Topwater Sea Trout Fishing In The Marsh Canals

The topwater sea trout fishing was this afternoon was on fire close to dusk.

When soon as I got home from work this evening, I hastily loaded up a few rods and headed out to fish some marsh ponds in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Peacocks Pocket road seemed to be the place to be this evening.  Several vehicles passed me by as I was tossing top water baits to sea trout in the marsh canals and only two other people were actually fishing the banks.

I only had an hour to fish when I finally got home from Savannah this evening, but I made the best of it.  I managed to catch three sea trout and missed two more nice fish before it got too dark to fish.

The second fish of the day that I hooked took one of my favorite top water baits and broke off around some Mangrove roots. 

October is usually great for fishing.  As the weather starts to cool down, the fish start to get more active and the larger sea trout seem to get more interested in eating topwater baits.

I usually use Chug Bugs but this evening I took the wrong rod and wound up using the XPS topwater bait that was already tied on.

I entered East Gator Creek road and made a couple of casts around an open culvert but only managed to spook a fish that was close to the bank.  I didn't have time to waste so I drove up Peacocks Pocket Road and started pitching the XPS bait into likely looking spots.

The air temperature was down to 72 degrees and there was a slight wind over the water.  Perfect for topwater baits.

The first two spots were a waste of time but at the third spot I saw a swirl at the opposite bank and pitched the XPS bait towards the shore.

Almost immediately a nice sea trout nailed the plug and I horsed the fish to an open spot at the bank to land it.  The fish was nice and fat and looked to be about 24 inches.

After I released the fish I walked up the canal to where I spotted another swirl and pitched the bait across to the other bank.  Another fish smacked the plug but I didn't get a hookup.

Several more casts told me that the fish moved on, and so did I.  Besides, I was having problems with the gators chasing my bait.  The eight foot gator below was a good reason to move on.

I got back to the truck and drove to a small pond where I hooked another nice sea trout.  The fish was much larger than the first trout that I caught and I couldn't horse it in.   As I fought the trout it took drag and headed for some mangrove roots where it eventually broke off.

I wasn't too happy about losing the fish and my XPS topwater bait, but I went back to the truck, tied a trout pattern SkitterWalk on to a 20 pound fluorocarbon shock leader and continued fishing.

It was getting overcast and beginning to get dark when I moved to a small pond.  It was going to be the last stop of the evening for me.  The mosquitoes were eating me alive and it was getting chilly.

I tossed the SkitterWalk as far as I could into the marsh pond and "walked the dog" back to the bank.

On the third or fourth cast, another nice sea trout nailed the bait at a shallow drop off in the marsh canal only five or six feet from the bank.

This time the fish was so close I could horse it on to the bank, so that's exactly what I did.

It was dark but I still managed to take a picture (below) of the fat 27" trout before releasing it.

That fish was the last one of the evening.  The mosquitoes and gnats were unusually viscous this evening and I didn't feel like being a blood donor, so I got into the truck and headed home.

Hopefully after I get through working on my swimming pool tomorrow, I'll be able to give topwater sea trout fishing another shot.

Till then, Tight Lines.