Dog Days Of July

Went out to Peacocks Pocket Road yesterday and it felt like the dog days of July, instead of what we normally expect in August.

Odie

After finally getting a severe oil leaked fixed in my truck, Karen suggested we take Odie and Elmo for a short "scouting trip" around Peacocks Pocket road.

I took a couple of spinning rods with me each tipped with a topwater and a jerk bait, and after some commotion with the dogs, headed out to the refuge.

As we crossed the Indian River I knew that a successful fishing trip was out of the question.
The air temperature was 95 degrees and there was virtually no wind blowing.  It was around 1:30pm and the air was stifling.

Since I've been out of pocket in North Carolina, I entered via East Gator Creek road to check out the water level in the area.  I was surprised to see that the levels on the marsh side of the road were relatively high for this time of the year, but the submerged vegetation was unbelievably thick in most areas.

As we drove across the second set of culverts at the "pocket" road, it was obvious that the brown algae in the river was not going away anytime soon.  The water looked muddy from the algae bloom on the Indian River side of the road and sight fishing was definitely not on the agenda.

For the most part, the water in the marsh canal was clear.  Although the submerged plants were clogging most of the small ponds, the water was clear enough for us to spot some mullet, several gar, and a couple of submerged gators.

We saw several more alligators, roseate spoonbills, blue herons, and a variety of birds in the area but all the way through the refuge, I only spotted three sea trout and a large redfish pushing baitfish to the bank.

We stopped at a couple of places so I could toss a bait around, but I never got a hit or even a follow up.

As we drove to the end of Peacocks Pocket road, we saw only one out of state visitor and one group of fisherman dunking shrimp in the river.

I plan to fish the area again late this week, but right now it's way too hot to bother burning up in the day chasing sea trout around the culverts.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.