Sea Trout In The Marsh Canals

The sea trout in the marsh canals of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge have been on fire this month and this afternoon was no exception.

My wife and I took Elmo and Odie along on our afternoon fishing trip for a "doggie" outing in the refuge.

I packed several spinning rods, some frozen ladyfish for bait and headed to see if I could catch one or two more ladyfish for fresh cut bait.

A nosy gator kept following my Chug Bug at the place where I normally catch ladyfish and since it was late in the afternoon and we had the dogs along, we decided to head to a spot where we could plop down and dunk some cut baits.

We stopped to fish two ponds.  The first was relatively uneventful.  Karen missed a redfish on a ladyfish steak and I missed at least five sea trout on the Chug Bug I was fishing.  The fish were skittish but had no problems following the bait.

I had a redfish swirl lat the Chug Bug around a grassy island but it would not take the lure.

After a wrecker passes us on the narrow dirt road, we decided to pick up our gear and move to another spot.

The water this afternoon was flat in most places and had onlyu a slight ripple in other areas.  The second pond we stopped to fish was mostly flat and the marsh canal was like glass.

Karen put out a cut bait and I pitched one out along with hers.  I set the Okuma bait runner and started casting the topwater bait to likely looking areas in the canal. 

I had a couple of followups but the trout would not eat my bait for some reason. 

As I fished along the canal, a large school of black drum or redfish came down the marsh canal pushing a ton of water along with them.  As they got close to where we were fishing they abruptly turned around and went the other direction. 

We apparently spooked the fish  but I don't know how.  Anyway, a short time later Karen said she had a fish on her rod.

She was using a 7/0 VMC circle hook on the large ladyfish steak and let the fish run until she thought it had swallowed the bait.

After a decent fight, she brought the fish to the bank where I landed it for her.  It was a nice male sea trout, not a redfish.

I took some pics of the fish and planned to release it but the fish had damage to it's gills, so I popped it in the ice chest for dinner.

It was getting dark and the dogs were creating a ruckus so we decided to head home for dinner.

When I got to the house and finished rinsing off the rods, I filleted the sea trout and had it for dinner.

Few fish taste as good as freshly caught sea trout and you can't get it any fresher than we did today.

Till next time, Tight Lines.