Another Windy Sunday On The River

When I left the house this afternoon, I didn't expect another windy Sunday on the river fishing but it was.

 My wife opted out of our usual Sunday afternoon fishing trip and decided to stay home, so I packed a few rods and headed towards the newly mowed Peacocks Pocket road to get in a couple hours of sea trout fishing.

When I crossed the causeway bridge and saw the water, I knew that the fishing today was going to be a challenge.

The air temperature, despite the breeze, was 90 degrees as I entered the wildlife refuge at around 4:30 pm.

I entered the refuge at the closest point and stopped to fish at one of the culverts where I had been catching ladyfish earlier in the month.

My second cast to the mangrove roots hooked me up with a beautifully colored sea trout.

The fish hit a white Berkley paddle tail swim bait as I hopped it off the bottom.

After landing the fish after a brief fight and taking it's picture, I released it to fight another day.  

I missed two more fish at this spot before moving down the road.

I missed another trout on a Fire Tiger paddle tail bait at my second spot and briefly hooked another sea trout before it flipped off the lure.

As I was moving to my next spot, I met up with the only other fishermen I saw in the refuge today.

Tyce was from Melbourne and his buddy Matt was visiting from Kentucky.

Although they were fishing in a spot where I sometimes catch redfish, today they just weren't having any luck.  

Tyce said they had been catching sea trout and reds here before on finger mullet and mud minnows, but today they only picked up a catfish.  

I wished them luck and moved on to another spot where I picked up a third sea trout on the white Berkly paddle tail bait.

As I landed the fish and was taking it's picture, Tyce and Matt pulled up so I asked him to take my picture with the fish so I could post it on the site.

Slightly out of focus, but passable.

They were surprised that I was catching fish on the marsh side of the road, so I turned them on the this website to help them out in the future.

They moved on and I continued fishing the marsh canal.

I switched to a Chug Bug and had a few follow ups but never got a solid hit so I switched back to the paddle tail baits.

I picked up another trout before moving on up the road to an area I knew had big redfish.

I passed Tyce and Matt at a spot I call "the duck blind" and hit my final spot before heading for home.

This area has several grassy islands in a pond area across from the marsh canal where the reds migrate in from the shallow pond to the deeper water near dusk.

There were no signs of fish in the area, so I began blind casting my Chug Bug to see if I could stir up any fish.

About the fifth or sixth cast, a gator sea trout that was well over 30" long blasted the Chug Bug and started running up the canal.   I didn't expect the strike and before I could get the slack out of the line, the fish sloshed about halfway out of the water trying to jump and got off.

Like clockwork, just as I lost the fish, my wife called me on my cell phone to see when I was coming home.  

I made several more casts into the same general area before deciding to call it an evening.

 I would have liked to have landed the big fish to post on this site, but that's why they call it FISHING and not CATCHING!

As I started to pack it in for the evening, a pickup truck passed by, apparently enjoying the sunset and the full moon over the Indian River.

Despite it being another windy Sunday on the river and losing the gator trout, I still managed to catch five decent sized sea trout in only a couple hours of fishing.

 Maybe next time,I'll get the redfish I was after.  

Tight Lines to you all!

The Grass Is Cut!

The grass is cut in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge but it didn't really help the fishing much.

My wife and I took Elmo for a ride around Peacocks Pocket road to see if the grass was cut and to get a few casts in before dusk.

The temperature this evening when we went out was hovering in the low 80s and there was a mild wind on the Indian River which totally subsided towards dusk.

Karen was using her favorite rig (dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder float) and I started out using a Fire Tiger paddle tail bait.

As we got to the entrance of East Gator Creek road it was apparent that the mowers were out this past week.

The entrance was nicely cleared and as we got to Pocket road, we were pleasantly surprised that it too was mowed on both sides.

Since this was mainly a scouting trip, I drove slowly looking for signs of feeding activity in the marsh canal. I was also checking the Indian River side of the road for fish but didn't spot any activity until the wind died down.

Karen and I stopped at several likely looking spots where I spotted swirls along the bank. She never got a bite at any of the stops and I only had three hits on the paddle tail bait from what were probably sea trout.

When the wind died down, we stopped at an area where there are several grassy islands across from the canal that opens up into a couple of large shallow ponds.

I got a hit on my Fire Tiger bait but decided to change over to a Baby Bass Chug Bug top water lure as the wind began to level out.

My third cast with the Chug Bug produced a short strike from a sea trout and several casts later I had a small redfish blast the bait out of the water without getting hooked.

I continued casting the top water bait until we decided to leave the refuge but never landed a fish. I spotted five nice redfish, saw several sea trout and got at least a dozen strikes but never got a hookup.

Karen and I saw several vehicles drive by but there was only one other fisherman I knew who had his girlfriend with him. He stopped briefly and said he saw a couple of reds, but nothing was hitting his paddle tail baits or top water lures.

After he drove off, I made a few more casts to the river side where a large sea trout jumped totally out of the water after my Chug Bug and missed the lure on the way down.

Karen wasn't getting any action and I was exhausted from the drive from Vidalia, Ga. where I was working this week, so we decided to head for the hacienda and call it a day.

There is almost a full moon out this evening which could make the fish more active.   I'll find out tomorrow.

 







Anyway at least the grass is cut.
Till next time, Tight Lines.

Turtle Soup Anybody?

Turtle soup wasn't on the agenda for this afternoon's fishing excursion but as it turned out it could have been on the menu.

Unfortunately, for the past few weeks I had the mixed pleasure of working in Highlands, N.C.and was unable to get in any fishing, saltwater or otherwise.

Fishing in the cold mountain streams is for me more like fishing for bait, but that's another story.

My wife and I finally got to hit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge today but the grass was at least a couple of feet high and made fishing most of the areas I enjoy an impossible task. 

Even if you could get in a cast and cast a fish, landing it would be almost an impossibility.

We did manage to wet a line in a couple spots with mixed results.

One of the areas I call Pelican Cove was fishable so we stopped while Karen dunked a frozen jumbo shrimp under a Cajun Thunder float and I started casting a top water Chug Bug around likely looking spots.

I had a couple followups on the Chug Bug but no solid hookups so I changed rods and started pitching a Fire Tiger paddle tail soft bait.

I saw a small pod of three or four nice redfish come around a point I was fishing but they weren't interested in my bait.

I followed them casting ahead of the wake they were making but still failed to hookup with anything.

About this time,  I heard Karen yelling that she had something big on her rig so I walked up to where she was fishing to help her out.

As I got closer, I realized that her "fish" was actually a large soft shell turtle.







I carefully went down the bank to pull the turtle out trying not to get nipped in the process and finally lobbed it onto the bank.

 





I got the camera and took several shots of the leatherback before clipping the line and returning it to the water.

I was halfway joking with Karen when I said turtle soup anybody but she didn't find much humor in it so I gave it a rest.

The sun was going down so we moved to another spot where I got a few taps from sea trout but again no solid hookups.

Karen, lost her Cajun Thunder rig so she switched rods to fish a shrimp on the bottom but lost it to a sea trout.

As the sun began to drop below the horizon, the mosquitoes  started coming out of the tall grass in mass and sucking blood mainly from me, so we decided to make our exit.

Karen emailed the Acting Supervisory Refuge Ranger about the overgrown grass in the refuge and apparently the subject was brought up in their supervisory meeting last week.  

The Acting Supervisory Ranger, Nancy Corona said that the area "should be mowed shortly", so hopefully we can get into areas to do some serious fishing again without the danger of getting run off the road.

Hopefully, next time I can relay a better fishing report.

Till next time, Turtle soup anybody and Tight Lines!

Mosquito Lagoon And Indian River Fishing Outing

This afternoon's Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing outing was more a scouting trip than anything else.

My wife and Ididn't bother leaving the house until late in the afternoon.

We decided to see if Shiloh Marsh road was open to vehicle traffic so we could fish areas that weren't so heavily populated with fishermen.

As we headed up US 1 and crossed the railroad bridge we quickly found that the road was blocked at the first entrance.

We decided to drive over to Patillo Creek and see if the other entrance to Shiloh Road was blocked off.

As we neared the "gum ball" geodetic radar facility,  we found that this too was blockaded with dirt from a backhoe that was parked nearby.

Undaunted, we took the next right and would up driving through a barely passable road that was grown up with all kinds of vegetation.  The road was too narrow to turn around so I continued driving slowly forward hoping for the best.

Finally, I had to drive over a dirt mound that opened up into the blocked road to Patillo Creek that we just passed.

It was quickly apparent that the reason for the blocked road was the road work that was being done. 

The deep shock absorber breaking potholes of March were no longer visible and the road was perfectly graded.  A real blessing to the out of town sight seers.

I was going to turn around and leave but my curiosity got the best of me.  We decided to see if the road alongside the Indian River was still blocked off and as luck would have it, it was not.

Since I was already in the area I decided to see how far I could go up the road.

The water was up and the road was narrow and highly vegetated.  Not something the average vehicle would care to venture into.

The waters looked almost pristine and since most fishermen had not been in this area for at least a couple of years, I'm sure it was loaded with sea trout and reds that were eager to bite.

I drove around the back side of the radar tracking facility until I couldn't go any farther.  There was baked dried mud on the roadbed and I didn't take the chance so I backed up until I could finally turn my truck around.

Karen guided me around and we backtracked to where we broke into the road.

We spotted a big bobcat loping down the unimproved road that didn't seem to care if we were there or not.

When we finally got to the main road, we drove to the Beacon 42 boat launch to see if anything was happening there.

Only one trailer was out on the water so I took some pics of the launch ramp and headed for Haulover Canal. 

 

 

Haulover Canal was relatively unpopulated.  Some bank fishermen were enjoying the afternoon and a bunch of buzzards were having a picnic alongside the road.  It must be a roosting area.

 

We left Haulover and drove to Dumit Cove where the boy scouts camp out for their Jamborees.

Only one fisherman was in the area in exactly the spot (a shallow point) that I wanted to fish.

We parked to let Elmo do his duty while I threw a Chug Bug around hoping for a bite.  There were redfish tailing out in the river but not close enough to cast to.

 

 

Since it was getting late and I didn't feel like wading this close to dusk, we decided to head for home.

On the way, Karen spotted a huge wild boar crossing the road.  The pig looked like it was at least a couple hundred pounds, if not bigger and it wasn't in any hurry.  I fumbled for the camera but it was gone before I could get a shot.

As we crossed the bridge going into Titusville, I noticed that almost everyone was in from their fishing ventures.

I wondered out loud to Karen how the guys in the flats boats fared today.

Although this afternoon's Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing outing was more of a scouting trip  than anything else, I had hoped to catch at least one redfish.

Well, till next time,  Tight Lines.

Sunday Labor Day Fishing Report

The Sunday Labor Day Fishing Report for redfish turned out to be as dismal as yesterdays report.

After I finished mowing the lawn, I chilled until about 6:00 pm when I decided to hit the water and try for a redfish.

Karen didn't want to go along because of the condition of Peacocks Pocket road. 

The grass alongside the road makes for tough fishing and the insects are bloodthirsty.

Since I only had a couple hours of fishing available, I again headed for East Gator Creek road to fish the shallows.

Yesterday evening I saw a school of black drum and a couple of reds in the area so I decided to target the reds.

I spotted a couple of reds aggressively busting on baitfish alongside the shallow canal that parallels the roadway.

They were coming in from the canal just to the edge of where mats of sea grass cover the area to feed on either small mud minnows or finger mullet.

Since my Chug Bug was a little oversized for what I believed the fish were targeting, I switched to a small black backed silver plug that I picked up at Bass Pro on sale a couple of weeks ago.

I smeared on a liberal dose of "Pro-Cure Inshore Salt Water super gel" and tossed the little bait just to the edge of the mat of sea grass.

The water here looks tannic but is crystal clear.  This makes the fish super spooky and tight lipped most of the time.

A couple of light jerks to the bait resulted in a follow up by an over size redfish but for some reason it would not hit.  Several casts later I got the same result.

I switched to my favorite baby bass pattern Chug Bug and got the same result from another red in the same general area.  The fish followed the bait but would not hit.

Several casts later and I picked up a ladyfish that wasn't so fussy.

I fished the entire canal next to the road until just before dusk with the same results before moving to another area. 

Evidently the fish were spotting something that gave them lockjaw.  It could have been my fluorocarbon leader, the loop knot or whatever, but regardless of the reason I could not get them to hit any bait.  The fish would follow the lure and then shy away at the last moment.

Frustrated, I moved to an area off Peacocks Pocket road to give it a shot before dusk.

I hooked about a 20" sea trout but as I tried to land it, it shook itself loose as I was trying to get down the bank to land it.

The bugs were getting to me so I decided to give up and head for home.

As the sun was setting on the river, I spotted a big school of redfish swimming about a hundred yards out from the Indian River into Catfish Creek.   There was no mistaking what they were as they pushed a wide wake in the glassy calm water.

Since they were so far out in the river I didn't even try to make a cast to them, I just took out my Nikon and took a pic of the beautifull sunset.

 

 

The only two fishermen I talked to in the area reported that they caught two sea trout about 20" long on "bullhead minnows" out in the river.  No one reported catching any redfish from the bank in the area today.

On the way home I stopped to talk to people fishing the Indian River and got the same report.  People were catching some sea trout, catfish and ladyfish but no one I spoke with caught reds today.

Although I was hoping for a more substantial Sunday Labor Day fishing report, it is what it is.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Labor Day Weekend Fishing Report For The Refuge

I hoped that the Labor Day fishing report for the refuge would be more promising than it is but that's why everyone calls it fishing and not catching.

Friday evening and Saturday afternoon fishing in and around Peacocks Pocket road in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge produced nothing but ladyfish and sea trout.

I saw several redfish but they were extremely spooky and refused every artificial bait I threw at them.

Friday evening in the refuge was nothing more than a scouting trip for the Labor Day weekend.

On Friday evening, my wife and I (along with Elmo our wonder dog) drove through Peacocks Pocket road from the easternmost entrance.

The air temperature was in the high 80s and there was almost no wind over the water.

There were very few vehicles on the unimproved road, which was probably due to the fact that it had not been mowed for at least a month.  The grass remains high alongside both edges of the road which makes for difficult casting.

When you do catch a fish, landing it becomes a major challenge in most areas.

My wife fished with jumbo fresh dead shrimp on Friday evening in several locations with no result.

I tried casting top water Chug Bugs and paddletail baits to a couple redfish but only picked up a couple small sea trout and a ladyfish in an hour and a half fishing.

Saturday afternoon, Karen didn't fee well so I went solo.  I decided to try the super shallows around Gator Creek road and play with the ladyfish until close to dusk when I planned to target reds.

 

 

The air temperature was again in the low 80s and there was almost no breeze.

I used a baby bass pattern Chug Bug for most of the time I fished the area and picked up a couple slot sea trout (below) along with at least a half dozen ladyfish.

A fast retrieve seemed to excite the ladyfish into striking even though they miss the plug half the time, but they are great fun to catch.

As the sun set on Saturday evening, I spotted a school of black drum in the area but they refused my paddle tail bait offering.

I saw only one redfish that was busting baitfish in a small pond near the second turn off to Catfish Creek Loop road and wound up concentrating too much time trying to get it to bite instead of moving on to fish some other areas.

As dusk closed in, the mosquitoes and green headed horse flies became unbearable even with bug spray, so I gave it up and headed for home.

So far this Labor Day weekend was turning out to be a bust for redfish.

At least I didn't get skunked!

Till next time, Tight Lines!