Fishing Glassy Water In The Marsh

Didn't get out this afternoon until around 6:30pm and there was glassy water in the marsh ponds.

The weather was 83 degrees when I drove into Peacocks Pocket road and there was absolutely no wind on the water.

I decided to fish some of my favorite "honey holes" so I didn't bother stopping to fish some pushes I spotted in the shallow marsh canal.

When I drove close to the area I planned to fish, I spotted some topwater activity so I decided on fishing a funky looking Zara Spook Jr. that I picked up on special at Wally's World (Wal-Mart).

The lure had a black head and a chartreuse body but for a couple of bucks, I didn't care if I got hung up and lost the bait.

I hooked a large ladyfish that I lost after the third or forth jump, I'm not sure which and after several more casts into the area decided to switch to a gold Tsunami spoon.

I smeared up the spoon with Pro-Cure and started blind casting to the Indian River side of the road where I spotted some baitfish activity.

After about ten casts or so I hooked into a small tarpon.  The fish jumped several times and tossed the spoon back to me. 

I was surprised to hook a tarpon in this area but I guess they are pretty much all over the place.

I continued casting the spoon and after not getting any more hits, I switched back to the Zara Spook Jr.

Several casts into the marsh pond finally hooked me up with a small sea trout which I released to fight another day.

 I made several casts to a couple of redfish that were pushing a nice wake but they weren't interested in eating the odd colored plug.

After catching two more small sea trout and getting bit by a lot of viscous gnats, I was just about ready to call it a day.

I decided to flip a couple more casts toward a small grassy island when a fellow angler stopped to see how I was doing.

His name was Jason Cooper and he told me he was a local who has been fishing for many years in the refuge.

We traded information and he showed me a pic of a nice redfish he caught on a live finger mullet earlier. 

Jason said he missed several reds that took the bait but didn't stay hooked up.  My friend Ron told me the other day he had the same problem.

That is one of the reasons I don't fish live bait on a regular basis.  Anyway, we talked till a storm cloud started moving over the area and we both decided to head for home.

It started sprinkling as I turned around and started driving out of the refuge.  The air temperature dropped to a pleasant78 degrees and the wind started up.

Hopefully, next time I'll do better with the slot size trout.

Tight Lines!