Playalinda Beach Blues

Since the bluefish are in the surf I decided to take advantage of the high tide and catch a few for dinner tonight.

I had some finger mullet in the freezer along with a relatively fresh bag of shrimp, so I loaded up a couple of rods and headed to Playalinda Beach to see if they were hitting as good as they were yesterday.

I stopped briefly at lots #1 and #8, but there were too many beach goers, so I drove up to lot #10 where there are usually not as many people around the surf fishermen.

I spotted Harry Potter who had three rods put out and several other fishermen up and down the beach.

The tide was on the way in, so I took some time watching the wave action trying to determine where a good spot may be to fish.

I picked an area where there was a decent washout and more crushed shells than sand and walked down to place my sand spikes.

The air temperature was 80 degrees and there was a good wind at my back when I put out my baits.

I put out one "river" rod with a 3 oz. pyramid sinker and two small hooks baited with peeled shrimp for whiting or pompano.

The second rod, a 10 foot surf rig with an Okuma reel and 30 pound Power Pro was rigged for finger mullet.

The waves made detecting a bite tough and I lost several shrimp on the river rod before pulling it in so I could concentrate on the surf rig with the finger mullet.

After losing several baits, I started cutting the mullet in half and began to catch fish.

The larger blues were about 75 yards from the beach, and they were definitely hungry.

I landed several bluefish in the 12" to 16" category, kept 5 for dinner, and missed at least a dozen more to short strikes.

When I got to Playalinda Beach this afternoon, it was around 3:30pm and by 5:30pm the beach was barren as I was packing it up getting ready to leave.

Meanwhile, Harry said he was missing some fish and catching a few whiting and bluefish.

I took these short videos of him as I was leaving, for posterity, or something like that....

Anyway, I had a great time catching bluefish in the surf and may come back tomorrow if I can get away from the house long enough.


Till next time, Tight Lines and bent rods.

Met Harry Potter At Playalinda Beach

Well I never expected to meet "Harry Potter" at Playalinda Beach today, but that's exactly what happened.

After I got through replacing part of the railing on my front porch, I decided to see if anything was going on at the beach.

I loaded up a couple of 7 1/2' river rods, a heavy duty shark rod, picked up some frozen shrimp and finger mullet at the bait shop and headed to Playalinda.

The owner at Capt Hooks Bait shop told me that the Pompano were hitting at lot #l and that a couple of guys said that the black tip sharks and bluefish were strong at lot #8.

With that information logged into the deeper recesses of my noggin, I headed to the beach to scout the area out.

 The lady guard at the shack didn't have much to say about the fishing, so I decided to stop at a few lots to make my own decision on where to start.

I stopped at lot #1 where the Pompano fishermen were supposed to be "nailing" the fish but there were only two guys fishing and a lot of people sunbathing.   I clicked a couple of pics before moving on to check out some of the other lots.

I briefly checked out lot #8 where a lot of people seemed to be partying, but only a couple people were fishing. 

I finally stopped at lot #10 where I usually spend most of my time fishing and hit the spot where all the fishermen seemed to be congregating.

I took a few shots of the area and walked down to see if anyone was catching.

The first guy I talked to was Harry Potter (below) who was relaxing with several rods out in their holders.

When I ask3ed him if anybody was catching fish, he told me that several fishermen were catching whiting, bluefish and a few pompano.   

While he was using clams and sand fleas for bait, the guys to his left were catching "schoolie" bluefish on chunks of finger mullet. 

While we were talking, a fisherman to our left hooked up with a bluefish which he gave to his wife to reel in.  I took a short clip of he action as well as the stops I made, below.

I had originally set my sights on catching a black tip shark but when I saw the blues in the surf, I decided to get a couple of my rods from the truck and try my luck.

It was getting close to the 6:00 pm closing time so I only had about an hour to fish.

I baited up with some frozen finger mullet and after the third or fourth cast hooked a pass crab.

Not a very good start, but I pressed on and eventually hooked and lost a bluefish.  I snelled on another hook and finally landed a decent schoolie bluefish which I gave to Harry.

The tide was coming in and my cell phone and car keys which I placed in my shoes were almost washed out with the waves, but an extremely nice lady grabbed them before they hit the surf.

I quickly blew off the phone and my keys and decided to call it a day.

I gave Harry Potter some mullet and headed for the house.

On my way, I decided to swing by Peacocks Pocket boat launch to see if anyone was catching drum or redfish.

The two guys I talked to that had just finished up for the day both caught a couple of tailing reds on live shrimp.  The one guy said that the fishing in this part of the Indian River was "hit or miss".

The redfish and black drum singles and schools are all over the area, but they are spooky and hard to catch, especially when the water is as calm as it was today.

I thanked them for the information and headed home to dry off my smart phone.

Hope to get out tomorrow for another shot.

Tight Lines and bent rods.

Croaker In The River

After being stuffed with way too much turkey, this afternoon seemed to be a good time to hit the river and see what was happening.

My wife went to check on her horse, so I packed up a few rods, a cooler with some frozen shrimp and finger mullet, and last but not least; the dogs.

I wasn't going to take them but Elmo and Odie looked so despondent that I couldn't let them alone.

When I stopped by the bait shop to pick up some live mullet, they were sold out.  So, I headed to the river with only my frozen bait and limited hopes of catching anything worthwhile.

The wildlife refuge was loaded with ducks of all types, alligators just about everywhere, and lots of visitors doing the same thing I was doing; getting out of the house and enjoying the beautiful day.

The weather was great.  The air temp was 73 degrees and there was only a hint of a breeze across the Indian River.

There were limited fishing spots but I lucked out and staked my claim at an area of of  Catfish Creek Loop road where my wife and I picked up some nice black drum last month.

I put out one rod with cut mullet, and two other rods with freshly defrosted medium sized shrimp and almost immediately had a bite on the shrimp.

I missed the first  two hits, but picked up a small croaker on the third round.  It was small but better than nothing.

 In the next half hour or so, I managed to hook and release 11 more croaker on the frozen shrimp which were all in the 8" to 13" range, a small stingray and a couple of river whiting.

The bites were still coming but I had a hit on the rod with the mullet which turned out to be a couple of mating Horseshoe Crabs.

It was getting late and the gnats were killing me so I decided to hit the road and call it a day. 

Elmo and Odie had a lot of fun, and even thought the fish weren't anything to write home about, so did I.

I plan on taking the boat out tomorrow to chase some redfish in the lagoon.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Catfish Creek Redfish

Today was the first time since I got home that I could wet a line in about three weeks, so this afternoon I packed up Elmo, Odie and two spinning rods and headed to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see if I could pick up a sea trout or two.

The air temperature this afternoon was a cool 72 degrees but with the wind chill factor, it felt like 60.

Although this trip was really for the dogs, I had high hopes of catching a fish or two for dinner, so when I drove into East Gator Creek road and saw a couple of nice wakes in the shallows, I pulled out my short river rod and started tossing a Z-man paddletail on a jig that I had rigged up.

I fan cast the area for several minutes and had a small hit, but I didn't get a hookup so I moved on to scout out the rest of the area.

There were tons of Coot in the refuge and a couple of large gators in the shallows around East Gator Creek, but after trying my luck in several areas, I was beginning to lose faith in catching anything.

The dogs were having fun watching all the Coot so I continued slowly driving around the refuge looking for signs of fish.

As I got to the first pond before Catfish Creek Loop, I pulled over to fish around a small island where I had caught reds last year about this time.

I walked the bank casting across to the other side and started retrieving slower to see if that would change my luck and after about a dozen casts, a fish picked up the bait on the drop.

There was no doubt in my mind that it was a redfish.  The fish immediately took off towards Peacocks Pocket road and I almost lost it around the brush at the culvert, but after a decent fight and a few good runs, I managed to land the red.

The fish measured roughly in at about 32 inches, so I unhooked the Z-Mann bait and released it to fight again another day.

Things were looking up!   

I fan cast the stretch for about 20 minutes without another hit before finally giving up to move on down the road.

As we drove into Catfish Creek Loop, we passed by Peacocks Pocket road with the closed sign still up and a bunch of vultures ominously standing guard at the entrance.

 

 I continued to fish likely looking areas without any luck until I finally decided to head for the house.  A cold front was moving in, the air temperature had dropped down into the high 60s, and I was getting chilly.

I stopped one last time to let Elmo and Odie do their duty before heading out.

 Hopefully, I'll get a chance to get the boat out before Christmas. 

Till next time, Tight Lines.