Ladyfish Schools Are All Over Gator Creek

Ladyfish schools are all over Gator Creek and many other areas in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River, so this afternoon I decided to spend time having fun with these smaller versions of the tarpon family.

My wife didn't feel like fishing this evening so I packed one rod with a paddle tail bait and three others with various top water lures (STORM Rattlin' Chug Bug - 3.25" - Metalic Silver Black - Branded Topwater) and headed to East Gator Creek road.

Gator Creek last week proved to be a good fishing spot choice for top water plugs.

I caught, released and missed several very nice sea trout, one of which was in the gator trout category on top water baits, so I thought I would try to duplicate my success this afternoon.

As I pulled into Gator Creek, it was overcast and the wind was blowing enough to create a ripple on the water's surface.

The air temperature was 88 degrees and signs of thunderstorm activity was making me leery of fishing out in the open.

Although I didn't see any sign of fish I pulled off the dirt road and pitched a frog pattern Chug Bug into the weedy shallows near a submerged grassy island anyway.

The lure made it about three feet before a ladyfish smacked the bait into the air and jumped all over the place before shaking it off.

The next cast produced identical results.  I hooked a ladyfish on almost every cast for the next 45 minutes or so and landed only three of them which were quickly released.

I actually got tired of catching ladyfish so I moved up the road to where I lost a gator trout last week.

Ladyfish schools were all over Gator Creek and I just couldn't seem to get away from them.

Every time I made a decent cast into "trouty" areas, a ladyfish would screw me up and hit the Chug Bug.

After about an hour and a half of playing with the ladyfish schools the sky got very dark and it looked like the weather was about to get very nasty.

I was the only person in this area of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge so I decided to try one more spot on the way out of the area before heading for home.

At an area where four culverts feed the salt marsh from the Indian River, I spotted two nice redfish in the shallows chasing baitfish.

 

Not wanting to spook them, I changed rods and flipped a Berkley baby bass paddle tail bait close to where they were feeding.

I'd like to report that I hooked up with a red but I didn't.  The fish were after something other than what I was offering and after many unsuccessful casts with the paddle tail bait and another light patterned Chug Bug, I was ready to head for home.

As the wind was picking up, I took these pics of the sunset before leaving the large ladyfish schools in the area.

 

Hope you enjoy them.

Till next time, Tight Lines.