Fishing Haulover Canal During A Windstorm

Fishing Haulover Canal during a windstorm was not exactly what I planned on this afternoon, but that's precisely where I wound up.

Fishing my usual spots in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has become tough to say the least.  There is a lot more fishing pressure in the area of Peacocks Pocket and the visitor traffic has increase at least twofold since last year.

Unlike myself, the fishermen who now fish the area are keeping their catch and the fish that are left have become lure wary and extremely spooky.

You can still catch some nice reds and an occasional gator sea trout in the "swamp" area, but they have become more and more rare. 

I opted for fishing Haulover Canal this afternoon because of the amount of traffic in the Peacocks Pocket area.

My wife went horseback riding so I packed up our wonder dog "Elmo" along with a couple of surf rods and headed for the canal.

I stopped by East Gator Creek to net some finger mullet for bait and was rewarded on my first cast with a dozen finger mullet.

When Elmo and I got to the canal, the weather was beginning to get nasty.  The wind started blowing and the clouds looked like they were going to let loose any minute.

 

Both of my surf rods have Okuma baitrunner reels on them.  One with 60# Power Pro and the other with 30#.

I opted for a sliding sinker rig and decided on "coin" sinkers instead of barrel sinkers above the swivels.  This type sinker literally "swims" above the bottom on a retrieve and in Haulover, this means less hangups on the coquina outcroppings.

I baited up one rig with half of a blue crab on a 5/0 hook and an almost live finger mullet on the second rod.

There was little to no current in the canal but there was some grass that had to be pulled off at regular intervals.

There were a bunch of kayakers in the boat launch area and a couple of folks in a canoe throwing a cast net around the banks of the canal for something.  

 

Elmo and I fished for about an hour in the first spot and an hour or so in the second spot near the Indian River end of the canal.

 

I lost a redfish or drum on the crab at the first spot and never had another bite on that bait.

I hooked and released a gaff topsail cat on the finger mullet and returned it to the water.  It was small and I didn't feel like cleaning the fish.

"Sail cats" are very good eating in case you're wondering.

As the wind got worse and the temperature started to drop, I decided to head for home and call it a day.

Hopefully, next time will be more productive.

You never know when fishing Haulover Canal!

Till next time, Tight Lines.