The Ladyfish Are Running

The ladyfish are running in the Indian River and the topwater sea trout bite is great if you can get on the water early.

When I got home from work this evening, my wife wanted to drive around Peacocks Pocket road to check out the fishing .

I loaded Elmo and Odie into the truck along with several fishing outfits while Karen was grabbing some frozen jumbo shrimp from the freezer for bait.

When we crossed the bridge over the Indian River it was obvious that Memorial Day weekend was going to jam pack the area with visitors from all over.

Even though it was late, there were tons of people fishing, kayaking, wading and generally having a good time on the river.

The air temperature was in the low 80s and there was almost no wind on the water.

I decided to drive to East Gator Creek road to try and catch a ladyfish for bait.  This area is extremely shallow and weedy but has tons of ladyfish during early spring.

I picked up a small silver "little Cleo" type spoon that WallMart had on special as a close out item last week, and decided to give it a try.

It took about five casts before I got my first ladyfish.  It was close to two feet long and jumped several times before I got it to the bank and shook it loose.

In about a half an hour I managed to hook five more ladyfish about the same size in the same general area before the last fish broke off the small spoon.

I tied on a larger silver Luhr Jensen Krocodile spoon that was not near as attractive to the ladyfish before driving to Peacocks Pocket road to try out a couple of spots in the marsh.

 to see if Karen could pick up a redfish.

Since it was getting late and we had Elmo and Odie in the truck, we decided not to try a bunch of spots.  Instead we parked along the Indian River where there were several finger mullet schools milling around in the shallow flats.

Every now and then you could see or hear a big sea trout busting the surface after the mullet.

I started tossing the silver Krockodile spoon, a gold Johnson Sprite, a white Zara Spook Jr. and finally a Chug Bug at the trout trying to get a bite.

Karen fished the marsh canal on the other side of the road with a jumbo shrimp and a Cajun Thunder float trying to catch a redfish.

We spent an hour and a half at the spot and almost got skunked.

The fish were killing the baitfish in the river but would not hit any of my baits until just before dusk.

Karen saw two nice redfish swimming down the canal but they ignored her shrimp.  She had a couple of hits from sea trout who took the heads off her shrimp but she didn't hook a fish.

I tossed one rod with a jumbo shrimp out on the Indian River side of the road only to pick up a catfish.

It was around 7:30 pm close to sunset, before the sea trout started hitting my topwater baits.

I missed one large trout on a white Zara Spook Jr. that jumped out of the water trying to hit the bait on the way down and finally picked up this smaller fish on a blue back and silver Chug Bug.

The fish hit while the Chug Bug was totally motionless in the water making me realize that I was fishing the lures way too fast.

As I slowed down my retrieve I started getting follow ups and short hits.

Perseverance eventually does pays off!

Several people stopped while Karen and I were fishing to ask if we had any luck, and no one I spoke with had caught any fish.

As the sun began to set over the river, the sea trout and the mosquitoes started to bite. 

Elmo and Odie were ready to go home and so was Karen and I.

I missed one more sea trout on the Chug Bug before I decided to pack it in and head for home.

Hopefully we'll get out earlier tomorrow.

The ladyfish are running, the sea trout are hitting early and late and the redfish are always cruising the shorelines in the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon.

Till next time, Tight Lines.