Fishing Bobcat Bay With The Gators

Late Monday afternoon my wife asked if I was interested in fishing Bobcat Bay in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and as usual, it didn't take me long to pack up some rods and the bait bucket for the trip.

Karen wanted to take Elmo and Odie along to get some exercise and since I didn't plan on fishing artificial baits this afternoon, I didn't object.

We stopped at the bait shop for some mud minnows, but all they had were some finger mullet and shrimp, so I picked up a half dozen mullet and some medium sized shrimp and headed for the refuge.

We entered via East Gator Creek Road and almost ran across a gator that was sunning itself in the middle of the road.  It was the first of many we spotted before we got to where Karen wanted to fish.

When we got to "Bobcat Bay", we picked our spots, baited up and waited for some action.

I fished the Indian River side of the road while Karen fished the marsh canal.

After Elmo christened several spots in the area, he went back to the truck and spent almost all the time there.  Odie, on the other hand spent most of the time alternating between watching Karen and me fish and scouting out the area.

I had one rod out with live shrimp and another with a live mullet but because of the wind it was difficult detecting a bite.  I missed several fish before I finally started catching hard head catfish.

After the 5th or 6th cat, I finally decided to fish only live mullet.

Karen had a live mullet on an Okuma Avenger Baitrunner outfit I bought for her, but she wasn't getting any bites.

The wind never let up. so I finally moved over to the marsh canal where Karen was fishing just to keep it out of my face.

There was virtually no action until dusk when Karen finally picked up a nice size sea trout on her mullet.

After I unhooked and released her fish, I missed a good fish on my rod.

The line briefly peeled off the reel but the fish dropped the bait before I could set the hook.

I re-baited and within a few minutes picked up a spotted sea trout about the same size as Karen's fish.

We were getting eaten up by mosquitoes, so we both agreed to head for the house and call it a day.

The sunset was beautiful as usual so I took a couple of quick pics.

 
On the way out of the refuge, I almost ran across a gator that refused to get off the road.

I got out of the truck and took these pics as it hissed at me and finally retreated into the marsh canal.

The gators were definitely out in force today, especially around Gator Creek road.  I guess that's why they gave it the name.

Till next time, Tight Lines.