The Big Chill

Went fishing this afternoon before the big chill sets in this evening and loaded up with sea trout.

After getting my fill of politics this morning, I set out for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to catch some sea trout.

I brought along five spinning rods rigged with various types of artificial baits but concentrated on using the new rig that I bought from Gander Mountain this past Friday.

I tied on a "Gabbie" and turned into Peacocks Pocket road to fish the marsh canals in the area.

My second cast into the marsh canal produced a small sea trout which I promptly released.

Two casts later netted me another slightly larger sea trout that I also released.

The little gabby bait was working as advertised on the medium action spinning rig that I bought and for the next couple of hours, I did nothing but catch and release sea trout.

 

 

 

Most of the fish were under the slot (15" to 20") but a few were keepers that I declined to keep.

A fishing buddy of mine stopped and told me he caught a red and a nice 20" sea trout yesterday but had no luck as of yet today.  He said the fish didn't start biting until around 4:00 pm when he caught his first fish on a live finger mullet.

He moved up the road a bit and stopped to put out a couple of rods rigged with live finger mullet while I continued casting the little Gabby around likely areas in the marsh canal.

I continued catching small sea trout until one of the trout I hooked, that was around 14",  wrapped itself around a stickup in the canal.

I pulled the stickup and the hooked fish toward the bank when a huge sea trout came out of the depths and ate the fish I had hooked on my line.  The huge fish was apparently attracted by the writhing of the smaller trout trying to free itself.

At first I thought the gator sea trout was a redfish, but as it got closer to the bank, I could see it was definitely a sow sea trout of at least 10 pounds.  The fish was thick bodied and close to three feet long.

As I continued pulling the two trout and stickup to the bank, the fish simply let go of the 14" trout I had on my line.

I reeled in the scaled sea trout, unhooked the fish and returned it to the water wondering if the big sea trout would return to eat the released fish.

I tried casting a gold Johnson Sprite around the area and a top water bait, but the big trout was gone for the day.

I got in the truck and backed up to where my buddy was fishing and told him about the fish before moving up Pocket road to hit some other spots.

Today the weather was clear with a brisk wind.  The air temperature was in the low 50s and continued to drop as the afternoon wore on.

There were tons of cars negotiating Peacocks Pocket road today, mostly from out of town visitors enjoying the wildlife.  I saw few fishermen.

The waterfowl were out in force but today there were no gators around.  Probably too cold for them.

      

    

 I stopped a few times to try out several new areas before finally deciding to call it a day.

In total I caught and released around 20 sea trout today, all before the big chill sets in tonight.

Temperatures are expected to be in the 30s.

Till next time, Tight Lines.