Feast And Famine On The Beach

After a stellar day's fishing Playalinda Beach a couple of days ago, I was hoping to duplicate my success today, so this afternoon I loaded a cooler and couple of rods into the truck and took off to the beach.

When I hit the beach it was about 4:30 pm and the tide was just beginning to head out.  The surf was not too rough and there was almost nobody on the beach.

I went to the same lot I fished the other day and noticed some birds about two hundred yards out from shore diving on baitfish.  I could see fish busting on the school but they were way too far out to cast to.

I was expecting some great fishing but there were no baitfish close to the beach.

Although I brought my cast net along today, I never got a chance to use it.  The mullet had apparently disappeared.

Undaunted, I pulled out a spinning rod with a Yo-Zuri SP shallow diving plug and started walking the beach fan casting into the first trough.

The lure almost perfectly mimicked a mullet in the surf but after more casts that I could count, I never got a hit.  I continued casting farther out into the second trough and still had no action.

I spotted another flock of sea birds diving on baitfish that were a bit closer to shore, but before I could get into the area and casting range, they were gone.

To make a long story really short, I spent the better part of two hours fan casting the area and trying to get close enough to the baitfish schools offshore before finally hooking up with a small flounder.

The fish was about 16" or 17" long and didn't put up much of a fight, so I unhooked it and let it go.

I would have taken a pic but I didn't feel like making the long walk back to the cooler to get my cell phone.

Finally, after another half hour or so, I realized that the mullet were well offshore today and it was a fools errand trying to duplicate my last surf fishing trip.  For today the Playalinda Beach mullet run was not happening.  It's feast or famine on the beach.

I loaded up my stuff and trudged back to the truck and headed home.

Maybe I'll have better luck next time, Tight Lines.

Playalinda Beach Fall Mullet Run

The fall mullet run is currently going full force, so I decided to hit Playalinda Beach for a change to sample a little surf fishing.

The thunderstorms were just beginning to let up around my house when I decided to get a little fishing in and because Peacocks Pocket Road was closed to vehicle traffic, the beach seemed to be a good alternative.

I loaded up two "river" rods, an Okuma surf rod, and a small cooler with a few frozen blue crabs and several small mullet for bait.   I had a small "beach" tackle box set aside with my extra leader material, hooks, sinkers, etc. but I forgot to bring it and a 5 gallon bucket along.

When I drove into the Playanda Beach guard shack I asked the attendant about the fishing and the tide but she wasn't able to provide any information about either.

I decided to check out several areas to see if anyone was catching fish but when I stopped at lot #3, there was nobody in sight.  In fact, except for a couple of fishermen and some wildlife officers who were doing work on the facilities, the beach was for all practical purposes, desolate.

I stopped to take some pics and short videos of lots 3, 8, and 10 (above) before I finally decided to pull out the rods.

At the last lot, there was a couple who were just leaving and one fellow, who I later learned was named Jeff, cast netting mullet in the surf.

When I walked down to see if he had seen any fish, Jeff said he saw several nice fish in the breakers and when he offered me some live mullet for bait, I couldn't resist not getting my fishing rods.

I retrieved my gear from the truck and baited up a sliding sinker rig with a live mullet to see what I could catch.

After losing a few fish, I finally got into the groove and landed a small Jack Crevalle which I returned to the ocean.

It was an overcast day, the tide was just starting to come in, and it was around 5:00 pm. A perfect scenario for productive surf fishing.

From 5:00 pm on it was if someone turned on a switch.  The fish started biting and I was catching bluerfish back to back. 

I hooked a nice Snook in the surf that was cruising just off the first sand bar.  It took the mullet and got off as I was leading it across the shallows.

Jeff didn't bring his fishing rod along with him, so I offered him one of my spinning rigs to use until I was ready to leave.

We both were catching bluefish and as I caught another Jack, it broke off my sliding sinker rig.

I had several rigs in the truck but since it was getting late in the afternoon, I didn't feel like slogging back to the truck to get them.  Instead when the last bluefish cut off my leader, I tied on a 5/0 Owner hook directly to the 40# Power Pro I had spooled on the reel and put on another mullet.

I thought a flat lined bait would be just as good as one on the bottom and it didn't take long to prove me right.

On my second or third cast past the second sand bar, a tarpon of about 5 feet in length took my bait and took off.   I saw the hit and didn't realize it was a tarpon until it made it's first jump out of the water.   As the line started screaming off my reel, I quickly realized that the fish could spool me.

When the tarpon jumped the second time, the hook came out and I didn't have to worry about the spooling problem.

That was only the second tarpon I ever hooked from the beach and both were unforgettable.

Anyway, I tied on another hook and caught another bluefish before the bite started slowing down.

It was around 6:30pm when Jeff and I decided to call it a day.  I had six bluefish in the small cooler for dinner and a tale to tell my wife.

Not bad for a few hours of fishing.

With any luck, might meet Jeff tomorrow for another shot at the fall mullet run.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Space X Problem And Refuge Closure

The Space X problem that occurred yesterday at Cape Canaveral, along with the heavy rains we have been experiencing from the hurricane that passed by us, has caused the closure of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Immediately after I heard about the launch test explosion on television yesterday, I took my wife's truck down to the river, along with a couple of spinning rods, to see if it was visible from the bridge.

When I topped the bridge, I could see some smoke on the horizon at the space center,  but most of it had layered on the horizon.  It was an overcast morning so I thought I would drive into the refuge to check out the fishing in the marsh, but when I got to the first entrance, there was a barrier across the road.

 

I never thought they would close down the refuge, especially right before Labor Day but that's exactly what they did.

In any event, I drove down to check out the other entrances and they too were closed to vehicle traffic with no explanation.

I drove back to the house and decided to try it again but when I drove down to the river today, there was a mobile sign advising that due to the rains, all the unimproved roads in the refuge were closed.

Hope they open it up before the weekend, or I might have to break down and take out my flats boat.

Till next time, Tight Lines.