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.