Memorial Day Ladyfish

This afternoon I expected a crowd in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and I wasn't disappointed one bit.

There were tons of people lining the Indian River east of the Parrish Park boat landing and everyone seemed to be having a great time on the water.

  

 

I saw several fishermen on both sides of the highway dunking finger mullet, cut baits and shrimp hoping to hook up with a redfish or sea trout.

I didn't get out this afternoon until rather late and because of all the people in the area I decided to start fishing around East Gator Creek road.

My wife went horseback riding in Mims so I didn't bother bringing Elmo or Odie this trip.

I started fishing the extremely shallow water using a light silver spoon with 30# Power Pro and a six foot length of 10# fluorocarbon.

The water was no more than a couple of feet deep in this area and full of weeds so I started casting using a fast retrieve to keep the spoon above the weeds.

The second cast hooked me up with a large mud minnow.

If I had thought of bringing a bait bucket, I would have kept it for a possible red or sea trout.

Several casts later produced another mud minnow and finally a ladyfish that jumped all over the flat.

I stopped at several spots and managed to land eight ladyfish out of the dozen or so I hooked up with.

I kept three ladyfish for cut bait because they were bleeding and would have died anyway and returned the rest.

I spied a redfish but it wasn't taking my spoon so I continued casting in various spots hoping for a sea trout for dinner.

At the second bend I got a nice hit from a sea trout and after a brief fight I put it on ice for dinner.

I missed a couple more short striking sea trout before moving up to Peacocks Pocket road.

It was getting late so I headed for a spot where yesterday there was a lot of baitfish activity.

When I got to the location, there were no baitfish schools in sight.

I made several blind casts on the Indian River side hoping for a sea trout until I hooked into this juvenile croaker.

I didn't bring along a baitcasting rig or I would have tossed out the croaker for bait.

They make an excellent gator sea trout bait.

The big females come a country mile to eat a croaker.

Anyway, I decided to head for home and cook my fish for dinner.

As I drove down Peacocks Pocket road I passed several fishermen on the Indian River and marsh sides of the road but none of the people I talked to had any luck.

Several people were holding me up taking pictures of the gators and pink roseatte spoonbills so I pulled out my Samsung camera and took a few myself.

 

The alligator above was close to 10 feet long and is one of the largest I have seen in the refuge.

As I crossed the bridge on the way home, my wife called and asked me about how my Memorial Day ladyfish outing turned out.

Not too bad!

Till next time, Tight Lines.