in this area so after about 15 minutes I decided to move on up the road to find another likely looking spot.

I stopped at an area where I caught some nice fish last week and started casting another baby bass Chug Bug that I picked up at Bass Pro. 

I caught and released several medium to large ladyfish before moving up to fish a bend in the marsh canal where I caught an almost gator sea trout the week before.

I had been using Pro Cure on the Chug Bug and it seemed to work better than fishing the plug without any scent. 

My second cast along the canal hooked me up with a sea trout that was at least 5 pounds.

The fish smashed the Chug Bug as I stopped the bait.  The fish was following the lure so I paused the retrieve and let the plug sit for a couple of seconds.  As I twitched the bait, the sea trout inhaled it and made a lightning fast run down the canal.

The fish ran about 20 yards in just a few seconds, stopped and then ran the other direction.  I was frantically reeling in the slack and the trout turned around and took off again.  This time I started running down the dirt road trying to keep the big trout out of the brush along side of the road.

I thought I was going to have a trophy picture for this site but the trout got into the bushes and pulled out the treble hooks.

I reeled in the plug and I'm sure I mumbled something to myself about the crappy luck I was having.

Several more casts into this area yielded a smaller 20" sea trout, so I moved up to try another spot a few yards up the canal.

The rain stopped and the bite slowed down along with the rain.

Undaunted, I continued pitching my Pro Cure coated Chug Bug to likely looking cuts and indentations in the marsh canal until I hooked up with this 27" sea trout.

My cast was slowed down by the overgrown grass that now lines the entire length of Peacocks Pocket road and the fish blasted the bait as soon as the short cast hit the water.

The sea trout made two nice runs before I pulled it on to the bank to take it's picture and release it.

 

I moved to fish a small pond and caught a couple more sea trout, two more ladyfish and a needlefish which obviously had high expectations.

The needlefish was only a bit larger than my Chug Bug.

As the afternoon wore on, the bite slowed down.  I had several more followups and caught another large ladyfish before I decided to call it a day.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted a redfish in the canal pushing a nice wake so I just had to give it a try.  I cast the top water bait well ahead of the fish and twitched the lure as it got close.

The fish turned around to inspect the bait and literally "slurped" in the plug.

I broke one of my rules on top water bait fishing and set the hook too quickly.

I learned many years ago when I used to fish for largemouth bass that you should count to three before setting the hook with a top water bait.  I didn't and I lost the fish.

I took these pics of the sunset before leaving the refuge.

As I was driving past one of my favorite spots on the way out, I met up with Ashford and his fishing buddy.  They said that today they weren't catching anything but that during the past week Ashford caught several sea trout in the 20" to 25" category.  He had not been catching anything for the past few days.

I told him that today I caught several sea trout on the Chug Bug that were all at least 20" long and some ladyfish.

Even though it was another rainy afternoon fishing trip, the sunset was awesome regardless of the catch.

Till next time, Tight Lines.