Mediocre Fishing Weekend

Although it was a mediocre fishing weekend, my wife and I still enjoyed getting out on the water to do some fishing.

When I got home from work Friday evening, I loaded up my rods and decided to drive to Peacocks Pocket road to see if it was open.   It had been closed for repairs for the past couple of weeks and when I saw that the barriers were down, I headed in to fish the ponds.

The road crews did a great job.  The potholes and numerous bumps in the unimproved road were filled and both entrances to Peacocks Pocket Road are now almost a joy to drive.

Friday evening proved to be a bust.  I fished Chug Bugs exclusively and missed at least seven sea trout and a slot red in an hour and a half of fishing the open culverts.  The biggest propblem Friday was the gators that kept following my baits at almost every stop.

The fish were following the Chug Bugs and short striking for some reason.  One redfish grabbed the Chug Bug sideways in it's mouth and swam by me in the marsh canal.  I was sure that the fish was hooked but it just dropped the bait when I put it to the fish and tried to set the hooks.

I did manage to catch two 24" ladyfish for bait on topwater lures, but I could not hook a sea trout or a redfish to save my life on Friday.

Saturday afternoon Karen and I decided to take Elmo and Odie to the "swamp" for an outing. 

As usual, they enjoyed hanging their heads out of the truck during the ride to and from Peacocks Pocket road.  The rest of the time, Odie was a pain and Elmo just sat in the truck waiting for us to get done fishing.

Karen and I both fished with cut ladyfish at a couple of spots, while I tossed a Chug Bug around the marsh canals.

I missed several fish before finally hooking up with this slot redfish on a Chug Bug.  The fish nailed the lure coming off a bank at the entrance of a small pond.

I released the fish and a few minutes later hooked up with another smaller version. 

The "rat" red followed the Chug Bug to the bank and nailed it as I was pulling it out of the water.

Karen took this pic before I released the fish.  Please excuse the outfit.

We both missed a couple of redfish each on the cut baits but didn't land any fish.

The mosquitoes and "noseeums" finally forced us out of the refuge.

Sunday afternoon we decided to leave the dogs at home and headed to the same area where we kept missing redfish the day before.

On the way I made a brief stop at East Gator Creek Road to see if I could pick up a fresh ladyfish for bait.  The culverts were flowing and fish were hitting bait but I couldn't get a ladyfish to hit the bait.

I did get a hit from this shortnose garfish that I landed and released before heading to Peacocks Pocket Road.

I made a couple of quick stops to pitch topwater baits into likely looking spots and missed a gator sea
trout of at least 30" in the marsh canal at the entrance to a small pond. 

The fish hit this XPS topwater bait that I picked up at Bass Pro in Savannah last week but I couldn't hook the fish.

The XPS bait is great for "walking the dog" and apparently looks like a real finger mullet to the fish.

Karen and I fished a large pond and finally moved to a smaller pond where we fished until it got dark.

We both missed a couple of redfish each on the cut ladyfish, but all we landed on Sunday afternoon was this large hard head catfish.

The fish were not hitting topwater baits at all.  The were following the lures but either short striking or veering off at the last minute.

The air temperature this evening was in the mid to low 70s and the breeze that was blowing all afternoon was still present as the sun was setting over the Indian River.

Fishing artificial baits was challenging this afternoon.  The breeze made good presentations difficult and the damn gators had a habit of following my topwater baits until I had to move.

The sunset as usual was awesome and although it was a mediocre fishing weekend, Karen and I had a great time fishing.

Till next time, Tight Lines.