A Windy Rainy 4th Of July

Well it was a windy rainy 4th of July but I still managed to wet a line in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge before the fireworks started.

It had just stopped raining when I left the house and the air temperature was still 85 degrees.

The plan for this afternoon was mainly to pick up some ladyfish for redfish bait, but I was also hoping to catch a sea trout or two.

I entered the refuge through East Gator Creek Road and stopped at the culverts when I spotted some nice wakes in the shallow flats.

The water was somewhat choppy but in the area I started fishing, it was relatively calm so I started tossing a Johnson's Sprite gold spoon to see if anything was in the area.

Several casts produced a brief hookup with a  ladyfish that promptly shook off the spoon so I changed rods and started fishing a silver and black backed Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

It was hard to fish the topwater bait in the wind but after a couple of followups, a nice ladyfish finally smacked the plug and firmly hooked itself.  After making several nice jumps, the fish reluctantly gave up the fight.

It was hooked by both sets of trebles and wasn't going anywhere.

I put the fish in a plastic bag and continued "chugging" the bait in the shallows.

Three more ladyfish were briefly hooked but got off after jumping around the shallow water flat.

Finally the fourth ladyfish that hit the Chug Bug got double hooked firmly enough for me to land it and put it on ice.

I moved up to Peacocks Pocket road where another ladyfish nailed the plug and wound up with the other two victims.

The wind started to pick up and the weather started to really get bad so I drove slowly up Peacocks Pocket road looking for signs of fish.

An oriental gentleman who I spoke with last week stopped and asked me if I had any luck today.  I told him about the ladyfish and asked if he was catching or just fishing.

He said the fishing today was terrible.  He told me that he fished the better part of the day and never got a fish but that he caught a couple of reds yesterday.

After we parted ways, I moved up the road to check out some of my favorite deep water spots that I hoped would hold some fish this afternoon.

The wind made the first hole too difficult to fish, so after a few misplaced casts I moved up to my second deep water location.

 It took two casts before I hooked up with a nice slot size sea trout that almost got off at the bank.

The grass in the refuge hasn't been cut in some time and it's tough landing anything you hook up with and are fortunate enough to land.

I almost took a swim on the slick rain soaked grass trying to land and release the trout, but I did manage to stay out of the water.

I moved up to my next deep water hole where I hooked up with an oversize sea trout.  The fish followed the Chug Bug out of the deeper water and nailed the plug almost on the bank .

This fish had some weight to it and took drag for a few seconds before changing direction and heading directly to the bank.   The fish wound the line around an underwater stickup and eventually broke loose, taking my favorite Chug Bug along with it.

I didn't have another Chug Bug with me of the same pattern, so I tied on a black and gold pattern that I normally use for redfish.

The wind started to abate, but so did the topwater bite, so when Karen called to see how I was doing, I told her I was heading for home.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted this huge gator at the first set of culverts just past the Peacocks Pocket kayak launch.

 

I hope the two guys who were wading this ditch a couple weeks ago take notice of the size of this gator.  It could do some serious damage to a wading fisherman.

The marsh side of Peacocks Pocket road is not a place to wade fish.

In any event, hope you all have a safe Independence Day this 4th of July.

Till next time, Tight Lines.