Gator Sea Trout Are Hitting In the Indian River

The Gator Sea Trout are hitting in the Indian River flats.

After a couple of weeks of being ill, I finally got a chance to wet a line Saturday afternoon.

I wanted to hit the beach to sample the pompano and whiting fishing but the possibility of hooking up with a gator sea trout got the better of me, so I decided to fish the refuge instead.

I stopped at the local bait shop and picked up a half dozen live mullet and a dozen live shrimp, just in case.  The owner said the pompano and whiting were "on fire" along the beaches and that there were still some bluefish in the surf.

He said that the reds and sea trout in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge were also biting well in the ditches and along the river side of the road. 

This is the time of the year when the mullet invade the lagoon systems and with them come gator sea trout, snook and redfish. 

I started out fishing lures around Peacocks Pocket road with limited success.  I picked up a couple of dancing ladyfish on a gold hammered spoon and missed a redfish in the shallows that was a brief hookup.

The finger mullet are just starting to come into the river system and the ditches in the marsh. 

Fishing live mullet or top water plugs is the preferred tactic this time of the year but since I got out late this afternoon, I wasn't expecting much action.  I was just happy to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather in the refuge.

I stopped at one small pond where I often hook up with reds and pitched out a live finger mullet.  The mullet was hooked thru the lips and I pinched a "lake shot" about 18" above the snelled 5/0 Owner hook.

The mullet was in the water about 30 seconds before a redfish picket up the bait and started up the marsh canal.  I gave the fish a moment to run, set the hook and missed the fish. 

From the size of the wake, it looked like a nice fish but I never did get a good look at it.

Undaunted, I moved on up the road and hit another spot I like to fish.

I pitched a gold hammered redfish spoon several times into the shallow flats and hooked up with two ladyfish in that spot before moving on.

As I was putting the rod into the truck, a couple slowly passed me and asked if I had any luck.  He was eager to show me his sea trout in the back of the truck so I took a look.  I should have taken a pic for this post but I didn't think of it at the time, anyway,  he had what I would call a Gator Sea Trout of about 30" in a five gallon bucket.

The guy said he caught the fish near culverts at Peacocks Pocket on a live finger mullet.

As he drove off, I decided to change tactics and start fishing finger mullet and topwater plugs.

I tied on a chartreuse and black Zara Spook Jr. and started tossing the bait around after putting out a live finger mullet on the second rod.

The tactic didn't pan out.  At the next few spots I stopped at, the finger mullet got "mouthed" but never eaten.

It was either small sea trout or a redfish that wasn't very hungry, and that doesn't happen much.

Around 5:30 pm I started getting hits on the Zara Spook but the fish were hitting short.  I smeared Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater gel on the plug to keep the fish interested and hooked up with a couple of small under size sea tout and one huge sea trout that missed the plug three times before swimming away.

The fish blew the the plug out of the water as I was "walking" it off a shallow flat into deeper water.  I let the plug sit still for a millisecond before jerking it and the fish hit and missed again.  As I was retrieving the lure for another cast it hit and missed the third time.

I probably wasn't holding my mouth right, anyway that was the end of my fishing for the afternoon.

On my last stop, I put out three rods with cut finger mullet and fresh dead shrimp and parked my butt to watch the sunset.

A small school of black drum pushed a nice wake off of the flat I was fishing and one of them took a wack at the fresh dead shrimp, but again the fish didn't get hooked. 

I set the rod back out with another fresh dead shrimp and after a while dragged in a large blue crab which I released.

The sunset was beautiful as usual as I took these pics and headed for home.

Tomorrow is another day.

Tight Lines.