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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