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.