Topwater Fishing In The Salt Marsh

Got home from work late this afternoon and headed for the wildlife refuge to get in some late topwater fishing in the salt marsh for sea trout.

Although my wife thinks the area is "fished out", I still catch a lot of decent size trout and reds from the ponds and shallows of the Indian River.

Peacocks Pocket road was almost free of vehicle traffic when I got there and except for two other cars, I was the only person fishing the refuge.

The air temperature was in the low 80s and there was little to no wind blowing to cool things off.

Since time was a factor, I headed for a couple of ponds that I like to fish instead of fan casting the "ditches" like I usually do.

I started fishing a frog pattern Chug Bug at the first stop and promptly hooked and released three
nice sized ladyfish.

I love catching these "miniature Tarpon" on light tackle and topwater baits. 

They usually smash the hell out of the lures and then jump all over the place before giving up the fight.  

Like their bigger Tarpon cousins, you miss more than you catch.

Anyway, after the third ladyfish I was about to move on when I a nice fat 23" sea trout nailed the Chug Bug.

After a brief fight I hauled the fish up the bank and took this quick pic before releasing it.

I moved up the road and made a couple of casts to a redfish I spotted swimming up the marsh canal but the fish apparently had jockjaw.

My next spot was at a larger pond where several nice fish were hitting bait on the surface.

I spotted a couple of nice redfish and several sea trout in this spot so I started pitching the Chug Bug around the bait pods to see if I could stir up some action.

I was about to give it up and move on to another spot when I hooked up with another sea trout

about the same size as the one I caught earlier.

The fish put up a nice fight and almost broke off in the brush but I finally landed it, took it's pic and released it to grow up into a "gator".

Unfortunately that was to be the last fish of the evening.  It was getting dark and the bugs were getting nasty so I decided to head for home.

As I got into my truck the oriental gentleman I saw last week drove up and asked me about the fishing.

He said he was on vacation, fished all day and only caught one oversize redfish on a plastic jerk bait which he had to put back.

I told him what I caught and we parted ways.

Karen and I plan on driving down to Pompano Beach tomorrow to pick up some Koi food for our fish so I probably won't get out until Sunday, if then.

Till next time,  Tight Lines.