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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