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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