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!