Sea Trout Are In The Ditches

The sea trout are in the ditches in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

My wife has been sick for the past week and I haven't been feeling much better so I broke down and visited the local walk in clinic and discovered that I had a severe upper respiratory infection.

After getting the antibiotics scrip filled, I took one and decided to hit Peacocks Pocket road to see if anyone was catching fish.

There were several vehicles in the area bird watching with only two people actually fishing and they were not catching fish.

I brought along a couple of rods that I hastily tossed into the back of the truck and started blind casting to likely looking spots in the marsh canal.

The Berkley power bait produced a couple of light taps but no hookups so I decided to tie on an old gold diamond spoon to see if I could dredge up a redfish.

I was feeling pretty crappy and I didn't plan on fishing long, especially since the wind was blowing steadily and the air temperature was beginning to give me a chill.

I tossed the gold spoon into a couple of areas and got a quick hookup with what I thought was a redfish.

The fish made two nice runs and then started sloshing around like the big sea trout that it was.

When I got the fish close enough to identify it, I played it carefully to a sparsely brushed area of the bank, grabbed it by the gills and landed the fish up the steep bank.

A couple in a small coupe stopped by to ask me what I was using and if there were any fish on "that side of the road".

I explained to them that fish are in very skinny water this time of the year almost anywhere and they are hungry.

I decided to take the sea trout home for dinner so I dispatched the fish, put it in the back of the truck and headed home.

On the way out of the refuge, I took these pics of what the "bird watchers" were looking at.  There were several more gators that I didn't bother photographing and tons of other birds in the area that I'm blessed to see on a regular basis so I didn't bother putting them up here. 

I particularly like the spoonbills and pelicans.

 

 

 

 

On the way home, I stopped by the local Exxon station to gas up and a fellow angler walked over to chat with me about the fishing conditions.

I showed him the sea trout in the back of the truck that I was keeping for dinner and we talked briefly about where he was fishing and what he was using.

I don't remember his name, but he told me he came here from the west coast of Florida to visit his family.

I suggested some flats for him to fish for a bull redfish with cut baits and we parted ways.

When I got home and started filleting the fish, it measured 23 inches long.  Not a real "gator trout" but fun to catch and good eating.

Till next time when I hope to be feeling better, Tight Lines.

March Winds For Sea Trout

The March winds were blowing this afternoon making for some tough casting,  but March winds for sea trout can make for some of the best fishing of the year.

I didn't get out this afternoon until 5:30 pm and that was a spur of the moment thing.

I packed several spinning rods and decided to bring along the unused shrimp I unsuccessfully fished with yesterday, just in case I spotted some tailing reds or black drum.

I was fishing Peacocks Pocket Road primarily on the marsh side.  The Indian River side of the road was too windy for me to bother with.

The air temperature was 78 degrees when I left the house and there was a steady wind blowing out of the south making for some great wind surfing.  I picked up on this as soon as I hit the top of the bridge and saw all the multicolored para-sails.

There were tons of people taking advantage of the March winds on their boards and a few more trying their luck on the leeward side of the causeway.

 

I started fishing with a Berkley paddle tail swimbait smeared up with some Pro-Cure scent.

The wind made it hard to detect a bite and I missed at least a half dozen fish before I finally landed a nice fat 16" sea trout. 

I was going to take the fish home for dinner but I decided to release it instead.

The stretch of the canal that I had been fishing provided me with three more sea trout of the same general size before the bite slowed down and I decided to move on up the road.

I had hits at almost every stop I made, but the wind made it tough to get hook ups. 

I lost three more fish before I picked up the last sea trout of the day.  The fish was just under size, so I released it along with the other fish I caught this afternoon.

There were tons of waterfowl in the refuge this evening along with a lot of visitors watching them.

I saw only two other guys fishing with finger mullet on the river side this afternoon, but I didn't bother asking them if they had any luck.  They were busy cutting up a mullet for bait when I passed them.

As I got close to Bobcat Bay, I tossed the swimbait out on the river side to a swirl I happened to see and promptly got a hookup with a small snook. 

The little snook jumped twice before tossing the bait back to me.

Although I stopped at a couple more spots on the way out of the refuge, the small snook was the last fish of the day.

I flipped out the fresh dead shrimp at two small pond areas today, but never got a hit on them. 

Today plastic baits were the ticket.

As I headed back to the house, I took several pics of the waterfowl.

This guy eyeballed me to death, so I had to get his pic.

Fishing the March winds for sea trout can be productive but you almost need a sixth sense to detect a strike when fishing with artificial baits. 

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Black Drum In The Refuge

This evening the black drum in the refuge were biting, at least they were for Brendon.

When I got home from a long week in Mobile, Al. this evening, I was tired as hell but not tired enough to see if Peacocks Pocket road was opened up for vehicle traffic.

My wife Karen wanted to weed around our Koi pond so I packed up three spinning rids and headed for Gator Creek road.

The air temperature was at 70 degrees and the wind was blowing just enough to make the fishing worthwhile.

When I saw that the barrier to Peacocks Pocket Road was down, I headed up the road to "fish the ditches" for some sea trout.

I picked the rod with a Berkey "Bluegill" patterned Powerbait,  smeared it up with some "Sardine" Pro-Cure gel and started pitching the paddletail bait around some stick ups in the marsh canal.

I had three good hits before I finally managed to hook and release a fat 16" sea trout.

The fish didn't put up much of a fight but it was a fish.

I continued pitching the paddletail bait around the ditch when Brendon pulled up in his black Cadillac and asked me how I was doing.

He told me he hooked a nice redfish on shrimp and lost it at the bank when the hook fell out, and that he picked up a nice 27" black drum that he kept and put into the cooler for dinner.

He caught the fish in an area near Catfish Creek Loop that I passed by on the way in and he suggested I turn around and hit the area.

He offered me some shrimp to use for bait but I didn't plan on spending a lot of time waiting for a fish to bite.

I just spent 6 hours driving in from Mobile and I needed to walk around a bit.

I took a picture of his fish "dinner" and we parted ways "until next time".

I missed one more sea trout and had a couple of bumps on the Berkley Powerbait before I decided to take Brendon up on his suggestion and try for a redfish.

I pulled up to the spot where he caught his fish and started casting the Berkley paddle tail bait and a gold Nemiere Red Ripper spoon around the area.

After several dozen casts with each bait without a hit,  I was ready to pack it in and get something to eat for dinner.

About that time,  a lady drove up with a couple of rods in her car and set up next to me.  She was using shrimp for bait and told me about the "guy" (Brendon) who had caught a nice black drum earlier. 

We briefly talked about how many big fish there were in this general area before I finally decided to give up and hit the road.

I left via East Gator Creek road and on the way out of the refuge saw a small school of either black drum or reds tailing in the weedy shallows.

My back was killing me from the long drive so I did something I rarely do, I passed on fishing the school.

Tomorrow is another day.  Till then, Tight Lines.

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Sport Shrimping Report

February marks the official start of the shrimping season in east central Florida and is the month when the cold fronts are supposed to officially come to an end.

Historically Brevard county shrimping is supposed to turn magical during February and March but so far, February shrimping in Brevard was pretty much a bust, South winds and all, and although March is picking up quite a bit, it is still not up to everyone's expectations.

All the regulars I spoke with said that shrimping is going to improve during March and so far, Oak Hill sport shrimpers have been enjoying their normal harvests of one quart to three gallons or more of shrimp per outing.

During February, Oak Hill shrimp were averaging 4 to 5 inches in length with most over 4.5 inches.

This is the normal size for shrimp around the Oak Hill area.

When a few sport shrimpers reported 5 gallon limits in Central Florida during November and December, "shrimp fever" was on the rampage.

But when the cold fronts forced the water temperatures to quickly drop, the shrimp quickly buried up in the bottom and the catches dwindled.

Many old timers believe that all the dead grass in the Indian River is the reason why the shrimp migrations in recent years have been dwindling.

However, when the shrimp reach abouut a 1/2" in size, they bury up in the bottom so the dead grass really should have no adverse affect on the migrations of giant Brevard shrimp that the Indian River is noted for.

During the earliest development stage of shrimp growth, the eggs cling to the sea grass - not to the shrimp.

The eggs are naturally sticky and will adhere to dead sea grass just as well as the live grasses.

The mullet that eat the sea grass and algae are probably the main threat to shrimp eggs.

Lately sport shrimpers have been reporting catches of Mantis Shrimp in Oak Hill.

You can eat mantis shrimp if you don't mind handling them but they can really mess up your fingers if you're not careful.

This Smithsonian video shows what a mantis shrimp can do to a crab or your fingers.

)
If you're sport shrimping in the Oak Hill area, instead of going to the more popular areas, try working the narrower parts of the ICW.

Unless you are using a floating wide mouth net in the current behind your boat, the wider parts of the river reduce opportunities for netting multiple shrimp in your field of vision with a hoop net.

When the run picks up later on this month, you can net shrimp almost anywhere you want with just as much success.

If you're shrimping in Haulover Canal, drop back from the bridge and set up along the rip lines where the slower water converges with faster moving water.

The faster moving water closer to the bridge is usually too turbulent for shrimping with a hoop net.

When Brevard and Volusia County winds blow in from the South and
West, it's a good time to break out the shrimp nets and head for the river.

But when there is a dead east or west wind blowing, the currents around Oak Hill
are affected and the shrimping slows down considerably.

Since Peacocks Pocket road was closed again this past weekend (probably because of the controlled burn in the refuge) I may be spending my lazy Sunday nights sport shrimping over the lights on the piers.

Till next time, Tight Lines

Fishing The Cold Fronts

Fishing the cold fronts has always been productive for me in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge when you time it right.

Usually the bite is hot just as the cold front starts moving into the area and this evening was not exception.

I didn't get home from work until quite late this evening but I still decided to hit Peacocks Pocket Road to see if anyone was catching fish.

I loaded up three spinning rods and headed to the refuge.

It was almost 5:00 pm when I drove up to the intersection of Catfish Creek Loop and Peacocks Pocket Road.  The air temperature was 60 degrees and there was a brisk wind blowing out of the Northeast.

Some idiots tied a couple of "road closed" signs to the entrance of the road but since the barrier was down I decided to give it a try anyway.

The first stretch of water looked fishy as I slowly drove down the road so I stopped and started casting a Bagley paddletail soft bait smeared with Pro-Cure.

I had a couple of taps when I spied a pair of redfish cruising down the opposite bank of the marsh canal.

I lobbed the paddle tail swimbait in front of the fish and let it set.  As the lead fish moved closer to the bait, I gave it a twitch and immediately got a hit.

I didn't need to set the hook and when the fish realized it was hooked, it made a long run towards Catfish Creek road.

The fish ran was about thirty yards down the opposite bank of the canal before I started getting line back.  Luckily, the fish didn't head towards the stickups that lined the near bank.

As I pumped the redfish closer, I could finally see that it was over thirty inches long.   As I admired the fish, it changed directions and made another long run.

The rod I was using was loaded with 8# Red Cajun line and a 15# fluorocarbon leader so I couldn't horse the fish in. 

I played it as best I could and babied it around the brush, but after three more runs it finally managed to wrap itself around some heavy brush as I was getting it closer to the bank.

I left the rod with the bail open and got the camera out of the truck to take some pics if the fish unraveled itself but unfortunately, it was not to be.

I took some pics of the fish in the brush before deciding to pull in the brush that the red was tangled up in.

As I shinnied down the bank and got out on the tree, it gave way and I got a wet foot for my efforts.

I finally decided to break the line as close to the fish as possible.

As the line parted, the redfish felt the slack and slowly swam away none the worse for wear.

The fish hit at 5:05 pm and it was 5:45 pm when I crawled up the bank.

The wind was blowing, my feet were soaking wet and I didn't feel like fishing anymore this evening.

Fishing the cold fronts is productive but this evening, it was getting too cold for me to continue.

As I started the truck, the air temperature was 58 degrees but it felt colder.

Maybe tomorrow things will get better.

Tight Lines.

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March Sea Trout Fishing

March sea trout fishing starts warming up as the waters warm up.

This afternoon was an example of when not to bother fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Late this afternoon the wind was brisk, the air temperatures were in the high 60s to low 70s, and there was a ton of vehicle traffic out in the refuge.

My wife and I hit Peacocks Pocket to take Odie and Elmo (our two wonder dogs) out for some fresh air.

When we entered East Gator Creek road, I knew we weren't going to catch many fish. 

Six vehicles passed us before we got to the intersection of Gator Creek road, and before we passed the second entrance to Catfish Creek Loop road, five more vehicles from various states passed us.

From past experience I knew that when this amount of vehicle traffic is in the refuge, you can almost count on getting skunked.

The vibrations from the vehicles tend to put down the fish and unless you offer them with a perfect bait directly in front of their noses, they usually do not go out of their way to eat.

My wife fished with shrimp at several locations and I tossed a gold Neimeire Red Ripper spoon, two types of soft plastic paddle tail baits and a topwater Zara Spook Jr. as a last resort, with no success.

It's not too often that I make a trip through the refuge without a strike, but this afternoon was one of them.

All we got for this afternoon's efforts were some pics of the waterfowl.

 

While we were in the refuge we saw only two other people actually fishing with baits and they weren't catching anything either.

I'm not sure if the cold front coming in helped put down the bite, but it was definitely off today.

Hopefully things will change as the barometer makes some movement and the waters begin to warm up.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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