Fishing Early And Late For Sea Trout

Fishing early and late for sea trout this time of year is the norm around central Florida's Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River.

My wife had a bad case of cabin fever so when I got home from work this evening, I quickly unpacked the truck, loaded up several rods and headed for Peacocks Pocket for some trout fishing.

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing during August can be frustrating. Late afternoon thunder showers can sometimes perk up the fishing and today was one of those days.

When my wife and I drove into Peacocks Pocket road it looked like it had already rained.

The temperature was in the mid 80s, it was slightly overcast and there was very little wind on the river.  The salt marsh was was like a mirror in most areas with only a hint of a wind.

Before we got to the first set of double culverts, I pulled over to the side of the road and decided to try a spot I usually pass by.

The water levels were up in the salt marsh and the area I decided to start fishing was usually dry.

I pulled out a Chug Bug and started blind casting the area while my wife sat in the car with Elmo.

After a few casts and a couple of follow ups, I finally hooked a small sea trout that blasted the top water plug.

I took a picture of the fish before releasing it.

Karen got interested in fishing  when she saw me catch the trout so she pulled out her rod and started fishing.

I missed a couple more small trout and two ladyfish in the area before we decided to move up the road and check some other spots.

The next area we fished was totally flat.  The water looked like glass.

I didn't expect to catch anything but  after a couple of casts I saw a fish follow the bait.

I continued casting the Chug Bug to the same area but slowed down the retrieve a bit.  After the second cast I hooked and missed another sea trout in the 15" category.

Karen, pitched out a shrimp under a Cajun Thunder float on one rod and started fishing another rod that had a Fire Tiger paddletail bait tied on it.

I slowly fished the banks down the road while Karen went the other direction.

I hooked and missed about six ladyfish before I finally landed a small one.

Karen, yelled at me that she also hooked into a sea trout.

She got the fish to the bank and lost it as she tried to horse it up the grassy bank.

That area produced three more sea trout and another small ladyfish before we moved on.

There were clouds of dragonflies happily eating insects all over the area and the mosquitoes were starting to come out of hiding.

It was getting late and the bite was slowing down so we moved into what was to be the last fishing spot of the evening.

As we got to the spot, Karen spotted a couple of nice wakes which were obviously redfish.

Karen again flipped out a shrimp and started fishing the soft plastic bait with her other rod.

I started blind casting into the shallows and had a couple of short strikes but never hooked another fish.

Karen continued casting the paddletail bait and eventually picked up another sea trout that hit right at the bank.

There was absolutely no one in the area this evening. 

We had the entire refuge to ourselves but the "no see ums" and mosquitoes were killing us.

Karen was also getting bitten and Elmo started whimpering, so we decided to call it a day and head for home.

I took this shot of the sunset on the way out.

Hope you enjoy them,

Tight Lines.