Ladyfish In The Refuge

Monday afternoon seemed like a good time to hit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and catch up on my fishing.

I was going to bring along Elmo and Odie but they are a handful to deal with so I left them home looking sad and forlorn.

Anyway, I loaded up five rods and headed for Peacocks Pocket to see if I could pick up a few sea trout on topwater lures.

The air temperature was about 90 degrees and there wasn't much of a wind blowing.  The water for the most part was flat.  Not a good day for topwater baits....

I entered the wildlife refuge via East Gator Creek Road to see if anything was moving around.  I spotted a couple of wakes and several small gators but no topwater action but decided to toss a Chug Bug around to see if anything was interested.

After the third stop, I had an explosive hit on the Chug Bug from a big sea trout.  The fish missed the first time and was briefly hooked when she hit the second time but shook the plug off.

After several more casts into the spot without a hit, I decided to move on to Pocket road.

I picked up a couple small sea trout at the next stop and moved on to a section that sometimes has redfish.  While I was fishing a couple of followers of my blog pulled up and we started talking about the fishing in the area.

They said they enjoyed the website and showed me some pics of their recent catches.  I forgot their names but got this pic on my cell phone (forgot my cameras) and asked them to send me the pictures of their fish to post here.  (Don't forget!)

Anyway, after they moved on I worked my way up the road and picked up a nice ladyfish that thought it was a Tarpon.

The fish put up a great fight jumping all over the narrow canal but I finally managed to land it to the bank.  The fish measured in at 27" and is one of the largest ladyfish I've caught in this area.

After landing the fish I was going to move up the road to fish a small pond but the truck wouldn't start.  The battery was apparently discharged because the cell phone charger and radio were both on while I was fishing.

Anyway, I called Karen and asked her to drive over and give me a jump.

While I was waiting, I continued walking up the road and tossing the Chug Bug around.  I picked up another small sea trout and this very small ladyfish that hit the plug and got foul hooked.

    

After the small ladyfish, nothing was hitting but fortunately my wife drove up and we jumped off the truck.  My heroine!

She asked me if I was going to keep fishing but I thought I'd better not take a chance of having the battery go down so I helped her turn around and we both headed home.

Hopefully, I can resolve the problem tomorrow and wet another line.

Till next time.  Tight Lines.