Gold Spoon For Big Sea Trout

I've always known that using gold spoons for big Sea Trout was just the ticket for early spring fishing and this afternoon's catch proved the point.

I spent three hours at Parrish Medical Center getting tests and paperwork in order for a minor operation I have to undergo next Friday, so when I finally got out of there I decided to grab some rods and spend an hour or two scouting out Peacocks Pocket for redfish.

It was raining when I left the house and the thunderstorms continued all the time I was out in the Wildlife Refuge.

Because I was in a hurry, I only brought along three spinning rods and a couple of small boxes of lures.

As I entered Peacocks Pocket road via East Gator Creek Road, it started coming down in buckets but I quickly put on my Frog Togs hoodie and started "jump fishing" the marsh canal and small ponds on the marsh side of the road.

For a Friday afternoon I expected to see a lot of fishermen in the area but all the time I was out there I only saw two other guys bank fishing.

The first leg of the scouting trip was unproductive.  I spotted several swirls and had a redfish follow up a 5" Strike King soft bait right up to the bank but it veered off when it spotted me.  I made several more casts to the area with the bait but it had moved on.

In two other areas of the marsh canal, I saw baitfish being chased but nothing was taking my baits.

I started fishing a Chug Bug in several areas and switched out to a sea trout colored SkitterWalk but the topwater baits kept getting fouled up with moss and algae from the shallow waters.

The water levels in the marsh are way down right now.  The areas that were productive last month are high and dry, so I was actually grateful for today's thunderstorms.

I spooked a nice redfish in a small pond with the SkitterWalk and decided to switch to a gold  Johnson Sprite spoon.  This is one of my "go to" lures for big sea trout and reds in tannin stained water.

I didn't spot many fish but when I stopped to fish a deep hole where I caught sea trout in the past, I spotted a good fish busting finger mullet at the opposite bank.

I shot a cast across the marsh canal which landed in the grass and yanked it into the water.  It went about two feet before it was nailed by this 26" sea trout.

The fish put up a nice fight and I almost lost it in the brush along the road but I took its pic and released it to get bigger for next time.

I was hoping for a redfish so I continued casting the gold spoon into every likely looking spot I felt was holding fish.

Finally I decided to head for home.  The rain started up again and although the top part of my body was dry, my shorts and feet were soaked and clammy.

As I was getting close to the Peacocks Pocket kayak launch, I spotted what I thought was a redfish busting on some finger mullet just into a marsh pond.  I grabbed the rod with the spoon and even though the water was shallow and weedy, shot a cast ahead of the fish.

I started reeling the lure before it even hit the water and made it skitter across the surface.  Evidently this is what the fish wanted because it nailed the spoon like it was a topwater bait.

A short fight later, I pulled this nice 27 " sea trout up the bank, took it's pic, and quickly released the fish.

I thought about taking the trout home for dinner but decided to let it grow into one of the ten pounders that inhabit the area this time of the year.

As I left the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge I was wondering how many storms it would take for the marsh to fill back up.  I love topwater fishing but its next to impossible with all the weeds and moss in the shallows right now.

Till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

Friday Evening Topwater Fishing

Friday evening topwater fishing in the wildlife refuge was the game plan, but the windy conditions made decent presentations almost impossible.

I didn't get into the refuge this evening until about 7:00 pm and the conditions were less than perfect.

The wind was blowing in from the SW and the temperatures were in the low 80s.  This made most of the areas along Peacocks Pocket Road really tough to fish a top water bait.

Despite the wind, I managed to stir up three sea trout in the 18" to 20" category, all of which were released.

The one in the short video clip above and one other sea trout about the same size was caught on a Baby Bass colored Chug Bug.

The other fish was caught on a Silver and Black Chug Bug.

Towards dusk I stopped to fish a small pond where several huge redfish were busting baitfish,  but a gator of about 9 feet kept following the plug every time I made a cast.

After four or five casts, I finally decided to call it a night and let the danm gator have his spot.

I'm sure I could have caught a redfish if I continued casting into the area, but I wouldn't bet on being able to land a large fish in the dark with an aggressive gator in the area.

After taking a couple of pics of the sunset, I decided to head home and eat dinner.

Peacocks Pocket Road was not overly crowded this evening although most of the spots on the Indian River side were taken by live bait fishermen dunking finger mullet and crab.

Hopefully, the fishing this weekend will be better than our last couple of outings.

I guess that's why they don't call it catching.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Easter Weekend Fishing In the Refuge

Easter weekend fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was pretty dismal.

Friday's scouting trip set me up for some potentially great fishing possibilities, so when Karen asked about taking the "boys" (Elmo and Odie) to the "swamp" for a fishing trip, I readily agreed.

We stopped by the bait shop and picked up a dozen finger mullet and headed to Peacocks Pocket Road to try a few spots.

We decided to fish two small ponds where I spotted some oversize redfish yesterday, so I bypassed several likely looking spots in favor of one area.

When we got to the area I set up four rods along the bank all rigged with sliding sinker rigs and live finger mullet.

The ponds we fished were relatively shallow but the redfish were there.  They were busting on baitfish but they were out of casting range.

I started tossing a Chug Bug around until a 9 foot gator got interested in it and started following the bait.

Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, I lured the gator down the marsh canal out of range of our beloved canines.

Although I am not usually a bait fishermen, I decided to give it a shot this afternoon.  We waited till almost dusk for a bite that never materialized on any of our rods.

It was the most frustrating afternoon fishing that I've had in a long while.  Big redfish and a couple of huge sea trout were hitting baits all over the place but they would not come in to hit our baits.

When the mosquitoes started to do their thing, both Karen and myself were ready to call it a day.

We fished Saturday afternoon for three hours and never had a bite.  Totally skunked!

I let the finger mullet that were still alive out to fend for themselves and took a few pics of the area and sunset before heading home.

Despite the fact that we didn't catch anything, we still had a good time in the refuge; especially Elmo and Odie.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Peacocks Pocket Road Is Finally Open

Peacocks Pocket Road Is Finally Open again but Easter weekend fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was pretty unproductive compared to some of my other outings.

When I got home from work Friday evening, I loaded a couple of rods into the back of the truck and headed for Peacocks Pocket Road which was supposed to be open on April 1st.

As I drove into the area, I was greeted by Ron a fellow angler who catches redfish on a regular basis.

He had his canoe on the back of his pickup truck and was fishing with live finger mullet from the bank.  He told me that Peacocks Pocket was opened two days ago and that the fishing was not that great for this time of the year.

He hadn't caught anything so I left him watching his poles and wished him good luck.

To make a short story shorter, I drove around the road to scout out the areas I normally catch fish in and tossed a few lures around with little success.

I had a couple of followups with a top water Chug Bug and one small sea trout on a gold Johnson's Sprite, but no redfish.

The wind was blowing enough to make casting a pain and the water levels in the marsh area were extremely low.

I spotted several huge sea trout and at least half a dozen oversize redfish mostly in the small ponds.

The biggest problem I encountered was the gators.

I counted 26 gators from the entrance of the barrier at Peacocks Pocket Road to the small boat launch at the Pocket.

Almost every time I cast the Chug Bug, a gator showed enough interest to follow the bait.  It was impossible to use a top water plug, and that was what the fish were hitting.

The "powers that be" did a good job fixing the potholes and divots in Peacocks Pocket Road.  Unfortunately, the vehicle traffic demonstrated how good a job they actually did.

There were a lot of vehicles traveling the road during the hour I was "scouting" on Friday but almost everyone was looking at the spoonbills, pelicans and gators in the shallow marsh.

All except one of the fishermen that I spoke with had no luck on Friday, but everyone was having a good time.

I plan to take Karen, Elmo and Odie fishing tomorrow.

Till then, Tight Lines.