Topwater Fishing For Sea Trout

Topwater fishing for sea trout is one of my favorite pastimes and this evening was a good day for it in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I didn't get home from work this afternoon until after 6 pm so I decided to hit the refuge and pitch a few topwater baits around to see if I could pick up a  trout or two.

I wasn't going to take the dogs along but at the last minute I gave in and loaded Elmo and Odie into the truck for a ride around Peacocks Pocket.

Odie is a handful but he loves to cruise in the truck with me when I go fishing.  

Anyway, the air temperature was 85 degrees when I entered East Gator Creek Road and the wind was blowing steadily out of the southeast creating just enough of a ripple on the water to make topwater fishing feasible.

When I entered the refuge I stopped to pitch a few casts with a Bass Chug Bug in the shallows around East Gator Creek Road.  This area is relatively sheltered and usually produces fish. 

About the fourth or fifth cast, I got a boil from a fish, and one cast later I hooked and released a ladyfish that was about two feet long.  The fish put up a great aerial battle before giving it up and lady luck kept the fish from getting tangled in the brush along side of the road.

Several casts later in a couple of other spots produced another ladyfish about the same size as the first fish.

I had three or four hits in this area from other fish but missed on the hookup.

The dogs were getting restless, especially Odie so I moved on up the road and kept tossing the Chug Bug into likely looking areas.

Several stops and several misses later hooked me up with this nice, over slot sized sea trout in a pond just off of the marsh canal.  The fish hit the Chug Bug at a dropoff and at first I thought I picked up a redfish.

 

After a decent fight, I took a quick video and a couple of shots of the fish before releasing it and moving on.

About half way up Peacocks Pocket Road, I got tired of missing strikes on the topwater Chug Bug so I switched over to a gold Johnsons Sprite spoon when I spotted a wake in the marsh canal.

I made a well placed cast and was rewarded with another nice sea trout that nailed the spoon as it was leaving the opposite bank.

I took the quick pic below and released the fish along with the others I caught this afternoon.

I could have kept on fishing and if I had not brought along the dogs, I probably would have but my wife called and Odie was driving me nuts.  He loves riding along when I go fishing but doesn't like to stay in the truck.

If the gators weren't as thick as they were this evening I would have let him out, but I didn't want to take a chance of having him on a gator's menu.

Anyway, I was dog tired from the ride back from Vidalia this afternoon so I packed up the rods and headed home.

Maybe after I finish up working around the house tomorrow I'll get the urge to wet another line.

The tarpon are still in the river and the snook have been hitting.

Till next time, Tight Lines.