Gator Sea Trout In October

Catching a gator sea trout wasn't on the agenda this evening, redfish was the target species.

Karen wanted to catch a redfish in honor of a mutual friend of ours who recently passed so, we planned to go fishing as soon as I got home from work this evening.

I didn't get to the house until quite late, but we still had about an hour or so of fishing time before sunset.

Because of the time factor, I decided to stop and pick up some finger mullet at Mosquito Lagoon bait and tackle instead of wasting time trying to net some bait.

We left Odie and Elmo at home and headed for a spot where we hoped there were some reds feeding.

When we got to our spot off of Peacocks Pocket road, I quickly set out several rods with live finger mullet.

There was a brisk wind blowing this evening and it was in the low 70s as we settled down to watch our rods.

I didn't bother tossing any artificial baits this evening, instead I decided to give live bait fishing a shot.

I quickly learned that having too many rods out at one time can be a waste of time. 

I had a hit on one rod and by the time I got to reel in the fish, it spit out the mullet and was gone.

The same thing happened twice more before I finally decided to put up two of the rods.  I could watch two rods without worrying about missing another fish.

Karen thought she had a hit but it turned out to be a false alarm.

This evening, except for one lone fisherman who was leaving the refuge with a kayak in the back of his truck, Karen and I were all alone in the refuge.

The angler with the kayak stopped to ask me if there were any fish in the marsh, so I referred him to this site.

About five minutes after he drove off,  I had just finished tossing a fresh finger mullet into the entrance of one of the marsh ponds and got a savage hit from what turned out to be a gator sea trout.

The fish briefly chased the freelined mullet and finally inhaled the bait.  I didn't have to set the hook this time around, the fish took off up the marsh canal as soon as it realized it was hooked and made several nice runs.

After a surprisingly good fight I landed what we I call an almost gator sea trout in central Flroida..

The fat female measured in at a little over 27" and was beautifully colored.

Normally I don't keep the fish I catch, but this one was headed to the dinner table in honor of Larry.

After unhooking the trout, I re-baited the rod with a fresh mullet and as I was setting out the rod, another fish hit the other rod that I had out.

But the time I got to the rod, the hooked fish was tangled in the brush along the bank. I could feel the fish but as I was trying to gently lead it out of the branches, it broke off and swam away.

From it's size, it looked like the redfish we were looking for, but I couldn't be sure.

As the sun began to set, it started getting really chilly. Karen was getting cold and the mosquitoes were getting nasty, so we decided to pack it in for the evening.

The temperature was in the low 60s as we loaded the last of our tackle into the truck and turned on the heater.

Catching gator sea trout in October isn't uncommon in our area, in fact it's one of the best times to go fishing.

Very few people are in the area and the fish are usually hungry!

Till next time, Tight Lines!

You Gotta Love October Redfish In The Marsh

You really gotta love fishing for October redfish in the marsh.

This afternoon my wife and I decided to take Elmo and Odie along with us for a ride to Burger King and to see if Peacocks Pocket road was open to vehicle traffic. 

Fishing the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is one of my favorite weekend activities and I try to hit the refuge at least one day every weekend.

I packed a few rods and after grabbing a bite to eat we headed for Peacocks Pocket road.

Gator Creek road was open but East Gator Creek road and Catfish Creek Loop were still barricaded for some reason.

We took the long route and entered Peacocks Pocket road from the easternmost entrance.

The air temperature was in the mid 80s early this afternoon, and there was a moderate wind blowing in the refuge.

Surprisingly, there was relatively little activity in the refuge.  We encountered only three other fishermen during our brief scouting trip.

We passed the shallow water kayak launch and just past the first set of culverts, Karen spotted some redfish tailing in a shallow pond.  There were at least five that we spotted and they all appeared to be oversize.

Here is a short video of the activity.



The fish were well out of casting range so I didn't bother trying to toss any lures around.

About half way down the road, we met up with Ron, a fellow angler I see almost every weekend.

He told me he caught a black drum on the Indian River side of the road on some shrimp.  I didn't want to bother his fishing so we continued down the road.

Karen got the bug when she saw the tailing reds, so we decided to head to the house and hit the area later in the afternoon.

We left the house around 3:30 pm, this time without Elmo and Odie.  I love them to death but they're a handful when we go fishing.

This time we entered Peacocks Pocket road from the first entrance and headed to a couple of spots I hadn't been able to fish during the closure.

As we entered the area, a fellow reader of this blog stopped and asked me if Karen and I wanted some live finger mullet.  I readily accepted and he gave us about half a dozen small mullet.  He introduced himself as James and said he didn't do too well fishing the area today.

I thanked him for the bait and we continued to the first area to fish.

When we got to our first spot, we didn't waste much time there.  I had a tap on a gold spoon and Karen didn't get a hit, so we moved on up the road.

The water on the marsh side of the road today was chocolate colored due to the brown algae bloom, so I decided to start using live bait instead of artificial lures.

The second spot we stopped to fish wasn't much better than the first area.  We wasted about an hour there before heading to another spot up the road where I often pick up some sea trout and reds.

We set out two rods with finger mullet, a third with fiddler crabs and Karen lobbed out a Cajun Thunder rig with some fresh dead shrimp we bought at the bait store.

It didn't take long before I hooked up with an oversize redfish.

The big red nailed the mullet and headed up and down the marsh canal for several nice runs before I could land the fish.

I asked Karen to take a video of the action as best she could.  Her results are below.


The fish measured in just at 35 inches with the tail pinched.

I released the fish and Karen immediately decided she wanted to switch to a live mullet. 

I baited her up and she flipped the bait out to the opposite bank.

It was another half hour or so before I got another hit and I lost the finger mullet to a large sea trout.  I'm not used to fishing live bait and I pulled the mullet out of the fish's mouth.

About the time I re-baited, Karen said she had a big fish on so I got the Boca Grip and camera from the truck to help her out and film the action.

This fish didn't want to be landed.  It took off up the marsh canal and put up a really good fight before finally giving it up.

Here is a video of the action along with some pics.



After Karen landed her big red, the wind started picking up and the sky darkened.  We fished a little longer and Karen and I both missed another fish before we decided to head for home.

You gotta love October redfish in the marsh!

Fishing Port Canaveral

Fishing Port Canaveral isn't my usual forte' but since the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has been closed until further notice, it seemed the thing to do this Weekend.

I heard from several readers that fishing in and around Port Canaveral was getting better, probably because of the fall baitfish run.  So, after I finished working in our spare beedroom, Karen and I packed some rods,  our two "wonder dogs" and some drinks into the truck and headed for a drive.

We confirmed that the barriers were still up in the refuge and took Banana River Drive to see the scenery along the river.

I was surprised that Paul's Steak House and Corky Belles were both out of business.  Probably because of the crappy economy.

We didn't see many fishermen on the river so we headed down the causeway to Coco Beach.

There were more fishermen on the Banana River but nobody seemed to be catching anything of any consequence.

After we stopped at Micky Ds for some grub, we decided to head to the port to see what was happening there.

It was a pleasant day Saturday and by the time we got to the Port, it was around 5:00 pm; just in time for the party boats to come in.

As we passed the Miss Cape Canaveral, people were unloading their gear but Karen didn't want to stick around and wait for them to unload the fish.

The one guy I spoke to said they did pretty good on the usual bottom species, so we decided to head to the bridge at the boat ramp to see if anybody was fishing there.

The Disney Micky Mouse cruise ship was just leaving port so we stopped to take a few pics and this short video.  You don't realize just how huge these vessels are until you're up close and personal.

At the bridge to the cruise ship basin, several fishermen were dunking cut baits and dead shrimp.     

Although I saw several schools of mullet near the locks, no one was freelining a live bait.

I was thinking about flipping a spoon around the bridge pilings to see what I could stir up but the dogs were driving us crazy so I decided to just make this trip a photo outing.

The guys in the boat with an umbrella were fishing for flounder and as far as I could determine were dunking live mullet.

All the time we were there, only one person caught anything.  She was happy with a sailor's choice.

As we crossed the Banana River towards the house, there were a lot of fishermen along the bank cast netting mullet and fishing.

Apparently the sea wall next to the bridge seems to be a hot spot.

Anyway, Karen and I were both tired so we headed to the comfort of our Hacienda for a good meal.

Till next time,

Tight Lines!

The Redfish Bite Was Hot Just Before The Shutdown

I finally got caught up reading my emails today and learned from Jason Cooper that the redfish bite was hot just before the shutdown in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

He sent me these pics of the fish he landed while fishing off of Peacocks Pocket road in the refuge the last weekend, just before the area shutdown.

He told me that he caught all the redfish on the river side of Peacocks Pocket road on large 8" to 10" mullet and lost a few more.

He said that if he could have landed all the fish he hooked, he would have caught over a dozen reds over the course of the weekend.

The fish on the left hit an 8 inch mullet and measured in 

at 26 1/2".

The redfish below measured in at 28 " and hit the same size mullet.

This fish measured in at 40" and was the largest landed over the weekend.

 This red was in the slot at 24" and also hit a large mullet.

His smallest redfish measured in at 21" but the bite was so hot that he didn't get a chance to take a picture of that fish. 

He had to perform a quick release on the smaller red as was getting another "knockdown" on another rod.

Jason caught the sea trout to the left on the other side of the road where I usually pick up most of my fish.

The sea trout measured in at 27" and I don't know whether or not Jason released the fish to fight another day.

Hopefully, the closures will be short lived.

I'm already jonesing to get out to the river.

Tight Lines to you all!

Refuge Closures

The refuge closures due to the so called government shutdown has affected almost everyone I know who enjoys fishing Peacocks Pocket road and other areas in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

After I finished painting our spare bedroom trim this afternoon, I decided to get some air and see exactly which areas in the refuge were open to visitors.

I packed a couple of spinning rods, loaded up a small cooler with some water and headed out to see what was happening.

Here are some pics of the refuge closures I encountered this afternoon:

Catfish Creek

 Gator Creek Road

 East Gator Creek Road

 Merritt Island National Wildlife Visitors Center

 Peacocks Pocket Road

 Canaveral National Seashore

 BioLab Road

 Bairs Cove Boat Launch Road

 South Haulover Canal access road

 Haulover Canal Drawbridge

 Black Point Wildlife Drive

I didn't bother driving up US1 to verify that Shiloh Marsh Road and the other launch areas were closed but take my word for it, they are closed until further notice.

I managed to find only two areas to fish which already had a bunch of vehicles in the area so I won't mention them.  There's already too many fishermen in those areas.

It seems that the "ruling" party is creating the most pain possible for the people by unnecessarily closing recreational areas and sites like the WWII Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I've fished these areas for the past 15 years or so and can count on one hand the number of times I've encountered any State or Federal government officials.

It seems to me that closing these areas to the public is more vindictive than anything else, but I could be wrong.

The refuge closures just may force me to take out my Maverick flats boat.

Till next time,

Tight Lines to all if you can find a place to fish.

'LinkConnector Validation'

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Shutdown

Evidently there is a Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge shutdown in effect.

When I got home last night from work, I packed a couple of rods and headed to Peacocks Pocket road to get in an hour or so of fishing. 

When I got to the first entrance, the road was blocked so I drove down to East Gator Creek road and discovered that the "powers that be" had erected a barrier there also.

It's too bad that the current administration feels the necessity to inflict the most pain possible on the people of our country to farther their agenda.

Since I moved down here almost 20 years ago, they have closed most of the roads in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge supposedly because of the lack of funding to fix the potholes. 

They apparently do not have the funds available to mow the grass around Peacocks Pocket road; yet they seem to have found enough cash available to pay people to close off the only decent areas that are still available to the public for fishing from land.

Sometimes I feel like we're all in a Kingdom, not the United States of America.

Obama Care (A.K.A. The Affordable Care Act) is hurting us sportfishermen even when we're not sick.

Feel free to click on the Post a Comment link below to voice your opinions.

Till whenever, Tight Lines.