Since the bluefish are in the surf I decided to take advantage of the high tide and catch a few for dinner tonight.
I had some finger mullet in the freezer along with a relatively fresh bag of shrimp, so I loaded up a couple of rods and headed to Playalinda Beach to see if they were hitting as good as they were yesterday.
I stopped briefly at lots #1 and #8, but there were too many beach goers, so I drove up to lot #10 where there are usually not as many people around the surf fishermen.
I spotted Harry Potter who had three rods put out and several other fishermen up and down the beach.
The tide was on the way in, so I took some time watching the wave action trying to determine where a good spot may be to fish.
I picked an area where there was a decent washout and more crushed shells than sand and walked down to place my sand spikes.
The air temperature was 80 degrees and there was a good wind at my back when I put out my baits.
I put out one "river" rod with a 3 oz. pyramid sinker and two small hooks baited with peeled shrimp for whiting or pompano.
The second rod, a 10 foot surf rig with anOkuma reel and 30 pound Power Prowas rigged for finger mullet.
The waves made detecting a bite tough and I lost several shrimp on the river rod before pulling it in so I could concentrate on the surf rig with the finger mullet.
After losing several baits, I started cutting the mullet in half and began to catch fish.
The larger blues were about 75 yards from the beach, and they were definitely hungry.
I landed several bluefish in the 12" to 16" category, kept 5 for dinner, and missed at least a dozen more to short strikes.
When I got to Playalinda Beach this afternoon, it was around 3:30pm and by 5:30pm the beach was barren as I was packing it up getting ready to leave.
Meanwhile, Harry said he was missing some fish and catching a few whiting and bluefish.
I took these short videos of him as I was leaving, for posterity, or something like that....
Anyway, I had a great time catching bluefish in the surf and may come back tomorrow if I can get away from the house long enough.
Well I never expected to meet "Harry Potter" at Playalinda Beach today, but that's exactly what happened.
After I got through replacing part of the railing on my front porch, I decided to see if anything was going on at the beach.
I loaded up a couple of 7 1/2' river rods, a heavy duty shark rod, picked up some frozen shrimp and finger mullet at the bait shop and headed to Playalinda.
The owner at Capt Hooks Bait shop told me that the Pompano were hitting at lot #l and that a couple of guys said that the black tip sharks and bluefish were strong at lot #8.
With that information logged into the deeper recesses of my noggin, I headed to the beach to scout the area out.
The lady guard at the shack didn't have much to say about the fishing, so I decided to stop at a few lots to make my own decision on where to start.
I stopped at lot #1 where the Pompano fishermen were supposed to be "nailing" the fish but there were only two guys fishing and a lot of people sunbathing. I clicked a couple of pics before moving on to check out some of the other lots.
I briefly checked out lot #8 where a lot of people seemed to be partying, but only a couple people were fishing.
I finally stopped at lot #10 where I usually spend most of my time fishing and hit the spot where all the fishermen seemed to be congregating.
I took a few shots of the area and walked down to see if anyone was catching.
The first guy I talked to was Harry Potter (below) who was relaxing with several rods out in their holders.
When I ask3ed him if anybody was catching fish, he told me that several fishermen were catching whiting, bluefish and a few pompano.
While he was using clams and sand fleas for bait, the guys to his left were catching "schoolie" bluefish on chunks of finger mullet.
While we were talking, a fisherman to our left hooked up with a bluefish which he gave to his wife to reel in. I took a short clip of he action as well as the stops I made, below.
I had originally set my sights on catching a black tip shark but when I saw the blues in the surf, I decided to get a couple of my rods from the truck and try my luck.
It was getting close to the 6:00 pm closing time so I only had about an hour to fish.
I baited up with some frozen finger mullet and after the third or fourth cast hooked a pass crab.
Not a very good start, but I pressed on and eventually hooked and lost a bluefish. I snelled on another hook and finally landed a decent schoolie bluefish which I gave to Harry.
The tide was coming in and my cell phone and car keys which I placed in my shoes were almost washed out with the waves, but an extremely nice lady grabbed them before they hit the surf.
I quickly blew off the phone and my keys and decided to call it a day.
I gave Harry Potter some mullet and headed for the house.
On my way, I decided to swing by Peacocks Pocket boat launch to see if anyone was catching drum or redfish.
The two guys I talked to that had just finished up for the day both caught a couple of tailing reds on live shrimp. The one guy said that the fishing in this part of the Indian River was "hit or miss".
The redfish and black drum singles and schools are all over the area, but they are spooky and hard to catch, especially when the water is as calm as it was today.
I thanked them for the information and headed home to dry off my smart phone.
After being stuffed with way too much turkey, this afternoon seemed to be a good time to hit the river and see what was happening.
My wife went to check on her horse, so I packed up a few rods, a cooler with some frozen shrimp and finger mullet, and last but not least; the dogs.
I wasn't going to take them but Elmo and Odie looked so despondent that I couldn't let them alone.
When I stopped by the bait shop to pick up some live mullet, they were sold out. So, I headed to the river with only my frozen bait and limited hopes of catching anything worthwhile.
The wildlife refuge was loaded with ducks of all types, alligators just about everywhere, and lots of visitors doing the same thing I was doing; getting out of the house and enjoying the beautiful day.
The weather was great. The air temp was 73 degrees and there was only a hint of a breeze across the Indian River.
There were limited fishing spots but I lucked out and staked my claim at an area of of Catfish Creek Loop road where my wife and I picked up some nice black drum last month.
I put out one rod with cut mullet, and two other rods with freshly defrosted medium sized shrimp and almost immediately had a bite on the shrimp.
I missed the first two hits, but picked up a small croaker on the third round. It was small but better than nothing.
In the next half hour or so, I managed to hook and release 11 more croaker on the frozen shrimp which were all in the 8" to 13" range, a small stingray and a couple of river whiting.
The bites were still coming but I had a hit on the rod with the mullet which turned out to be a couple of mating Horseshoe Crabs.
It was getting late and the gnats were killing me so I decided to hit the road and call it a day.
Elmo and Odie had a lot of fun, and even thought the fish weren't anything to write home about, so did I.
I plan on taking the boat out tomorrow to chase some redfish in the lagoon.
Today was the first time since I got home that I could wet a line in about three weeks, so this afternoon I packed up Elmo, Odie and two spinning rods and headed to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see if I could pick up a sea trout or two.
The air temperature this afternoon was a cool 72 degrees but with the wind chill factor, it felt like 60.
Although this trip was really for the dogs, I had high hopes of catching a fish or two for dinner, so when I drove into East Gator Creek road and saw a couple of nice wakes in the shallows, I pulled out my short river rod and started tossing a Z-man paddletail on a jig that I had rigged up.
I fan cast the area for several minutes and had a small hit, but I didn't get a hookup so I moved on to scout out the rest of the area.
There were tons of Coot in the refuge and a couple of large gators in the shallows around East Gator Creek, but after trying my luck in several areas, I was beginning to lose faith in catching anything.
The dogs were having fun watching all the Coot so I continued slowly driving around the refuge looking for signs of fish.
As I got to the first pond before Catfish Creek Loop, I pulled over to fish around a small island where I had caught reds last year about this time.
I walked the bank casting across to the other side and started retrieving slower to see if that would change my luck and after about a dozen casts, a fish picked up the bait on the drop.
There was no doubt in my mind that it was a redfish. The fish immediately took off towards Peacocks Pocket road and I almost lost it around the brush at the culvert, but after a decent fight and a few good runs, I managed to land the red.
The fish measured roughly in at about 32 inches, so I unhooked the Z-Mann bait and released it to fight again another day.
Things were looking up!
I fan cast the stretch for about 20 minutes without another hit before finally giving up to move on down the road.
As we drove into Catfish Creek Loop, we passed by Peacocks Pocket road with the closed sign still up and a bunch of vultures ominously standing guard at the entrance.
I continued to fish likely looking areas without any luck until I finally decided to head for the house. A cold front was moving in, the air temperature had dropped down into the high 60s, and I was getting chilly.
I stopped one last time to let Elmo and Odie do their duty before heading out.
Hopefully, I'll get a chance to get the boat out before Christmas.
Till next time, Tight Lines.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Haulover Canal in December is a great place to fish for huge black drum and bull redfish.
My wife and I decided to take Elmo and Odie for a quick trip around Catfish Creek loop to see if any bank fishermen were catching black drum yet.
The drum start hitting good during the winter, with November and December being the best months.
Karen and I were surprised that only one group of fishermen were on the bank and they had not caught anything when we drove by and asked them about the fishing.
We left Catfish Creek Loop and drove over to Haulover Canal to see if the fishing was any better.
There were a lot of trailers parked in Bairs Cove and the banks were lined with fishermen, mostly dunking cut baits and shrimp.
I saw a couple of bank fishermen with drum and pinfish, and one guy with a nice redfish.
There was a guy anchored off of the bank apparently fishing for mangrove snapper but we didn'
t stick around long enough to see how he was doing.
We drove to the south side of the canal where I got out to take a few pics of the area which I consolidated into the video above.
The guy who was fishing at the drawbridge was fishing with cut mullet but hadn't been there long.
He told me that the bank fishermen were catching drum, redfish, sea trout, flounder, and snapper.
I wished him good luck fishing and we left the area to head for the house.
Although it was late in the afternoon when we visited Haulover on Saturday, there were still a ton of fishing boats anchored at the both entrances to the canal.
FishingHaulover Canal in December is always good for black drum and reds especially if you have a boat with a good quality fish finder.
Went on a scouting trip to Catfish Creek with Elmo and Odie late this afternoon to see if anybody was catching fish prior to the cold front.
We got to East Gator Creek road around 4:30pm where I immediately spooked a redfish in the area around the first culvert.
Tried a couple cast to the fish but it was long gone so we moved around the area to Catfish Creek Loop.
The air temperature was 59 degrees and there was no wind over the water. The fish I saw were super spooky and seemed to be pretty well worked over by fishermen.
As we passed by the first pond, the water was dead calm and no fish sign was visible anywhere so we moved up towards Catfish Creek Loop.
Peacocks Pocket road is closed till Feb. 15th of next year and when I spoke with the folks at the wildlife refuge, they said the road is still unsafe to travel.
I spoke with two groups of fishermen who had cut baits out on the Indian River side of the road but they were still waiting for a bite. As we chatted about the fishing conditions, both groups said that the redfish were hitting pretty good before the front but this afternoon looked like a bust.
It was getting as I slowly drove around the loop, I spotted a couple of guys in a Gheenoe poling around the deeper flats in the Indian River but they also didn't seem to be having any luck.
It was getting chilly and the dogs were getting restless so I took a pic or two of the sunset and headed for the hacienda to continue working on an aquarium stand I'm building for a 40 gallon tank.
Didn't get much fishing in but we all had a good time.
Went down to the fishing pier this evening to see how the shrimpers were doing and got to see the Atlas V weather satellite launch that blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:42 p.m. Eastern time.
I planned on getting some fishing in this weekend but I got tied up making a custom aquarium stand that took longer than expected.
When I finished the stand this evening, I decided to see how the shrimping was going on the Indian River.
This is the time of the year when the shrimp run starts to get hot in our area but when I got to the fishing pier and started to inspect the buckets, most were empty.
The guys I spoke with said that they[ were waiting for the wind to pick up (in a couple of hours) as the cold front moves into our area. The weather was a pleasant 70 degrees, but we are expecting 40 degrees tomorrow morning.
Anyway, while the shrimpers were waiting for the wind to pick up and move the shrimp around, I took a few pics and drove up onto the A. Max Brewer Bridge to see the Atlas V launch.
I parked between a couple of cars on the very top of the bridge and after a brief wait took the video below.
The Atlas V launches in my opinion can't compare to the shuttle launches we used to witness, but I still enjoy watching them.
Immediately after the launch, I drove up the road to see if anyone was fishing for reds from the bank. I spotted a couple of fishermen dunking cut baits but nobody was catching. Everyone seemed to be fishing.
I drove by the fishing pier one last time before heading home and was serenaded by the band they had at the outdoor bar.
More people were partying than shrimping or fishing this evening.
I may pull out my shrimp net this week to see if I can get a few for the pan.
Till next time,
Tight Lines.
Fishing for Indian River Reds is usually on fire in November but this afternoon the bite left a lot to be desired.
I decided to hit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this afternoon to wet a line and see if I could scrounge up a redfish or two, but the fish weren't cooperating.
The weather was beautiful and the water levels in the dikes was up. Most of the culverts were open and water was flowing through them but the fish were just not biting.
When I drove into East Gator Creek road, the air temperature was 79 degrees and there was virtually no wind over the water.
I briefly stopped to fish the first culvert when I spotted a wake in the shallows that looked like a redfish. I tied on a DOA Baitbuster and flipped several casts into the area but didn't get any hookups.
After fan casting the water on both sides of the road, I moved up to see if Peacocks Pocket Road was open yet. I've been out of town in Mobile, Al and was hoping they repaired Pocket Road so I could try some of the ponds.
When I got there I was disappointed to see that the area was still closed.
I drove around Catfish Creek Loop and spotted a couple of wakes that were definitely redfish but after making several casts to them with the Baitbuster and aLive Target shrimpI had on another rod, I never got a hit.
There were plenty of people fishing, checking out the gators, and the waterfowl in the area, but nobody I spoke with caught anything but stingrays.
I took several pics of the area and of the water fowl before leaving the area.
When I hit the main road, I decided to swing toward the beach. As I got to the intersection of the Cape, I spotted a flock of wild turkey off the side of the road.
They were too busy eating to pay any attention to me, so I took a couple of pics before heading home.
As I was leaving the flock of turkeys, I remembered that Thanksgiving Day is next week.
Hummmm.
Because my work has been keeping me in Mobile, Alabama, I've missed fishing the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River, so this afternoon, I decided to take a drive and check out the Dauphin Island bull reds that some of the locals have been talking about.
Dauphin Island, Al is a barrier island situated directly across from Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island and Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores guard the entrance to Mobile Bay.
During the fall months, some nice bull redfish can be caught along the shores of both areas and in particular the jetties at Fort Gaines, which is why I decided to wet a line this afternoon.
The air temperature was in the low 70s and there appeared to be an outgoing tide when I drove into a parking spot at the end of the road at Fort Gaines.
The only rod I had with me today was a 7' river rod with 8 pound fluorocarbon line. Not what I needed to tackle a bull redfish!
I planned on fishing the farthermost jetty but it was already occupied with a for or five fishermen so I didn't want to intrude. Instead, I walked down the beach to a rocky outcrop and started fan casting with a 1/4 oz. jighead and a chartreuse Strike King paddle tail bait.
The water was a bit rough and dirty close to shore so I spent a lot of time bouncing the jig across the bottom without any response.
As I was fishing, I noted that the guys on the long jetty were catching fish on their 8' to 10' rods. These guys came prepared.
After about a half an hour of casting, I finally hooked into a fish that took off like a "bat out of hell". It came close to spooling me before breaking off the jig.
As I was reeling in my limp line, I saw one of the guys on the jetty hooking up with something decent. At first I thought it was a redfish, but it turned out to be a hefty sail catfish. The short video below shows the catch.
Almost immediately after he landed the Sail Cat and got back to his spot on the jetty, he hooked into another fish which turned out to be a nice bull redfish that looked to be at least 25 pounds.
At this point I stopped fishing to take some pics and another video of the catches.
After he caught the second fish, I tied on another jig and started fan casting but I never got another hit, so when the guys on the jetty hooked into another fish, I decided to walk over to take a pic or two of his catch before heading back.
The second fish was a bit larger than the first red and looked to be about 30 pounds. Definitely candidates for a decent fish fry!
Although these two reds would be illegal to harvest in east central Florida; Alabama regulations allow harvesting one fish per day over the slot, with a three fish limit.
Both of the bull reds were caught on chunks of cut mullet for bait.
As I left the jetty, I made a mental note to pick up some mullet for bait and a heftier outfit for my next trip to the jetties.
Although Peacocks Pocket road is still closed, bank fishermen along the causeway and the open dike roads are still picking up good numbers of redfish and black drum.
Javier Cuazo and his friend Luis were good enough to send me these pics of their trip to Gator Creek Thursday morning.
They got out early and around 8:00am Luis picked up a nice slot black drum on a live shrimp and later on, a rat redfish on a dead shrimp which was quickly released to grow up into a bull red.
Around noon they moved on to Catfish Creek and fished around an area where this crabber was picking up his cages. Usually if there are crabs in the area, it's a good area for reds.
He said they were fishing into the wind, but he did not what they caught in that area.
Yesterday, another reader said that the reds in that area were nailing fresh dead shrimp and chunks of cut mullet and ladyfish.
In my experience, an 1 1/2" thick steak cut from a freshly caught ladyfish on a 4/0 or 5/0 Owner hook is hard to beat for big redfish.
Right now, fresh dead or live shrimp is the bait of choice for black drum.
Till I get back into town again, Tight Lines and don't forget to vote.
It looks like fishing Catfish Creek will be on the agenda for the near future for bank fishermen in our area.
I tried to find out why Peacocks Pocket road is closed to vehicle traffic, but as of this date I never received a satisfactory explanation.
The Indian River around Parrish Park in Titusville, Fl. today was spattered with bank fishermen who were mostly after Redfish.
The North side of the road seemed to have the most fishermen but as I drove through the first drive, several guys were in the Catfish Creek area catching sea trout and reds.
This guy was fly fishing for "anything that bites" with a baitfish pattern. When I asked him how he was doing, he said he caught several spotted sea trout in the 15" to 20" range. I could see the wide tail of a nice sea trout on his stringer that looked like it was over the 24" slot, but I didn't belabor the point.
Some productive baitfish patterns I use listed from top to bottom are Kraimer's Tan, Nice Mullet, Kraimer's Gray/White, and Clouser's Olive White.
As I drove around the unimproved road, I noted that the water levels in the refuge were way up and that the culverts were open and flowing, undoubtedly due to the hurricane.
Several of the bank fishermen I talked to were catching sea trout, and one fellow had a slot redfish that he nailed on a cut bait.
Although I didn't bring along a rod or have time to fish, I might just get out tomorrow to wet a line.
Might even break out my fly rod again if the wind cooperates..
After a stellar day's fishing Playalinda Beach a couple of days ago, I was hoping to duplicate my success today, so this afternoon I loaded a cooler and couple of rods into the truck and took off to the beach.
When I hit the beach it was about 4:30 pm and the tide was just beginning to head out. The surf was not too rough and there was almost nobody on the beach.
I went to the same lot I fished the other day and noticed some birds about two hundred yards out from shore diving on baitfish. I could see fish busting on the school but they were way too far out to cast to.
I was expecting some great fishing but there were no baitfish close to the beach.
Although I brought my cast net along today, I never got a chance to use it. The mullet had apparently disappeared.
Undaunted, I pulled out a spinning rod with a Yo-Zuri SP shallow diving plug and started walking the beach fan casting into the first trough.
The lure almost perfectly mimicked a mullet in the surf but after more casts that I could count, I never got a hit. I continued casting farther out into the second trough and still had no action.
I spotted another flock of sea birds diving on baitfish that were a bit closer to shore, but before I could get into the area and casting range, they were gone.
To make a long story really short, I spent the better part of two hours fan casting the area and trying to get close enough to the baitfish schools offshore before finally hooking up with a small flounder.
The fish was about 16" or 17" long and didn't put up much of a fight, so I unhooked it and let it go.
I would have taken a pic but I didn't feel like making the long walk back to the cooler to get my cell phone.
Finally, after another half hour or so, I realized that the mullet were well offshore today and it was a fools errand trying to duplicate my last surf fishing trip. For today the Playalinda Beach mullet runwas not happening. It's feast or famine on the beach.
I loaded up my stuff and trudged back to the truck and headed home.
Maybe I'll have better luck next time, Tight Lines.
The fall mullet run is currently going full force, so I decided to hit Playalinda Beach for a change to sample a little surf fishing.
The thunderstorms were just beginning to let up around my house when I decided to get a little fishing in and because Peacocks Pocket Road was closed to vehicle traffic, the beach seemed to be a good alternative.
I loaded up two "river" rods, an Okuma surf rod, and a small cooler with a few frozen blue crabs and several small mullet for bait. I had a small "beach" tackle box set aside with my extra leader material, hooks, sinkers, etc. but I forgot to bring it and a 5 gallon bucket along.
When I drove into the Playanda Beach guard shack I asked the attendant about the fishing and the tide but she wasn't able to provide any information about either.
I decided to check out several areas to see if anyone was catching fish but when I stopped at lot #3, there was nobody in sight. In fact, except for a couple of fishermen and some wildlife officers who were doing work on the facilities, the beach was for all practical purposes, desolate.
I stopped to take some pics and short videos of lots 3, 8, and 10 (above) before I finally decided to pull out the rods.
At the last lot, there was a couple who were just leaving and one fellow, who I later learned was named Jeff, cast netting mullet in the surf.
When I walked down to see if he had seen any fish, Jeff said he saw several nice fish in the breakers and when he offered me some live mullet for bait, I couldn't resist not getting my fishing rods.
I retrieved my gear from the truck and baited up a sliding sinker rig with a live mullet to see what I could catch.
After losing a few fish, I finally got into the groove and landed a small Jack Crevalle which I returned to the ocean.
It was an overcast day, the tide was just starting to come in, and it was around 5:00 pm. A perfect scenario for productive surf fishing.
From 5:00 pm on it was if someone turned on a switch. The fish started biting and I was catching bluerfish back to back.
I hooked a nice Snook in the surf that was cruising just off the first sand bar. It took the mullet and got off as I was leading it across the shallows.
Jeff didn't bring his fishing rod along with him, so I offered him one of my spinning rigs to use until I was ready to leave.
We both were catching bluefish and as I caught another Jack, it broke off my sliding sinker rig.
I had several rigs in the truck but since it was getting late in the afternoon, I didn't feel like slogging back to the truck to get them. Instead when the last bluefish cut off my leader, I tied on a 5/0 Owner hook directly to the 40#Power Pro I had spooled on the reel and put on another mullet.
I thought a flat lined bait would be just as good as one on the bottom and it didn't take long to prove me right.
On my second or third cast past the second sand bar, a tarpon of about 5 feet in length took my bait and took off. I saw the hit and didn't realize it was a tarpon until it made it's first jump out of the water. As the line started screaming off my reel, I quickly realized that the fish could spool me.
When the tarpon jumped the second time, the hook came out and I didn't have to worry about the spooling problem.
That was only the second tarpon I ever hooked from the beach and both were unforgettable.
Anyway, I tied on another hook and caught another bluefish before the bite started slowing down.
It was around 6:30pm when Jeff and I decided to call it a day. I had six bluefish in the small cooler for dinner and a tale to tell my wife.
Not bad for a few hours of fishing.
With any luck, might meet Jeff tomorrow for another shot at the fall mullet run.
and 30 pound Power Pro 
was rigged for finger mullet.
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