Tarpon In The Marsh

As summer fishing conditions come upon us here in east central Florida, tarpon become the target of many Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishermen.

Early this afternoon after working around the house, my wife wanted to hit Subway for a couple of subs so we loaded Elmo and Odie into the truck along with a rod (just in case) and headed out to chow down with some late lunch.

We decided to make a quick run around Peacocks Pocket road and eat or subs on the way.

The air temperature was in the low 90s and there was a mild wind blowing over the river. 

About half way down the road it was evident that not many people were out fishing.  We didn't see the usual parade of Refuge visitors checking out the gators and waterfowl.

I stopped at a couple of places and got a couple of hits from sea trout but didn't land any fish.

As we pulled up past an area we call "Bobcat Bay", Ron, a fellow fisherman friend of mine, was putting out a couple of rods rigged with mud minnows.  I asked him how he was doing, and he told me he had caught something he never expected to catch in a pond up the road from where he was now fishing.

He proceeded to show me a fish scale the size of a quarter which was obviously from a tarpon.

He described the tarpon as being around four feet long, which was corroborated by the size of the fish scale he showed me.

As  we parted ways and left the refuge I told Karen we needed to go out later and catch some fish.

Around 4:30 pm I started packing up my rods and headed out to the refuge.

The air temperature dropped a bit but was still in the mid 80s and the wind had died down to a  mild breeze.

I spotted a couple of guys fishing in the middle of the Indian River.  One guy was wading and the other was in the boat. The guy wading caught something but I couldn't make out what it was.

 


I was fishing primarily with a white Creme Paddle Tail SwimBait and a gold
Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon.

I was getting hits in several spots with both baits and managed to catch four slot sized sea trout before the wind totally died down.

 
I had a couple of hits from redfish that I missed before finally hooking up with an oversize red on the gold Johnson Sprite spoon. 

The fish made a nice run up the marsh canal and then headed for the pond that it swam out from.  As it made a run around a grass island, it got caught up in an underwater stickup and broke free.

As it started getting dark I switched over to a blue back Chug Bug and missed two more sea trout before I hooked up with what was to be the last trout of the day.

The "super moon" was out and the bite was coming to a halt.  The mosquitoes were out in force as were the gnats, so I decided to give it up for the day.

Today, the sea trout and redfish bite was pretty decent until it started to get dark.

I didn't see any tarpon in the area I was fishing however, that could be because they prefer and are most active during the hottest time of the day.

All in all it was a productive fishing trip.  Five sea trout and a hookup with an oversize redfish in justy a few hours.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.