Redfish In The Marsh Canals

When I left the house this afternoon I was hell bent on catching redfish in the marsh canals.

The weather was in the 90s today so I didn't even think of going fishing until about 6:00 pm.

I picked out four spinning rods and headed out to fishing Peacocks Pocket in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The water levels in the marsh are super low right now.  This is good and bad.  It concentrates the fish in deeper areas of the marsh but the fish are extremely spooky and savvy to artificial baits.

I started off driving slowly down Peacocks Pocket Road watching the water for signs of fish.

It didn't take long for me to spot some feeding sea trout in the marsh canal so I pulled off to the side of the road and started pitching a Chug Bug that was liberally coated with Pro-Cure.

The first stop proved to be fruitless, but at the second stop when I worked the Chug Bug down the canal, I picked up a nice slot size sea trout which I promptly released.

The afternoon heat had dissipated and the air temperature was about 79 degrees.  A little breeze was blowing but not enough to screw up the casting.

I decided to fish an area where I normally catch some sea trout but as I continued casting the Chug Bug at the bank, I spotted a nice redfish cruising down the canal.

A well placed cast got me a bump on the bait but the fish didn't get hooked and continued up the canal.

I switched rods and decided on fishing a Johnsons Sprite that is my "go to" lure for big redfish.

I jumped into the truck and drove past where the fish was pushing it's wake and again pulled off the road.  This time I shot a cast across the opposite bank with the gold Johnsons Sprite and slowly jiggled the spoon back to me.  On the second cast with the gold spoon the redfish hit the lure almost gently.

It took a second before I realized the fish didn't spit out the bait and for the fish to realize it was hooked but it did, it took off down the marsh canal in second gear.

I fought the fish for about 15 minutes or more before it finally tired enough for me to try and land it.  At the last minute, it headed for some brush and got tangled in the branches.

The fish was solidly hooked so I decided to go in after the red and retrieve the fish.

I got a wet foot but finally broke off the spoon and brought the redfish to the bank.

It measured in at almost 35" and is one of the biggest ones I've landed in this area.

My Samsung camera is broken so I had to take these pics on my cell phone.  I couldn't get the fish into the "selfie" but you can get an idea of its size in the pics.

Anyway, I unhooked the redfish and took a great deal of time to revive it before releasing it to fight another day.

The red straightened out one of the treble hooks on the spoon so I tied on another one and continued fishing.

I caught two more sea trout on the spoon and released them both before heading to the house.

On the way out I spotted two more big redfish pushing a wake down the marsh canal but I didn't bother trying for them.

The redfish in the marsh canals are all mostly over the slot but they are great fun to catch.

Hopefully, next week I'll pick up another one.

Till then, Tight Lines.