Fishing The Late Afternoon Thunderstorms

After yesterday's scouting trip to the wildlife refuge, fishing the late afternoon thunderstorms seemed like a good idea.

I got to East Gator Creek road just as the rain started moving in.  I managed a couple casts at the first culvert with a Chug Bug and had a follow up from a ladyfish.  I shot a couple more casts to the area as the rain started but the fish wasn't interested and since I forgot my new Frog Togs at the house, I hit the truck for shelter.

I was hoping that the storm would pass over the area quickly but it started coming down in torrents.

I slowly drove onto Peacocks Pocket road checking the water to see if anything was moving around.

I pulled up to the pond where I caught a redfish the other day and started casting the topwater bait around despite the rain that was coming down.

I picket up a small sea trout that I quickly released and went back into the truck to dry off.

The fish that were following the Chug Bug were all striking short, so when I decided to fish the bait slower, Istarted hooking up with fish.

As the rain continued, I started fishing the deeper sections of the marsh canal around the area below.

In a stretch that ran about 50 yards, I managed to hook and release three more small sea trout on the Chug Bug.  The trick seemed to be fishing the lure very slowly.  Smearing it up with Pro-Cure also helped a lot.

I didn't bother taking pics of all the fish I caught but they were all under the 15" slot except for one that I missed.

When the thunderstorm finally subsided, I pulled off the road at the pond below where there were a couple of redfish tailing in the weedy shallows.

I smeared the Chug Bug up with some more Pro-Cure and tossed the bait several feet behind the fish and let it sit.  The redfish didn't spook, and when the ripples died down, I waited a bit more and gave the lure a little twitch.  Nothing happened so I repeated the tactic and on the third or fourth twitch, the redfish let loose on the lure.  Unfortunately, it didn't get hooked up.

I reeled in and made several more casts to the reds but they were put down so I moved a bit up the canal blind casting the bank.

I caught a couple more sea trout a little bit larger than the fish above before deciding to head to the house.

On the way out of the refuge, I took a shot of this guy fishing for his evening meal.

The thunderstorm cooled down the air and got the baitfish in the marsh canal moving around.along with the sea trout and redfish.  I've found that this is one of the better times to toss around a topwater bait, regardless of the time of day.

With the 4th. of July weekend, I expected to see the refuge loaded with fishermen, but except for one other guy fish the Indian River side for redfish, I was the only one in the refuge.

Karen wants to give it shot tomorrow, so if it doesn't get too nasty, we plan to take Elmo and Odie fishig.

Tight Lines.