Gloomy Day In The Wildlife Refuge

Saturday turned out to be a rather gloomy day in the wildlife refuge for Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing but despite the inclement weather, I still opted for a short fishing trip around Peacocks Pocket road.

I left the house around 3:30 pm and it was drizzling as I crossed the bridge over the Indian River.

There were several bank fishermen along both sides of the causeway road fishing with cut baits and live finger mullet.  Most of them had at least three rod holders set for reds and as I passed, nobody seemed to be catching anything.

As I was driving down Peacocks Pocket road looking for actively feeding redfish, I spotted several very large gators along the bank.

Since the air temperature was 72 degrees, I really didn't expect them to be as active as they were this afternoon but I spotted at least half a dozen during my trip.

I brought along four rods tied with a Red Ripper spoon, a Chug Bug, a Heddon Zara Spook Jr. and a purple tube bait I decided to try out just for the hell of it.

A guide in Savannah, Ga. told me he kills reds in the shallows with this setup so I bought the Bass Pro Shops Bargain Tube Kit 45-Piece set and smeared some Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater formula into the tube to mimic a crab crawling around in the weeds.

Bass Pro Shops 67-Piece Tournament Series Jig Kit is also supposed to work for redfish when they are targeting crustaceans in the grass but I haven't yet tried them.

I knew from last week's trip that the reds are targeting crabs and shrimp in the grass, but because I left the house in a hurry, I neglected to bring along any fresh dead shrimp.

As it turned out, I probably should have stopped at one of the local bait ships to get some.

Other than just a couple other die hard bank fishermen, there was not much vehicle traffic along the road.  A few guys were leaving the area as the rain started picking up, but other than that it was a gloomy day in the wildlife refuge for sure.

After blind casting to several spots that I normally fish, I quickly realized that today was probably going to be a "live bait" day.

I had a slot redfish hit the gold Nemire Red Ripper Spoon Lures in a shallow weedy area and missed a small sea trout on the Heddon Zara Spook Jr. topwater bait in another shallow marsh area.

Other than those two misses, I remained fishless for the afternoon.

Normally, I love to fish the fronts especially when there is a tolerable rain falling on the surface of the water but this afternoon, the fish just weren't hitting any of my baits.

As I was moving to another spot, I stopped about midway up Peacocks Pocket road and asked some bank fishermen how they were doing.

They said they caught a black drum and a small redfish both on shrimp on the river side of the road.

I wished them good luck and moved on up the road to fish "bobcat bay" on the Indian River side.

After many blind casts to likely looking spots with no takers, I decided to head for home.   The rain was beginning to beat down harder, it was getting late and a bit chilly.

As I was slowly driving up to the double culverts near the shallow water canoe launch, I saw two waders plodding their way out of the shallow marsh area where they were fishing.

I slowed down and yelled to them that there are some really big gators in that immediate area.  By big, I mean in the 10 foot category.

When I asked them if they caught anything, they said they were fishing with Cajun Thunder floats and live shrimp but had no fish.  They said "they were definitely out there" but were not hitting anything.

I didn't bother to watch and see if they made it across the deeper marsh canal without being eaten.  Instead, I called my wife and asked her if she wanted a SubWay sub for dinner.

Till next time, Tight Lines.