Late Afternoon Fishing In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Late afternoon fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge can be productive and this evening was no exception.

I didn't get out to the refuge until 7:30 pm so I headed directly to a spot where I spotted some oversize reds last weekend.

Fishing conditions this evening were about what we expect in this area for late July.

The air temperature was in the mid 80s and there was almost no wind to mess with casting.

I started out with a silver Johnson's weedless spoon on a medium action rod with 8# mono.  I didn't bother with a shock leader mainly because I forgot to bring leader material along.  I didn't spend much time loading up the truck.

I caught a couple of ladyfish on the silver spoon and missed a small trout before I decided to move on and change lures.

I was going to try a top water bait but I didn't see any surface action so I picked up the rod with my "go to" Johnson's gold spoon and started blind casting around some grassy islands in a large pond.

I had a followup from an oversize redfish that turned away from the spoon when I paused the retrieve.  The fish never came back for a second chance.

 I hooked and released two more small ladyfish and as it started to get dark in the refuge the fish started hitting on the surface.

I switched to a black back gold Chug Bug and smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Super Gel.

The stuff works great especially when the fish are following up but not hitting a bait.

I caught a couple of barely legal sea trout on the Chug Bug and had another ladyfish hit before I decided to give it up for the evening.



The gnats or "no see-ums" as I call them were horrible, even with the liberal amount of insect repellant I sprayed on myself.

The grass in the refuge is about chest high on both sides of the road and the bugs are loving it.

My wife called to let me know it was getting dark outside and wanted to know when I was coming home, so I called it a day.

As I was turning the truck around, I spotted a couple of really big fish blowing up on baitfish close to the middle of the last pond I was fishing.  I made a mental note to hit the area again this weekend with my other "long distance" rod.

On the way out, I was treated to one of Central Florida's beautiful sunsets.

 

I love late afternoon fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, even when I don't catch anything.  You usually have the place all to yourself.

Till next time, Tight Lines.