Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River Fishing: Labor Day Scouting Trip

Monday, September 1, 2014

This afternoon's fishing excursion was actually a Labor Day scouting trip.

Karen and I didn't have anything planned today and since she wanted to spend some time with her horse, I decided to pack up some rods and head out to see what was happening in our area.

When I finally decided to leave the house, it was around 5:30 pm and the air temperature was 93 degrees. The weather was perfect for sunbathing or laying around the pool but not very conducive to fishing.

I decided to head over to Playalinda Beach to see if anybody was doing any good surf fishing. I expected the parking lots to be crowded and most of them were, but compared to other area beaches, Playalinda was not as packed as I expected.

Unfortunately because the tide was out, not many people were actually surf fishing and the ones that were did not seem to be catching much.

I stopped at four parking lots and took some pics at each of them before driving through Eddy Creek.

Other than a couple of kayakers out in the Mosquito Lagoon, no one was fishing from the pier or wade fishing the area.

I again took some pics and decided to make a quick run down Bio Lab Road.

Bio Lab Road can be accessed from the beach road, so I took a right and drove parallel to the abundant grass flats adjacent to the Whale Tail.

I was really surprised to see that nobody was fishing the grass flats. Unbelieveably, I did not see one single flats boat in the Mosquito Lagoon this afternoon.

As I drove down Bio Lab road, I stopped several times to toss a Chug Bug and a ZMann paddle tail bait into some areas I hoped held Snook. Since today was opening day, I was hoping for a Snook.

Unfortunately, I caught a lot of Ladyfish (which were a blast) but no Snook.

The shorline of the Mosquito Lagoon along Bio Lab road was packed with grass in most areas which
made wading out a real pain.

I tossed the topwater Chug Bug around in a couple of areas and picked up a couple of trout, but I never saw a redfish or a Snook.

Since I was in the vicinity, I decided to drive past Haulover Canal and check out the Patillo Creek area.

As I crossed the Haulover Bridge I slowed down and took a couple of quick pics of the canal and again was surprised that no boats were anchored at the eastern mouth of the canal entrance.

Usually the deep hole is covered up with black drum fishermen dunking live blue crab.

I entered Patillo Creek road and drove around the area and saw only one fisherman in a kayak at the turnaround.

I stopped to cast the Chug Bug, a paddle tail bait and a gold spoon but except for another small Ladyfish on the Chug Bug, had no takers on any of the other baits.

It was getting late so I decided to take a quick run around Peacocks Pocket Road from the eastern entrance. The water on the river and in the marsh area was virtually flat, and very little wind was blowing.

I stopped at several spots to cast lures into likely looking areas and landed three sea trout on the Chug Bug, all about the size as the one below.

All the time I was traveling through Peacocks Pocket road, I never saw a redfish. Since it was late in the afternoon, I suspect it was because of Labor Day traffic earlier in the day, assuming there was any.

Anyway, when my wife called I was more than ready to call it a day.

Before I left the area I took some more pics of the sun going down.