Gators In The Ditches

The gators in the ditches this afternoon were gator sea trout, not the alligators you would expect to see in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

After mowing the lawn and doing some chores around the house, I decided to take a quick trip around the wildlife refuge to see if the bank fishermen were catching anything worth noting.

I packed up three spinning rods and headed towards Peacocks Pocket Road.

It was about 6:30 pm when I left the house and it had just finished raining.  The air temperature was in the high 80s and there was a slight breeze blowing over the river.

The usual memorial day crowd was out in force.  People were picnicking, fishing, boating and generally having a good time on both sides of the causeway.

I passed a couple of bird watchers and as I entered Peacocks Pocket road and as I slowly drove past Catfish Creek,  I didn't have any expectations of catching a memorable fish.   

The water was still low despite the off and on again rain we had during this past week.  The deepest part of the marsh area was the marsh canal and some of the larger ponds.

As I scouted the area I saw a bank fisherman on the Indian River side of the road with a couple of rods trying for redfish.  Just opposite him I spotted something busting baitfish in the canal so I pulled over and tied on a well used Chug Bug.  I smeared it up with some Pro-Cure scent and started fan casting down the marsh canal.

About ten yards past where the bank fisherman was doing his thing, I got a hit from a very large sea trout.  The fish tried twice to hit the lure before moving off down the canal.

I made several casts in the area and was about to give up when another large sea trout nailed the Chug Bug.

The fish was solidly hooked and as I played the fish away from numerous stickups along the bank, a guy in a red SUV stopped and called me a "show off"; I guess for catching the sea trout.

I shinnied down the bank, landed the fish and crawled back onto the road.  I showed the guy the trout as I walked to the truck for pliers to unhook the fish.  I took a couple of pics on my cell phone before putting the gator trout back into the canal, much to the dismay of my one man audience.

The sea trout (above) measured in at 27" and definitely made my day.

I continued fishing the ditches of the marsh canal and had another dozen or so hits from marauding sea trout on the Chug Bug.  The problem was that the fish were not getting hooked.

I had one sea trout hit knock the bait out of the water and hit it three more times before I got the bait back to the bank.   You would expect one of the treble hooks to land into some meat but the fish never got hooked.

I landed three more fish in the 20" slot category before calling it a day.

As I drove out of the refuge a small school of redfish swam up the marsh canal.  I tried casting several baits ahead of the fish but they were not in their feeding mode.

As it got dark, it was like someone turned off a switch.  The gators in the ditches suddenly stopped foraging on the mullet.  All the way out of the refuge I never saw another sea trout bust on baitfish.

I've got work to do tomorrow but hopefully Monday, I'll get a chance to wet another line.

Till next time, Tight Lines.