Out Of Practice

It's pretty obvious that I am way out of practice catching fish on topwater baits.

I felt good enough this afternoon to see if I could catch a few sea trout in the marsh area so I loaded up the truck with a couple of spinning rods, a box of Chug Bugs, and a packet of Live Target shimp for a backup.

When I drove around East Gator Creek road,  the wind was blowing over the water at a good clip but the air temperature was a pleasant 86 degrees.

I didn't start spotting fish until about a quarter of the way up Peacocks Pocket Road where there were two or three redfish tailing at the mouth of a small dried up pond.

I pulled off the road and tied on the Live Target shrimp, smeared it up with some Pro-Cure, and tossed it on the bank in the grass above where the fish were feeding.   A quick jerk flipped the shrimp into the water without too much disturbance but a sea trout grabbed the shrimp and spooked the reds from the area.

The trout was way under the slot and flipped off at the bank as I was pulling it out of the water.

I pulled out the other rod and started pitching a black Chug Bug around the area hoping for a larger sea trout but only got a couple of half hearted hits, so I moved on.

The next spot I fished was at the mouth of a larger pond that drops into about three feet of water at the marsh canal.  The wind was blowing directly to me making casting a challenge, but I managed to make several decent casts before a large sea trout boiled on the bait.

I waited a minute or so, smeared the Chug Bug up with some Pro-Cure to give it a bit more appeal, and shot another cast to the fish.  The fish came up and missed the bait three more times before finally leaving the area.

Either I'm way out of practice or the fish was blind, but you seldom get four shots at a sea trout in the 20" plus range especially on topwater plugs.

My neck was beginning to give me problems and although the weather around Titusville looked like it was getting ugly, the wind was dying down in the refuge so I decided to make one more stop at a larger pond to see if the fish were biting there.

I changed over from the black Chug Bug to a black and silver pattern to see if it made any difference hooking the fish and again smeared on the Pro-Cure.

This time I must have been holding my mouth right.  I missed a nice redfish because I literally jerked the plug out of it's mouth and hooked four sea trout in the same general area.

Although all the fish were around the slot and nothing to brag about; from what I've been catching in Highlands, N.C. and Mobile, Al. I wasn't about to complain.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted some spoonbills feeding in the shallows in one area and a couple of gators but the sea trout bite appeared to have come to a halt.

I took a shot of the sunset as I left Peacocks Pocket road and headed for the hacienda.

Till next time, Tight Lines.