Just Another Windy Fishing Trip

Well today was just another windy fishing trip to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The winds have made fishing the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River challenging this Month, and today proved to be no exception.

I made a half hearted attempt at fishing the area on Friday, but since I only had about an hour to fish, I decided to scout the area for reds and sea trout instead.  I tossed a few lures but only had a couple of taps before leaving the area.

When I left for the refuge this afternoon, it was windy at the house but I hoped that it would die down when I got down to the river.

As I pulled into Gator Creek road to cast net some mud minnows, it was apparent that this afternoon was going to be just another windy fishing trip.

I netted a half dozen 5 inch mud minnows for bait as a last resort and headed into Peacocks Pocket road to see if I could find a sheltered area that had fish.

This afternoon Peacocks Pocket road had as much traffic as I-95.  There was a lot of out of town visitor traffic mostly taking pictures of the wildlife.

Despite the wind, there were tons of migratory waterfowl on both sides of the road eager to pose for the tourists.

 

 

 

I fished mostly artificial lures today and only picked up a couple of undersized sea trout on a Bagley Firetiger pattern paddle tail bait.

I didn't spot many fish and the ones I did see had a severe case of lockjaw.

In the two plus hours of fishing time in the area, I tossed soft paddle tail baits, a DOA shrimp, a Chug Bug, a gold Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon and even a couple of free lined mud minnows, all to no avail.

As I was leaving the refuge, I spotted a couple of redfish but they were running the bank of the marsh canal, going from pond to pond.

The two sea trout I finally did snag were caught back to back in an area that my wife and I call "snook point".

Obviously there were no snook in the area today.

 As I was leaving the area, I noticed the temperature was 68 degrees and the wind was still blowing as strong or stronger than when I first rolled into Peacocks Pocket road. 

No wonder the fish had lockjaw!

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I am not planning on going fishing, especially if it is just another windy fishing trip like today.

Till next time, Tight Lines.