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!