A Great Day For Ducks

Today was a great day for ducks, not so great for fishing.

It was around 1:30 pm when I finally decided to go fishing this afternoon.

It was raining sporadically all morning at the house and when it finally slowed down I packed up some rods and headed for Peacocks Pocket to make a quick run around the area.

As I entered Gator Creek road, the water was calm and there were rafts of ducks all around the area.

The air temperature was 71 degrees and as I pulled up to the first set of culverts at Catfish Creek Loop, the heavens opened.

I briefly thought about turning around and going home but I decided to give it a try despite the downpour.

Unfortunately, all I got for my efforts was a soaking wet hoodie.  I did not get a single bite all the time I fished the area, but I did get soaking wet.

I met up with several fishermen on the way into the refuge and stopped briefly to talk to Ron who despite the torrent, had a nifty setup to watch his rods.

He had a sheet over his truck to block some of the rain but was still pretty soaking wet when I pulled up.

When I asked him if he had caught any reds, he told me he missed a couple on mud minnows.

As we were chatting, he had a bite and again missed the red.

I was fishing artificial baits and didn't have the luxury of sitting in the truck waiting for a bite.  Instead, I was casting an array of spoons, soft baits and topwater lures trying my best to get some kind of interest going.

When we parted ways, it really started coming down.  I took a few short vids of the nasty weather but today was truly a great day for ducks in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

After an hour or so of heavy rain and I was on my way out of the refuge, the rain slowed down enough for me to try fishing again.

I tried tossing a gold Nemiere Red Ripper and a Bagley paddle tail swimbait for a while with no success.

As I neared the end of Peacocks Pocket road and came to the shallow water launch, I discovered where all the fishermen were.  The area was pretty crowded and apparently people were catching fish.

I talked to a couple of guys who had already loaded their Gheenoes onto their trailer and  another guy who was coming in with his kayak and both reported good catches of redfish, black drum and sea trout in the area directly adjacent to the Space Center barriers.

One pair had two slot reds, two black drum and two nice over slot sea trout.  The other guy had a black drum and a redfish.  He said he caught several others but only harvested the two fish.

The guys in the Gheenoe were using artificial soft baits with an "assist".  They were rubbing the baits in a bag of clams they had brought with them.  I much prefer using Pro-Cure.

Anyway, as it was starting to clear up, I made up my mind to head for home.

I was soaked and getting chilled even though the air temperature was a pleasant 69 degrees.

If the weather is decent tomorrow, I may take out my Gheenoe out for a spin.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Sea Trout Are In The Ditches

The sea trout are in the ditches this time of the year and if you adhere to some basic cold weather fishing tactics, you can have a ball catching instead of just fishing.

Fishing Peacocks Pocket road today was definitely on the agenda and even though this morning looked like it was going to be a rainy day, it turned out to be gorgeous.

When I finally loaded up the truck with some spinning rods, it was around 1:30 pm and the air temperature was 70 degrees.

Turning into Gator Creek road was like entering the on ramp to I-95.  There were a ton of people driving around Peacocks Pocket road watching and photographing the abundant variety of birds and waterfowl that bless us this time of the year.

I briefly stopped to fish the first pond and drew a blank, so I slowly drove up the road to see if I could spot any redfish movement.

I decided to try some blind casting in areas where I caught fish last year in February, so I tied on a white Creme paddle tail swimbait and smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater formula.

It only took a few casts before I hooked up with a nice fat sea trout that just made the slot.

After taking it's picture and releasing the fish, I continued to fish the stretch to see if I could stir up some more action.

Ron Granger, a fishing bud drove up and we briefly talked about the fishing.

He said didn't score any redfish using the mud minnows he had with him and when he asked me, I told him about the sea trout I was catching in the ditches of the salt marsh.

A "traffic jam" cut our conversation short, so I move on and continued fishing the stretch.

I knew for certain that the sea trout were in the ditches when I hooked up with the third fish. 

A guy from Maine stopped to ask me what I was catching as I was unhooking the fish and when I released it, he looked genuinely shocked.

I drove up to a small pond and switched baits to a Berkley paddletail that looked more like the baitfish that are in the ditches.

It took only two casts to hook up with another sea trout that finally hit the 18" mark.

This spot had a school of agitated baitfish milling around so I decided to try something different, just for the hell of it.

I tied on a yellow with black polka dots Mepps type spinner that I used in fresh water to catch bass with.

The first cast past the baitfish got me hooked up with a slot sea trout, but the fish got off after a couple of head shakes.

I shot another cast in the same area and promptly got another hookup with another sea trout that also got off after a couple of shakes.

It was obvious that the small treble hook wasn't working too good with sea trout so, I took off the small treble hook and replaced it with a larger one that I pulled off an old plug.

I thought for sure that I had the remedy to losing any more sea trout but after making several casts into the same general area, I never got another bite.

I decided to try fishing with a gold spoon to see if I might rile up a redfish so I changed rods and started tossing around a Johnson Sprite.

I was ready to give up on the spoon when I finally hooked up with a small ladyfish. I took a quick pic

and released the fish to grow up.

During the next couple of hours I landed and released 10 more sea trout on swimbaits, hooked and lost at least 5 more sea trout, and spooked two nice redfish.

All the fish were in the ditches of the salt marsh.

My back was hurting from bending over so I decided to quit fishing and take some pics of the waterfowl that everyone else was photographing in the area.

Here is a short compilation of today's picture taking session.  All the pics were taken with my old Nikon CoolPix 8700 and my Samsung WB150F.


When I finally left Peacocks Pocket road at 6:00 pm the air temperature was a "chilly" 60 degrees with no wind.

I called my wife to let her know I was on the way home but as I got to the bridge the police had the closed it off from vehicle traffic.

The officer told me there was some sort of foot race going on over the bridge and that I could wait until 7:00 pm or take the long route over Haulover Canal to get home.

I opted for the latter and after making the long 20 mile plus trip, finally got home before the bridge was open.

As I crossed Haulover Canal, I noted that there were several boats anchored at the Mosquito Lagoon entrance to the canal fishing for black drum or redfish.

Although the day would have been even more perfect if I could have landed a redfish, I was happy that the sea trout are in the ditches and that I was able to catch a few today.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Fishless Superbowl Afternoon

Well today was a fishless superbowl afternoon to say the least.

My wife finally felt well enough after her hernia operation to get out of the house and go fishing with me.

We decided to take Elmo and Odie along to give them some "fun time" and see if there was any action in the refuge.

I took Karen past East Gator Creek road and entered the eastern most entrance of the refuge towards the kayak launch.

The weather was beautiful this afternoon. There were no clouds in the sky, the air temperature was 82 degrees and there was a slight breeze blowing.  A perfect day to get

We didn't get out until around 2:30 pm and I didn't really expect to catch much.

Like yesterday, there was a lot of vehicle traffic in the refuge and for the most part we had to keep Elmo and Odie in the truck.

We stopped at several spots that looked promising but the only thing we caught all day was a "mud minnow" on a small spoon that I was tossing around the banks of the marsh canal.

I fished a variety of lures to cover all the water column and Karen fished peeled jumbo shrimp and eventually the mud minnow that I caught.

I spotted a couple of black drum tooling down the marsh canal but other than those fish and some large mullet, we didn't spot any redfish or sea trout in either the marsh or the Indian River.

For February, that is very unusual in this area. Especially since I have been getting some positive fishing reports from the local guides.

Anyway, Elmo and Odie had a good time and so did Karen.

We fished until around 5:30 pm when we both decided to call it a day.

Next weekend, I plan on getting out earlier before the vehicle traffic puts the fish down.

Till then, Tight Lines.

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Peacocks Pocket Road Has Opened

Saturday afternoon I was surprised to learn that Peacocks Pocket Road has opened up again to vehicle traffic.  In fact I learned from Ron, a fellow angler, that it has been open since last weekend.

I have been having back problems so I didn't bother getting out to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge until late Saturday afternoon.

Since I thought that Peacocks Pocket road was still closed, I entered the refuge through East Gator Creek road where the water is extremely weedy and shallow.

Saturday's trip was intended to be mostly a scouting expedition.  The weather was great.  The air temperature was 79 degrees with a very little wind blowing and there were no rain clouds in the sky.

I packed six spinning rods in the back of the truck with various lures but due to the shallow water, I decided on fishing topwater baits.

I picked a Zara Spook Jr. in a gold/black back color to start and started "walking the dog" in several deeper water areas.

I was about to give up on the bait when I got a hit from a nice redfish right off the bank.

The fish wasn't hooked very well and at the beginning of the first run, the hook pulled out.

The water was clear enough to see the deep bronze color of the redfish as it swam down the canal.

I decided to keep up fishing the plug so I moved up the road casting at every stop.

It took many more casts before hooking up with my second fish of the day.  The fish surprised me by blasting the Zara Spook Jr. almost as soon as it hit the water next to a mangrove root.

The fish was a large sea trout of about 26 inches or so.  It made several short "sloshy" runs and as I was trying to find an area where I could land the fish, the hook pulled out.

Second fish of the day and none landed.

It was getting late, so I decided to see if Peacocks Pocket was open.

I was surprised to see the barrier down and traffic coming out of the area.

As I drove into the road, the first truck I spotted was Ron's.  He had a couple of poles out and when I asked him how he was doing, he told me that the fish were not hitting anything.  He said he was fishing "everything" with no luck.

Ron is primarily a live bait fisherman.  Today he was fishing with shrimp, live mullet and cut baits with no luck.

I didn't bother to chat but moved on to see if I could spot any fish next to the road.

Peacocks Pocket road on Saturday was like I-95.  There was a lot of vehicle traffic looking at the gators, waterfowl, etc.and I couldn't blame them.  The area was loaded with wildlife.

The boaters were also out in force today.  There were kayakers, pontoon boats, flats boats, and waders in the Indian River all trying to catch some fish.

 

 
Although I made several stops at some of my favorite spots, I never coaxed another bite from anything the rest of the afternoon.  So, I decided to take some pics and head for home.

Now that Peacocks Pocket has opened up for vehicle traffic, I will try to get out more than I have been.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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