Another Windy Evening In The Refuge

I knew it was going to be another windy evening in the refuge when I got home from work, but I decided to wet a line anyway.

It's bike week in Daytona and the traffic on I-95 was as expected.  Bikes everywhere.

It was late when I rolled in so I unpacked the truck and loaded up four spinning rods with a couple of top water baits, a paddletail bait, and a gold Johnson Sprite spoon.

When I crossed the causeway bridge over the Indian River, I knew fishing would be tough.  There was a "parking lot" on the north side of the road loaded with spectators watching the kite boarders.

The wind today was blowing out of the southwest and everybody except the fishermen was having a blast.

Anyway, I drove into East Gator Creek Road and tried fishing some of the sheltered areas close to the bank with no success.  I had a couple of follow ups, but no hits.

As I was driving towards the barrier at Peacocks Pocket road, I was going to stop and talk to a guy who was pulling out his flat bottomed boat, but when I saw that he hadn't caught anything, I left him and his son and headed for the spot where I picked up a nice redfish last week.

When I got there, the wind was blowing strong enough to make fishing more of an effort than fun.  I started fan casting the gold Johnson Sprite but after fifteen minutes with no hits, I moved on up the road.

I continued fishing several spots using the different rods I brought along and finally caught an under size sea trout that I didn't bother taking a picture of.

There were a couple of guys wading Gator Creek tossing hardware around, but as I watched them fish, they didn't seem to be having any luck.

I passed on of my "buddies" who was knee deep in the river watching the four poles he had staked out in rod holders.   When I yelled to him if he had any luck, he said he had been fishing for an hour or so and didn't have a bite.

He was fishing cut baits and is a regular at this particular spot.  A couple of  weeks ago, he caught a 33" red, a couple of slot reds and a big sea trout at the same location on cut baits, but today was a skunk.

It was getting late and I didn't feel like fighting the wind anymore so I decided to pack it in.

As I was leaving the refuge, the wind died down in a sheltered cove where I caught this stupid needlefish on a top water Chug Bug.

The little needlefish had the heart of a gator trout so instead of chopping it up and using it for bait, I released it and continued on my way out of the refuge.

On the way out, I talked to three more fishermen who were fishing with cut bait, live mullet, and shrimp.  None of them where having any luck fishing this evening but everybody seemed to be enjoying the beautiful weather.

Since today is Friday the 13th, I'll chalk up the lousy fishing to the day.

Maybe tomorrow evening the wind will let up and the fishing will be better.

Till next time, tight lines.