January Redfish In The Marsh

Catching Redfish In The Marsh is something I am fortunate enough to enjoy all year round in East Central Florida's fishery and this afternoon proved to be another stellar day for fishing.

The other day when Karen and I took the dogs for a ride, we didn't expect Peacocks Pocket Road to be open and I didn't bother bringing along any rods.  Today we left the dogs at the house and brought along the fishing equipment.

We left the house at around 3:30 pm and headed for Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle to pick up some live baits.

The air temperature was a bit warmer than the other day but the water temperature was still cold.  I decided to pick up some live shrimp and mud minnows and fish both sides of the road for redfish.

I bought a battery operated bubbler for the bait and we headed towards a place my wife and I named "Bobcat Bay" (for obvious reasons).

On the way we stopped at a point in the river and fished there a short time.  I tossed out a couple of mud minnows and live shrimp on both sides of the road and only picked up a couple of puffer fish so we decided to move on before the sun set.

There was only an hour or so of daylight left when we put out our baits at Bobcat Bay.  Karen wanted to fish the marsh canal, so I decided to fish the Indian River side of the road.

She baited up with a mud minnow and I set out live shrimp, a mud minnow and a dead shrimp.

I settled down to watch the rods and enjoy the beautiful sunset while Karen fished the marsh canal.

After 45 minutes or so, and several dozen photographs, I was getting ansey and chilly.  I'm not a good bait fisherman.   I was ready to go when I asked Karen if she had any bites.  About the time I got the words out of my mouth, she hooked a nice redfish and asked me to help.

I took a short video of her fighting the red and me slipping into the water trying to land the fish.  Fortunately, my embarrassment was minimized when she forgot to continue recording the action.

The leader broke just as I lipped the redfish and it flopped around a bit as I fell into the marsh canal, but I got the fish.

Anyway, here is the video in it's entirety.

Her fish was a little over 30" and she wanted me to hold the red while she took a picture.  She's camera shy, big time!

Anyway, I released the fish unharmed to fight another day.

It was getting chilly when the awesome sunset was over and the mosquitoes were getting really nasty, so we decided to call it a day.

Hopefully, we'll get a chance to get out tomorrow and replicate today's trip.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.