Topwater Fishing For Sea Trout

Topwater fishing for sea trout is one of my favorite pastimes and this afternoon, even though it was thundering and lightning, I still managed to get out and wet a line around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I planned to get in more fishing but I had an ear infection and a wound from my cat that I had to attend to at the local walk in clinic.  They took their time but eventually gave me a shot of antibiotic and a prescription that I got filled at the Pharmacy. 

When I finally got to the refuge, it was around 6:30 pm.  There was lightning all over the area and the air temperature was a pleasant 79 degrees,   There was a little breeze but it subsided towards dusk and for the most part, the waters in the refuge were flat.

I thought that because of Independence Day, the area would be crowded with visitor traffic but the grass alongside of Peacocks Pocket Road has grown up a bit and the rain evidently kept a lot of visitors home.

I started out fishing with a jerk bait on a chartreuse hookup jig but quickly changed over to a bass patterned Chug Bug for the rest of the trip.

The water in the marsh was even farther down than the other day and the fish were definitely concentrated in small areas throughout the area.

After slowly driving bast several areas where I normally fish I stopped at a deep hole and started tossing the Chug Bug.  I had a couple of trout bust on the bait but no hookups so I moved on to another spot.

The fish were really spooky this evening and until about 7:30 pm I only had six or seven misses on the bait.

Finally I spotted a redfish coming out of a small pond and made a well placed cast several yards ahead of the fish, waiting for it to get close to the bait.  When I twitched the Chug Bug, the red swirled on the bait but just butted it with it's nose. 

Disappointed that I missed the redfish, I continued working the plug until a slot size sea trout nailed the lure just at the bank.  I landed the fish, took a quick pic with my cell phone, and released it to fight another day.  Sorry for the picture quality.

The fish seemed to break the "hex" and I started catching sea trout at almost every stop.

The water was totally flat and working the bait quickly seemed to be the ticket this evening.  Up to this point I had been fishing the plug slow with a stop and go action.  When I started imitating  a baitfish  running for it's life, the fish keyed up on the bait.

Anyway, for the sake of brevity, I landed five more sea trout in the 15" to 25" category before calling it a day and I missed at least six more trout and another redfish.

The rain had been sporadic but not enough to even begin filling up the marsh as these pics show but enough to get the insects in a feeding frenzy.

I tried some No Natz, but the bugs evidently didn't read the label on the bottle and kept eating on me so I called it quits just as darkness started to settle in around 8:45 pm.

On the way out, I just had to take a pic or two of the beautiful Indian River Sunset.

Till next time, Tight Lines and have a save 4th.