Indian River Sea Trout

Indian River Sea Trout are on the prowl this month and some really big "gators" can be had if you fish early and late.

As usual, I got home from work late this evening, so I immediately loaded up three rods and headed for the nearest water to wet a line.

Coming home from Georgia today was a mess.  It was raining on and off all the way and as I pulled the truck into Catfish Creek Loop; it was still raining.

I stopped at the third set of culverts and started tossing a gold Johnson Sprite to see if anything was interested.  Sure enough, after only four or five casts, a nice slot sea trout hit the spoon almost at the mouth of the culvert.

As I unhooked the fish and put it back into the water I was pumped and was hoping for some good fishing before it got dark.

A dozen casts later without a hit made me revise my expectations, so I moved up to see if Peacocks Pocket road was open yet.

The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is expected to be totally open on April 1st, which means Peacocks Pocket road should be decent for bank fishing.

Anyway, as I  I drove past the barrier I decided to fish the Indian River side to see if I could wake up a gator sea trout.

The wind was blowing in from the southwest and it was still raining pretty hard.  The air temperature dropped down to 63 degrees and I didn't see any fishermen in the area.

I pulled out the rod with the Johnsons Sprite and started fan casting the area near a culvert.

After a few casts I had a miss right at the bank from a small sea trout and a couple of casts later I landed another undersize fish which I promptly released.

The Indian River Sea Trout were hitting but they were small.fish.

I switch to a top water Chug Bug and after a couple of dozen casts in several areas decided that the fish were not interested in top water baits this evening.

I moved on to fish the next area in a cove and started fan casting a ZMann paddle tail bait on a chartreuse jig head.  

Several casts later I picked up another undersize sea trout that inhaled the bait.  I took a quick pic, released the fish and moved up to another spot just as it was getting dark.

The rain was still coming down so I decided to switch back to the gold spoon before heading home,.

After several casts I picked up this Rat Red just off a point in shallow water.  The fish put up a surprisingly decent fight for it's size so I took a pic and released it into the marsh side to grow up in relative peace.

I missed one other redfish that had some size to it but the hooks didn't stick.

Finally, I had enough fishing for one evening.  I packed up the rods and started to head out of the refuge.

I saw only one other fisherman in the area who was sitting in his pickup truck with four rods out.  He didn't seem to be catching anything and I didn't want to disturb his serenity, so I didn't ask.

It seemed like a perfect time to get a Little Ceasers Pizza, which is exactly what I did.

Till next time, Tight Lines.