New Years Eve Fishig Catfish Creek

New Years eve fishing Catfish Creek wasn't totally a bust this afternoon, but the fishing could have been better.

My wife and I decided to take Odie and Elmo fishing just to get out of the house.

We loaded everybody up along with a few rods and some frozen shrimp and headed for Catfish Creek loop road where I caught a few redfish this past week.

We tried fishing the first spot but there were too many people in the area, so we moved down the road to fish the Indian River side, even though Karen spotted and spooked a nice redfish at our first stop.


I baited up a couple of casting rods with medium sized frozen shrimp and another two rods with chunked frozen ladyfish that I caught last month.

The weather was beautiful this afternoon and for the most part there wasn't much visitor traffic in the refuge. 

The air temperature was in the low 70s and for a change there was barely a hint of a breeze blowing.

We got a late start this afternoon and after fishing about only a half hour at our second stop I missed a fish on one of the cut baits.  It could have been either a redfish or a cat.  I'll never know.

As usual I got bored and started using Karen's Cajun Thunder/dead shrimp rig to pass the time.

I fished it like you should with a DOA shrimp or CAL jerkbait and after the third cast missed a fish that I thought was a sea trout.

After baiting up with another fresh frozen shrimp I started "popping" the rig back to shore.

It took another couple of casts before I hooked up with this "puppy" red.

At first I thought it was a big sea trout but quickly realized it was a juvenile redfish.

It was hooked deep and was bleeding a bit so I cut the line above the hook and released the fish.

I'm sorry to report that it was the only fish for the afternoon.

Karen never got a bite on any of her baits and I suffered the same result.

As the sun started to set, I took a few pics of the awesome sunset before we packed up our gear and headed home.

 

The dogs enjoyed getting out and so did Karen and I. 

Spending New Years eve fishing Catfish Creek sure beats the hell out of sitting in front of the boob tube all afternoon, even if we didn't "knock em dead".

Hopefully next year we'll do better.

Till then,

Tight Lines and a Happy New Year to your all.

Sport Shrimping

Sport shrimping along the space coast is catching on and with the newly built fishing piers on the Indian River, has become increasingly popular with visitors and local area residents.

Here in central Florida sport shrimping is almost exclusively done using circular, long handled dip nets from boats, docks, fishing piers and bridges over underwater lighting arrays such as the ones below.



I had planned on fishing Saturday but the wind was blowing beyond my limits and my truck developed a transmission problem so I opted to stay home.

By 8:00 p.m. I had cabin fever so I took the other truck down to the fishing pier to see if any shrimpers were crazy enough to venture out in the cold.

When I got to the pavilion, I was genuinely surprised to see a band playing Jamaican music and find the lower fishing pier crowed with shrimpers and fishermen.

I took my camera, zipped up my hoodie and started walking the fishing piers to see who was catching anything.

No one seemed to be catching any fish and the shrimpers weren't doing much better.

One guy I talked with caught just a few shrimp in an hour and thought he was doing good.  I didn't have the heart to tell him he needed to go home.

I walked up to the upper pier where the shrimpers weren't doing much better.

The wind was blowing like crazy making the shrimp hard to detect and the temperature was dropping quickly.  The weather report was for 40 degrees tonight with the potential for freezing.

I saw some fish fry on the surface being chased by some decent sized sea trout but not many shrimp.   No one seemed interested in catching the slot sized trout.

I took some pics and a short video of basically nothing and decided that cabin fever in the house was preferable to pneumonia.


Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and do some fishing while I still have some vacation left.

My wife and I planned to hit the keys and do some fishing for a few days in Islamorada  but the damn truck transmission problem put the kibosh on those plans.

Till next time, hope your sport shrimping nets get filled with jumbos!

Tight Lines.

Redfish In The Shallows

Catching redfish in the shallows is the norm in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge here in central Florida.

This afternoon I decided to fish an area in the refuge where I missed a nice black drum this past week.

In the summer, this area is usually high and dry but this time of the year, the mud flats are covered with enough water to attract both redfish and black drum in good numbers.

I cast netted some mud minnows for bait and headed for the spot which was already taken up by a fellow angler I sometimes see fishing the area.

I pulled up past where he was fishing and after asking if he minded me putting in near him I loaded up a spinning rod with a small mud minnow and one of my casting rods with a peeled frozen shrimp juiced up with a bit of Pro-Cure gel scent. 

I introduced myself to Brandyn and discovered that he is a reader of this site.  He said that before I pulled up, he hooked a nice size black drum on shrimp but lost the fish as he was trying to land it at the bank.

We relaxed and enjoyed the day until my bait casting reel started clicking with a fish on.

I got to the rod, set the hook on the fish and asked Brandyn if he would mind taking a video of the action.

He agreed so I gave him the rod and went for my trusty Nikon CoolPix while he was fighting the fish below.


I gave Brandyn the camera while I finished landing the redfish as he took this respectable video (above) of the action.

The slot sized fish measured in at just over 26 inches and had swallowed the hook too deep to retrieve, so I cut the line just just above the hook, took a few still pics (below) and released the red to fight another day.

I normally don't keep the fish I catch unless they are too far gone to release, but this fish was in pretty good shape so after a few "swishes" it quickly swam off into the shallows.

I never got a hit on the mud minnow so I swapped it for another dead shrimp and sat around waiting for something else to bite.

Although we saw several fish tailing in the shallows, I never got another hit.

Being the impatient individual that I am, I couldn't sit much longer in one spot and since it was getting late, I decided to pack it up and head for some leftover turkey.

I learned that Brandyn drives out to the area from Orlando at least once a week to fish and that he never saw black drum or redfish tailing like they were today so I gave him my leftover mud minnows to use for bait.

Generally, mud minnows are redfish "candy" and when catching redfish in the shallows will catch larger fish if they are in the area.

The fish that were tailing today were both black drum and redfish.

On the way home I told my wife about the area and she will probably come fishing with me tomorrow if weather conditions permit.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Another Christmas Eve On The Water

I planned on having another Christmas Eve on the water if my wife and the weather conditions permit but, if yesterday was any example of how the fish were biting, I might just stay home and cook the turkey.

I decided to hit some areas in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Sunday but every location I fished came up dry.

I started with Bio Lab road fishing the shallow flats in the Mosquito Lagoon but nothing of any consequence was hitting.  A few small trout followed up but not "gators".

I moved on to the boy scout camp camping area and tried a spoon there for a roving redfish but again, no takers.

Finally I moved on the Catfish Creek Loop road via East Gator Creek road and again no takers.

In the marsh areas around Catfish Creek I spotted at least six redfish cruising the shallow water but because the water was like glass, they had lockjaw.

The waters this time of year are crystal clear in most areas even though it looks "dirty" from the bank.

Ninety percent of the time, the fish will spot you before you see the fish so stealth is a factor.

I stayed out almost until sunset but only snagged some nice photos of the area and the awesome sunset.

Since I don't have any fish pics to show, I thought you might enjoy the scenery.

Although I didn't see many fishermen out, the two I did talk with who were using live and cut bait never had a hit all the time they were on the water.

Till next time,  Tight Lines and a very Merry Christmas.

Catching Two Redfish At The Same Time

Catching two redfish at the same time is something I have done on occasion and this afternoon was one of those days.

Since Peacocks Pocket road has been closed, my redfish tally hasn't been up to par.  This afternoon was the exception.

After mowing the lawn, I wasn't really in the mood to go fishing this afternoon but I steeled myself and loaded up the car with my cast net , a few rods and some lures.

I didn't plan on being out for long so I went down to East Gator Creek Road and netted few 6 inch finger mullet for bait in case the fish weren't hitting artificial baits.

I drove up to Bio Lab road to see if anyone was doing any good in the area.  I didn't feel like wading the flats in the area so I moved back to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to fish a couple of small ponds located there.

I wasted some time pitching spoons in the shallows and switched to a Heddon Zara Spook Jr. top water plug.

I landed this small sea trout and finally decided to move to another area an fish the mullet.

At my first spot I had a savage bite that tore off most of the body of the live finger mullet.  The line briefly zipped off the casting reel before the fish dropped the bait.  I believe the fish was probably a large sea trout from what was left on the hook.

I packed up the rods and moved to another area I sometimes fish.

There were several redfish busting bait fish on the bank of the pond so I baited up two casting rods with chunks of fresh dead finger mullet and started casting a Chug Bug to the redfish that was busting the shoreline.

I had a couple of follow ups on the artificial lure but no hits but I continued fishing the shoreline until I heard one of the casting rods start clicking away.

I put up the Chug Bug and set the hook on the redfish that hit on the casting rod.

The fish took off into the shallows and went around a small island but I finally managed to land it with my Boca Grip.  As I was trying to grip the fish at the bank without falling in, I heard the click on the other rod start taking off.

The first fat redfish measured in at 27" so I took it's picture and measured it while the click on the other rod was steadily sounding off.

I quickly released the redfish, picked up the camera and Boca Grip and started fighting the fish that was on the other rod.

As soon as I picked up the rod I knew that the fish was a big one.  It was in the middle of the pond and when I put on pressure, it just kept on swimming.

I don't think the fish even knew it was hooked until I started fighting it.  Anyway, I set the camera to video and tried to take pictures of the action as I was fighting the fish with one hand.

If you have never tried this, believe me it's tough.  I was trying to keep the line taught while trying to focus in on the fight.  The results are below for appropriate criticism.  Feel free to comment.

While I was fighting the redfish, a few guys in a red pickup truck stopped and watched me battle the fish for awhile before moving on down the path.  All they said was "pretty good fish".

Anyway, after about a 20 minute battle I finally got the fish to the bank and gripped it on to the bank.

As you can see, the fish was as long as my leg and measured in at just over 35 inches.


I took some pics after measuring the fish and finally released it.

It stayed on it's side for a bit but finally swam off into the deep canal.  I was concerned because of the gators in the area but the fish made it safely.

It was getting late so I packed up my gear and headed for home.

Catching two redfish at the same time gets hectic but it's definitely a blast.

As usual the sunset was awesome.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Slow Bank Fishing For Reds

Bank fishing for reds this weekend has been extremely slow.

Since Peacocks Pocket Road is closed until next year, fishing pressure in the areas around Catfish Creek Loop road and East Gator Creek has increased.

Even though the fish shouldn't be affected, the bite is not as good as it should be for this time of the year.

I went fishing this afternoon on the Indian River around Catfish Creek Loop with only limited success.

After cast netting some mud minnows to fish with a couple of bait casting outfits that I brought along specifically for live bait, I staked out a spot along the river and chucked out three baits.

This afternoon the weather was just perfect for laying back and waiting for something to run into my baits.

After an hour with absolutely no hits, I started casting a hammered gold spoon that was on one of my spinning outfits into the opposite marsh canal.

After several casts into different areas of the marsh I finally hooked up with a small sea trout which I promptly released.

I'd like to say I continued catching fish but I didn't get another bite for the rest of the time I was out there.

Pretty dismal fishing, but it was still a great day to be out on the river.

It was getting late and I was getting hungry so I dumped the remaining mud minnows into the marsh canal, packed up my rods and headed home.

On the way out of the refuge, I checked with several other anglers and only one other fisherman had any luck.  He picked up a 20" redfish on a cut bait after fishing three hours on the river side.

Oh well, maybe next time!

Till then, Tight Lines.