Playalinda Beach Pompano

Playalinda Beach Pompano usually gear up during December and continue until late February and this year is no exception.

Although I haven't seen Harry Potter since last December, he just happened to be at lot #10 when I trudged up the walkway to the beach.

I put out my Okuma surf rod with 30 pound PowerPro braid and a 3 oz pyramid sinker just past the first breakers and set up my second "river" rod a bit closer to the surf before walking over to talk to Harry about the fishing.

He remembered me from last year when we were fishing the same area for bluefish in the surf, and we shot the "bull" a little bit before getting down to talking about the fishing conditions today.

Harry had a nice 18" Pompano in his bucket and caught a nice whiting as I was walking up to him.

He said that last week, the Pompano bite was on fire but as suddenly as it began, it came to a dead halt.

I told him that I had the same report from the owner of the bait shop and a couple of other fishermen who hit the beach regularly.

Today, I was hoping to hit the beach on the incoming tide, but as it turned out, I was late again.  The tide was on it's way out and the surf was unusually calm when I staked out my rods.

I told him I was using cut clam and frozen sand fleas for bait and he offered me some of his stash of live sand fleas that he caught all his fish on today.

I gratefully accepted his offering and baited up with some live ones on my rigs.

All up and down the beach there were fishermen with rods staked out but nobody seemed to be catching anything much.

The surf fisherman next to me caught a small Sea Robin and later on an undersized pompano, but all the time I was on the beach, I never had a bite.

It was a beautiful day so I didn't really care about getting skunked, but I was hoping for something.

Harry's friend from up north showed up and as luck would have it caught a nice pompano almost as soon as he cast out.  He is pictured above in the short video.

I spent time talking to anglers and basically killing time until the bite picked up, but it never did.

After about two hours without even a nibble, I couldn't take it any longer and packed up my meager gear to head for the house and some dinner.

As I Harry waved goodbye, I heard him say he planned to be out again tomorrow.

Being Christmas Day, I'm not sure I'll make it, but I certainly hope the action gets better than it was today.

On the way out of the beach, I drove past Eddy Creek to see if any progress was made to the small fishing pier.   I was surprised to see that they have almost totally replaced the pier.

As I drove out of Eddy Creek I couldn't help but think about what everyone said; that even if you never went fishing before in your life, you couldn't help but catch at least a couple of pompano.
.
My timing really sucks.

Till next time,
Tight Lines

Haulover Canal Doldrums

Haulover Canal fishing is usually good to excellent this time of the year, so I decided to drive over and see if anybody was catching and just not fishing.

I considered bringing Elmo and Odie along for the ride, but I decided against it at the last minute if I decided to hit Playalinda Beach instead.

I stopped at the bait shop and after getting the skinny on the fishing conditions, I decided to hit the beach first to see if the surf fishing was any good.

After picking up a bag each of frozen sand fleas, shrimp, and finger mullet, the beach was my first stop.

It was late in the afternoon and more traffic was coming out than in.  When I finally got to the toll both, I asked about the tide and Pompano fishing.

The attendant said that the fishing for Pompano was great the last two weeks but today the bite stopped at about 10:30am.  High tide was at about the same time so I decided not to fish the beach at all and turned around and fish Haulover Canal instead.

I drove into Bairs Cove boat launch road and parked at the first open spot, which just happened to be at the bridge.

Several people were fishing around the area, but nobody seemed to be catching any fish.   The water in the canal was dead calm with no visible current, and there were several boats fishing the pilings under and around the bridge.

I pitched out a river rod with an Okuma bait runner reel loaded with 30 pound PowerPro line and a sliding sinker rig as terminal tackle.  I baited up with a quarter of a blue crab and sat down to wait.

A "fantasy yacht " silently cruised through the canal along with several smaller boats, but not one person fishing in my sight caught any fish during the time I stayed at the spot.

After losing and having to re-tie three rigs to the Coquina outcroppings, I decided to call it a day for that spot..

I drove towards the boat launch and pulled into a spot that was away from any possible boat trailer traffic.

I always carry a topwater rod with my favorite Chug Bug bait, and since the sun was slowly going down, I thought I might pick up some topwater action with speckled sea trout.

I walked down to a cove and after fan casting the Chug Bug a dozen or more times, I was rewarded with a nice sea trout that looked like it was just under the slot.

I released the fish and after a few more casts picked up a couple more before moving on to another area.  All the fish were just under the slot, but at least I didn't get skunked.

I drove towards the "Boy Scout" encampment to make my last stop and pulled into a spot at the point.

The Chug Bug was ready so I started fan casting from the shallow point out into deeper water.

It took only a few casts before a small sea trout nailed the bait.  I released the fish and continued casting the area.  Several casts later, I caught another small trout that was a clone to the first.

 

 I heard a school of Black Drum "drumming" along the deeper channel but I didn't feel like dunking a bait for them.  Instead, I continued fishing the top water bait to see if I could pick up a winter gator trout.

I probably should have dropped a shrimp into the area, because I never got another fish before the sun finally set.

As the gnats started eating me alive, I loaded up my rod and headed to the house for some dinner.

Hopefully I'll be able to hit the beach tomorrow and pick up a couple of Pomps for dinner.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Odie vs Turtle

The morning, with fishing rod in hand, it was Odie vs Turtle on the front porch of our house.

A soft shell turtle visited us sometime during the night and was discovered by Karen at the screened entrance to our pool.

The poor guy was upside down and at first we thought it was dead until I turned it over and it showed it's true colors.

I was going to put it in our pond but I didn't want to take the chance of having one of our Koi killed so I decided to release it in Fox Lake, a bit up the road from our house.

On the front porch, Odie decided to investigate so I took a short video of his antics.

I often see these guys when I fish the marsh canals, but this is the first time one ever visited us.

I have no idea why the thing was upside down on it's back when Karen found it, but she thought a racoon might have tried to get at it.  Who knows.

Anyway, I plan to hit either the beach or Haulover Canal this afternoon to see about catching either a Pompano or redfish.

Till next time,
Tight Lines, bent rods, and Merry Christmas.

Dauphin Island Jetty Fishing In December

Dauphin Island jetty fishing in December is supposed to be good for bull redfish, so I decided to hit the rocks Sunday afternoon to see if the reports were as purported.

I started late and didn't bother checking the tide until I has halfway there.  As luck would have it, the tide was slack and just beginning to run out into the Gulf.

I planned to fish the pier at the parking lot near the boat launch, but when I got there, I was disappointed to see that the pier was closed to fishing.

Apparently the hurricane did it's work on the wooden pier and caused just enough damage to make it unsafe for fishermen.

I drove past the pier to the parking area for the beach and easily found a space.  Winter time in the Gulf makes for easy parking!

It was quickly becoming evident that the fishing was going to be slow.  No one was fishing off of any of the jetties.

Since I made the 15 mile drive to the rocks, I decided to at least wet a line give it a try anyway.  

I brought a 9' rod that was loaded with 20 pound Cajun Red line and about 4 feet of 30 pound fluorocarbon  leader.   I had a 4 oz. barrel sinker above the swivel and a 4/0 Owner hook snelled to the business end.

I brought along a couple large frozen mullet for bait and was going to buy some fresh mullet at the local bait shop, but when I learned that the tide was against me, I opted for using frozen mullet instead.

I trudged to the end of the longest jetty, cut of a chunk of mullet steak, tossed it as far as I could into the deepest area, and started taking pics of the surroundings.

There was a lot of boating activity and more beach goers than I expected but I was the only one fishing from the rocks.

I kept losing baits so I down sized my offering and started catching smaller fish.

As the tide started to go out, I managed to catch 6 whiting, three croaker, and one small sail cat.

The last croaker I landed was only about 5 inches long so I hooked it in the lip and tossed it out in hopes of catching a big redfish.

I's like to report that I landed a bull red but I didn't.   I spent the next 45 minutes or so drowning the croaker without another bite and because the sun was going down and the temperature was dropping, I decided to pack it in and head back to Tillman's Corner.

Although I didn't slay the local fishery, it was good to get out and enjoy the winter afternoon at Dauphin Island.

I hope you enjoy the pics and short video.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Catfish Creek Loop Redfish

Late yesterday afternoon when I was pitching my favorite Chug Bug around the East Gator Creek in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, I drove up to the barriers at Peacocks Pocket and Catfish Creek Loop roads and ran into Mike and Paul Miller as they were walking out from the barriers.

When I rolled down the window and asked Mike if they caught anything, he showed me a video on his smart phone of a nice oversize Catfish Creek Loop redfish that they picked up earlier.

He said that they caught the redfish while bottom fishing with shrimp on  light tackle and that it took around 18 minutes to land and release the fish.

He was using an open face Shakespeare reel with 10 pound test line and a sliding sinker rig as terminal tackle.

Mike said the fish looked like it was 27" to 30" long and probably weighed 18 to 20 pounds, but when I watched the video again, it looked like it was just over the slot and in the 10 to 12 pound range.

Paul is holding the red in the pic to the left, you be the judge but regardless, it was a nice catch and I appreciate him sharing the video (below) with us.

I'm not sure if Mike or Paul caught the fish, but he did it right.

The cove that they caught it in is in the northern part of the Indian River where redfish cruise close to shore in singles and small schools throughout the day.

They are most active closer to dusk, which is when I like to target them with jerk baits and topwater baits like Chug Bugs, worked super slow.

When I left them, I drove back to a small pond where I missed a couple of small sea trout and a redfish earlier.

I spent about 20 minutes fan casting the Chug Bug around the edges of the pond and had a couple of half hearted hits from trout, but nothing of any size hit my bait so I headed back to the hacienda.

I may come back to the area Sunday to see if I can pick up a fish before I leave town again.

Till then, Tight Lines.

Scouting Trip

Finally took the "boys" on a scouting trip around East Gator Creek road to see if anything was happening on the bank fishing front.

The first entrance is still barricaded, but East Gator Creek road is open up to Peacocks Pocket road which is closed seasonally to vehicle traffic from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15th, and Catfish Creek Loop which is still apparently closed because of hurricane damage.

When I turned into East Gator Creek with Elmo and Odie hanging out the window, the air temperature was in the low 70s and there was a mild breeze blowing across the shallow flats.

I drove slowly looking for some topwater action, but nothing was happening, even towards dusk.

I tossed my favorite Chug Bug around a couple of areas where I caught fish in the past, but nothing was interested in the bait this evening.

As we drove around the area, I was surprised to see that the road was nicely mowed for vehicle traffic.  Too bad they couldn't repair Peacocks Pocket with the same funds.

Anyway, it was late in the afternon when we finally made our way up to the barricaded roads,  other than one family who was fishing the culverts, nobody was in the area.

On the way out, I spotted several pods of mullet meandering within casting distance from the road but I didn't bother pitching a bait around them.

Hopefully, after Thanksgiving, I'll be able to wet a line in the area.  There are definitely fish in the area, but the Chug Bug apparently wasn't the best choice.

I'll probably be dunking a finger mullet just like the other guys in the area.

As we drove over the bridge, I decided to make a quick run past the fishing piers.  I was surprised to see that they were closed down by the local government.  Although I didn't see any damage to the piers, I assume that the hurricane was the cause.

I wonder what the local shrimpers are going this time of the year.   I'm definitely going to do some research on it to find out why it has been closed off.

Without a boat, kayak, or canoe; it's getting tough to do any bank fishing in this area.

Too bad, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge used to be one of the best areas in East Central Florida to fish and observe waterfowl, but apparently those days are gone.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Walking The Ditches

I've been back in town now for a few days and finally got a chance to try walking the ditches in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Since the road closures, walking the ditches has developed a new meaning to me.  You have to park and literally walk a good distance to get in some decent fishing these days.,  It helps with the cardio, but it's a pain in the kishka trying to carry all the gear you think you actually need.

The area I walked the other day was literally barren of fishermen.  I had the entire area to myself.

Most fishermen were either lining the banks of the causeway dunking live finger mullet or cut baits for redfish, kayaking, or fishing the piers underneath the A. Max Brewer Bridge.

I managed to tote a topwater spinning rod with one of my favorite Chug Bug patterns; (Baby Bass) and another rod with lighter line and a Creme Paddletail soft bait that has also been a favorite bait of mine during the cooler months.

The marsh canals still provide a lot of action.

Although I only managed to catch a few spotted sea trout in the 12 to 17 inch range, I spotted two schools of drum cruising down the marsh canal,  several lone redfish that looked like they were well over the slot and a couple of gator sized spotted sea trout.

All the sea trout were caught on soft baits.  Most of the time I fished the deeper areas in the canal very slowly with a freshwater Storm Wildeye shiner.

I only had an opportunity to pitch the bait a couple of times to larger trout that were busting on baitfish along the opposite bank.

The nicest thing about fishing this time of the year is the lack of people and fishing pressure.   All the time I was in the area, I never saw another fisherman.

I expected the fish to be spooky, but the ones I spotted apparently received little to no fishing pressure.

On the walk back to the car, I flipped the Chug Bug to a couple of swirls along the bank and missed a redfish on a short strike, but other than that, the fish weren't too interested in top water baits.

Gotta love the sunsets in this area.

Till next time
Tight Lines.

Topwater Fishing For Juvenile Tarpon

This afternoon seemed like a good time to head out to the river and do some tarpon fishing, so I grabbed my fly rod, a couple of boxes of flies and headed for the last place I caught some fish.  Or, at least had some hits.

Open flowing culverts are usually magnets for fish, so I headed to the same area where I lost several juvenile tarpon yesterday afternoon around some open culverts.

When I eased up to the spot, a fisherman was just preparing to leave so I asked him if he had caught anything.

He told me he had a couple of hits but could not hook anything.  Kind of like what happened to me yesterday at the same spot.

I took a couple of short videos of the fish rolling and dimpling on the surface until he left and then rigged up my fly rod with a heaver leader than I was using yesterday and tied on a dark patterned tarpon fly.

After a couple of casts, I briefly hooked into a small tarpon that flipped the fly after the first jump.  I was hoping today wouldn't be a repeat of yesterday but it was too early to make any rash judgements.

I spent the next half hour or so casting several fly patterns and missing three more tarpon.  I just could not get a solid hookup to save my life and after a while, I couldn't buy another strike either.

As I was thinking about tying on another pattern, a guy pulled up with a spinning rod and a gold spoon and asked me if I minded him fishing the area.

I had no problems with that, especially since the fish seemed to have developed lockjaw.

His name was Kirby Laneau, and we spent the next hour or so trying to catch the tarpon that were in the area on a variety of artificial baits.

I spent a lot of time on my cell phone trying to get a shot of him catching a fish but although he was willing,  the fish weren't so much.

He had a few strikes on his flies and after some time he switched to a popping bug, and finally a topwater frog colored Torpedo propeller bait that finally snagged a fish; below.

Kirby knew his way around a fly rod and we had a pleasant discussion on a variety of topics while trying to catch a fish.

I intermittently tried a gold spoon, a swim bait that I had a few hits on, and finally as dusk came upon us, a Chug Bug that I normally used for spotted sea trout and redfish along Peacocks Pocket Road, when it used to be open to vehicle traffic.

After Kirby hooked and landed his tarpon, I broke down and tied on the Chug Bug with only about a 20 inch piece of fluorocarbon leader between the lure and my 40 pound Power Pro main line.

I wasn't convinced that I would be able to catch anything with the short piece of leader but I didn't have time to tie on a longer piece.  It was getting dark.

I had three or four decent hits on the Chug Bug, but I still could not sink a hook into a fish.  I'm beginning to think I have some kind of  "fish hooking curse" or something.

Anyway, as we were casting the area, a large oversize snook jumped at least 6 feet into the air as it was chasing something for dinner.  The fish looked like it was between 3 to 4 feet long as it splashed back into the water.

As luck would have it, I couldn't get it on my cell phone however, I did compile these vids of this afternoons fishing excursion.

I really need to remember to bring along my Go Pro next time.

When the mosquitoes started to fatten up on the blood from my legs, I finally decided to call it a day and head back home.

I bid farewell to Kirby and took his pic before he left so I could post it here tonight.

Till next time,
Tight Lines and Bent Rods.

 

Tarpon Hunting On The Fly

Late Saturday afternoon I decided to go Tarpon hunting in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I've been out of town for a few weeks and with another hurricane brewing in the Gulf, I decided to take advantage of the high water levels, the Harvest Moon, and the barometer to get some much needed fishing in.

The last time I tried Tarpon hunting, conventional lures were pretty much useless, so this time I brought along my 8 wt fly rod and a few flies to augment the 7' spinning rod that I always carry in the truck.

As I crossed the A. Max Brewer Causeway bridge I was beginning to think I made a drastic mistake. There were tons of people on both sides of the causeway fishing and kite surfing.

Although the wind was brisk, the weather was gorgeous so I continued driving past the refuge entrance towards Bio Lab Road.

The barriers are still up on Gator Creek, East Gator Creek, Catfish Creek Loop, and Peacocks Pocket roads, and although you can still walk the areas, nobody had cars parked so I can only assume that nobody was bothering to walk the areas.

Too bad, there's some great fishing along most of the roads, especially when the water levels are up like they are right now.

Park your butt next to a flowing culvert and you usually have some good fishing in store.

I drove past Black Point Wildlife Drive towards Bio Lab road and was surprised at how many parked vehicles there were along the road.    Probably due to hunting season..

Anyway, the water levels in the Mosquito Lagoon were way up and because there were people fishing the creek at the Bio Lab boat launch,  I decided to head towards Patillo Creek to see if the barricades were still up there.

 

I noticed that Beacon 42 boat ramp road was still closed and when I made the left turn into Patillo Creek, it also was closed to vehicle traffic at the second entrance.

I stopped at the barrier, strung up my fly rod, tied on a black and white Lefty's Deceiver and headed towards the first set of culverts.

When I lived in Pennsylvania as a youth, I grew up with a fly rod in my hand and even though I'm out of practice and don't use a fly rod all that much in saltwater, I picked it up almost immediately.

My first cast into the area at the culvert hooked my up with an almost gator sea trout of about 25 to 27 inches. The fish hit the deceiver on the second or third strip and after a very brief run, broke off in the brush along the bank.

Lesson number 1. Use a heavy leader in salt water.

I made several more casts with another deceiver fly on both sides of the culvert but the fish weren't interested, so I headed back to the truck and decided to run towards North Shiloh Road.

As I drove up Shiloh Road, I spotted a group of fishermen about to leave the area I planned to fish.

When I asked them how they were doing, they said they hit a few small tarpon that would not take anything but a small original floating Rapala.    The one guy said he caught a tarpon in the 24 inch category and the other wasn't specific about the size.

When they saw me pull out my fly rod, they both said that the fish were hitting small minnows and that they wished they had brought along theirs.

After the group left, I started casting against the wind into the open culvert side where I expected the larger fish to be holding, but after making what seemed like a million casts, I never got a hit.

The other side of the culvert was where all the activity seemed to be.   There were dimples in the water with rolling tarpon all over the place and occasionally, a larger fish would blow up along the submerged banks to attack the baitfish that were holding there.

I spotted several redfish or snook wakes along the banks, but most of the fish in the area were Tarpon. Just what I was interested in.

I started pitching another deceiver pattern with a blue back and white feathers into the area and almost immediately had a juvenile tarpon hit the fly, jump, and break the fly off the leader.

I was silently cussing myself for not bringing along my GoPro.   It's impossible trying to get a video of jumping tarpon on a smart phone when you have a fly rod on one hand and the line in the other.

I tied on another streamer pattern that was in a redfish and speckled trout selection of saltwater flies from  Orvis and after several more casts suffered the same results.   A larger juvenile tarpon of around two feet jumped once and immediately broke off the fly.

During the course of the next hour and a half, I hooked six more juvenile tarpon which broke off after jumping or after making short runs, and had a slot size snook follow this white Conehead Bunny Muddler.

The snook followed the minnow imitation all the way up to the culvert but turned off twice. I guess it saw me?

Anyway, as it started getting toward dusk, I ran out of flies and decided to start pitching a Johnson's Sprite gold spoon that I had on my other rod.

I had two or three bumps on the spoon, but no solid hits.    I believe if I had a smaller sized spoon, I would have caught something, but the 3 1/2" gold spoon just didn't "match the hatch".

As the sun started to set, two guys on the way out asked me what I had caught.   I told them and they replied that they caught a tarpon of about 26" and a small snook, both on a fly.

The mosquitoes were finally driving me crazy, so I packed up, turned the truck around and headed home.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Scouting Trip Around The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Because of the hurricane and the fact that I've been out of town most of this month, my fishing posts have been less than stellar. So, this afternoon, I embarked on a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see what I've been missing.

I loaded four rods into the truck and headed over the bridge to see what was shaking in the marsh.

As I topped the bridge, I noticed that no cars were in the refuge and everyone seemed to be fishing along both sides of the causeway.

The water as expected was way up from the storm and also as expected, the barriers were up on East Gator Creek, Gator Creek, Peacocks Pocket, and most all of the other roads.

I decided to drive into BioLab Road to fish the flats.  As I drove into the entrance, I noticed some activity at the open culverts so I pulled over and pulled out a rod with a Johnsons Sprite gold spoon.

After making several casts it was apparent that the fish were not going for the spoon.

There were tons of small glass minnows being flushed out of the open culvert and there were several large juvenile tarpon and at least two snook actively feeding on them.

I did not come prepared with small baits or my fly rod, which would have been perfect for the situation, so all I could do was take some pics of the area and the fish that were gorging on the small anchovies.

When two cars pulled into the area, I decided to move on to see what else was going on along the drive to the beach.

BioLab Road was full of crabbers and fishermen.  Most of the pull overs were occupied but I didn't see anyone actually catching fish.

I spotted a guide poling along the near flats, but almost everybody was bank fishing.

I stopped at a couple of likely looking spots to toss a jerk bait but at 2:00 pm I didn't really expect to catch a mess of fish.

I decided to head to the beach to see if the mullet were in the surf.  They were due, and I was hoping that the spoon would pick up a blue or Spanish mackerel if the baitfish were here.

I drove past the first parking areas into Eddy Creek to see how much damage the hurricane had done to the old wood fishing pier.   When I got there, I immediately noticed that the pier was being rebuilt.
There were new pilings out, but not much else.

I spotted a nice lady in a kayak that had just come in and asked her if anybody had caught any fish.  She told me that everybody she came across when she was out said they got "skunked".

I thanked her and left to see if there were any mullet in the surf.

When I checked out lots #9 and #10, it was high tide and no fishermen were anywhere.  The surf was super rough and fishing with my outfit would have been a waste of time so I decided to run over to Haulover Canal.

Haulover Canal had been closed to bank fishermen but it was evidently now open.  Both sides of the canal were lined with bank fishermen dunking a variety of baits.

I spotted some kayaks and my "fantasy" boat going down the canal but decided not to bother fishing.

My next stop was Beacon 42 boat launch but there was a barrier across the road.  When I drove into Patillo Creek, it also had a barrier up.   Evidently, the hurricane really messed up the roads in the refuge.

Since it was getting late, I decided to head towards US1 and drive into Shiloh Road if it was open.

There is a spot there that I catch juvenile tarpon on a regular basis, so I gave it a try.

As luck would have it, the road was open so I headed to my favorite spot.  As I got close to the area, it was apparent that I wasn't the only one aware of it's potential.

Three guys were already there fishing for tarpon.  One guy was using a plastic soft bait and two others were tossing flies at the fish.

I didn't want to horn in on their territory, so I took these pics and a short video of the action.

The one guy had a small tarpon and missed a couple of other fish on a white fly and the other two guys didn't do as well.

After taking the pics, I decided to head for the hacienda and get something to eat.

I made a mental note to bring along my fly rod next time I decided to go on a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

9-11-2017 Fishing

September 11, 2017 was the first time since Hurricane Irma that I bothered visiting the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and it was an interesting sight.

The winds were still gusting and although the water levels on the causeway were close to the roadway, it did not deter some hardy souls from wetting a line in hopes of catching redfish for dinner.

When I took Elmo and Odie for a ride, I was surprised how many fishermen were actually out on the water.

The north side of the causeway was spotted with at least a dozen fishermen who had each staked out at least a couple of rods with cut or live mullet.  

When I asked about the fishing, a couple of guys said the reds were "hitting like there was no tomorrow".

I took a couple of quick pics and a short video before heading back to the house for some cleanup,

I briefly thought about grabbing a rod and joining in on the action, but my yard needed some attention.  I had three ponds in my yard which is not in a flood zone, and a 50 foot tree across my driveway that I could not take down because of the water.

I count my blessings.  It could have been so much worse.

Till when I can wet a line again,

Tight Lines.

Hurricane Irma Fishing

Evidently Hurricane Irma didn't stop some die hard fishermen from taking advantage of the low pressure associated with the storm.

An exceptional redfish bite in our area often occurs just before a front, especially before a hurricane.

Although I do not recommend anyone picking up a rod to fish this particular storm, it is well known that fish bite like crazy when the barometer drops.

At 2:00 pm this afternoon, I took a quick spin around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see if anybody was dedicated enough to break out their fishing tackle, and as I suspected, the north side of SR 402 was dotted with guys putting out live mullet to fish for redfish.

I also spotted two really dedicated guys putting away their wind surfing gear.

Parrish Park was empty except for a couple of fishermen under the A. Max Brewer Bridge and the fishing piers were also for the most part uninhabited.

 I spoke to one fishermen as he was leaving the lower fishing pier and asked him if he was doing any good.  He said he caught several small spotted sea trout and a small redfish and was moving to the next bridge to see if he could catch anything larger.

I briefly thought about going back home and picking up a fishing rod, but as I started back to the house, the rain started again.

Hurricane Irma is one storm I take very seriously, so I'm home behind boarded up windows waiting for the hit tomorrow morning.  

The latest track shows the category 3 storm moving through the Florida Keys and Miami tomorrow morning and then turning to Naples and Tampa, but with almost a 70 mile wide swath, we are going to get nailed regardless of the path.

Hope you all took this one seriously and prepared for it.

Till next time I can go fishing again, 
Tight Lines and God bless.

Gator Creek Tarpon

Since I've been home this past week, I've noticed a lot of juvenile tarpon in the deeper shallows of Gator Creek.

This area is where I enjoy catching ladyfish for fun and occasionally for bait, but yesterday when I took Elmo and Odie out for a ride around the "swamp", I jumped one tarpon along the deeper shallows on a freshwater bass pattern Chug Bug, and a second one that was about 4 feet long that hit the Badonk-A-Donk below.

The ladyfish have been acting like they haven't had a meal in months.

When I first started casting the Chug Bug, I got a hit on every single cast until they finally wised up and stopped chasing the bait.

I managed to land 5 ladyfish that ranged from about 12" in length, to one that topped 24" in about a 20 minute period.  I lost more than I landed but since I released all of the fish, I really didn't care.

I enjoy topwater fishing, and these guys keep the action at a high level but when I hooked into the first tarpon, it really got the old muscle pumping.

The larger size tarpon hit in an area that I never expected to hold fish.  I'm keeping that place to myself but as soon as I'm finished with this post, I plan on visiting the location to see if I can get him to hit another topwater bait.

These guys are hard to hook on light tackle.  I use 10 pound test Cajun Red line with a 20 or 30 pound fluorocarbon leader on most of my topwater rods, and unless you really set the hooks, the fish usually shake off the plug.

Anyway, it's about 6:00 pm and I'm ready to head for the refuge to see if I can scarf up another Gator Creek tarpon.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Gator Creek Topwater Fishing

Since I've been home this past week, I have enjoyed some great Gator Creek topwater fishing opportunities in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, despite the continued closure of Peacocks Pocket Road.

Almost every afternoon, rain or shine, I have managed to nail ladyfish of various sizes, spotted sea trout, juvenile tarpon, and even a large garfish that hit a Chug Bug in one of the culverts.

The best bite has been just before or during a rainstorm, but I have been having some surprisingly good topwater action from 5:00pm till dusk in many areas when the water is like glass.

Yesterday afternoon, I hit East Gator Creek late in the afternoon when the conditions were anything but conducive to topwater fishing.  The water was dead calm in most areas, the air temperature was in the high 80s, and no fish were hitting on the surface.

Despite the conditions, I started tossing a Baby Bass colored freshwater Chug Bug smeared up with some Inshore Saltwater formula Pro-Cure in some areas where I spotted fish the previously day. 

I fished several areas in the shallow water flats along the road by mostly fan casting to the opposite bank.  The trick to getting bit was to let the topwater bait sit completely still until the ripples dissipated and then just barely popping the Chug Bug.

The fish, if there was any in the area, would usually hit the bait as soon as the twitch was made; usually with explosive action.

Most of the fish I picked up yesterday were small to medium size ladyfish up to two feet, but I hooked and released a garfish in a culvert that was over 24" in length.

The garfish was never actually hooked, it's teeth were tangled in the leader loop in the front of the bait which made it easy for me to shake off at the bank.

I hooked and lost two gator sized sea trout that were both over 24" on a banana shaped walk the dog type bait that I picked up at Bass Pro Shops in Mobile, Al. (below).

   

After losing the second fish, I went back to tossing the Chug Bug.  For whatever reason, I was getting better hookups with that bait.

The only problem I have with Gator Creek topwater fishing is the gators that keep following the lures when a good fish hits.

Their predatory instincts kick in, especially when they see a fish on the line, and they become so pesky that you have to move on to fish the baits.

Peacocks Pocket road is also pretty good fishing right now close to dusk if you don't mind walking a bit.

I have been picking up some nice sea trout in the marsh canal and have spotted several oversize redfish cruising the banks after baitfish close to dusk.

I have been doing a good bit more fishing in the Mobile, Al. area, but you have to rely more on the tides to catch fish.

Regardless, you just can't beat the sunsets that we have in East Central Florida.

With any luck, I'll be able to get in a few more productive afternoons before I have to get back to work.

Tight Lines and bent rods...

East Gator Creek Topwater Fishing

East Gator Creek topwater fishing this time of the year is great early in the mornings and close to sunset.

When I got home from work this evening, the first thing I did after unloading the truck was to pack a couple of rods and head for the closest water.

It was almost dusk so I headed for one of my favorite places to fish topwater baits, East Gator Creek.

The water was dead calm in most areas which required some finesse on my part, so I chose to start with a super slow, stop and go retrieve that usually produces hits, and this evening was no different.

The first culvert I stopped to fish turned out to be a bust.  My first cast spooked a large fish that looked like a slot redfish.  Several more casts produced a couple of follows, but no hits so I moved on to try some other likely spots.

A couple was fishing with live baits along the bank, so I slowly rolled past them and stopped when I was a few yards away from where they were fishing.

I made a long cast to the opposite bank with a bass pattern Chug Bug, let it sit until the ripples died, and then gave it a little twitch.    A fish swirled on the bait, so I let it sit and repeated the twitch.

This time a nice sea trout hit the Chug Bug and jumped completely out of the water as it took the bait.

The fish sloshed around in the weeds and got off the hook as I was trying to horse it in to the bank.

I heard the couple on the bank talking about "what was he fishing with" as I continued fan casting the area.

After a couple more casts, a small ladyfish nailed the Chug Bug and jumped all over the place until I could land and release it.

I slowly moved up the road and continued casting to likely spots with the same slow retrieve and managed to catch another ladyfish about the same size.

About this time a juvenile gator came up to follow the Chug Bug, so I moved up the road a bit to get away from the pesky little critter.

To make the story short, I managed to land and release five more ladyfish up to about 20" in length and missed another sea trout that looked like it would hit the 22 or 23" mark before the evening bite stopped.

The skeeters were absolutely brutal without any insect repellent which I didn't think about bringing along, so I decided to head for the house and call it a day before I suffered severe loss of blood.

On the way to the bridge, I took a few pics of the Parrish Park boat launch which was nicely lit up.

On a normal day, I would have continued fishing the topwater plug into the evening for some really big sea trout, but after making an 8 1/2 hour drive from Mobile, Al. I wasn't in the mood for much more fishing.

I'll get some in this next week for sure.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Scouting Trip In The Refuge

I often recommend Playalinda Beach to my readers for it's surf fishing opportunities and relative isolation, particularly during the fall and winter months, but the other day when I took Elmo and Odie for a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the Canaveral National Seashore was a mass of humanity.

Not a good place for surf fishermen.

It was early afternoon when we left the house and I didn't really expect to catch any fish, but when I decided to take the "boys" for a ride around thee refuge, I took two rods along; just in case.  One had a Chug Bug and the other was tipped with a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon; my baits of choice.

We made the usual run into East Gator Creek road, past the entrance to Peacocks Pocket road, (which is still closed for repairs) and around Catfish Creek Loop road.

There were a lot of visitors in the refuge and a few fishermen, but most of the people fishing were not catching anything except catfish, stingrays, and a few small sea trout. 

I pitched the Chug Bug around a couple of places where I spotted topwater activity but only picked up a few ladyfish.

 I spotted a juvenile tarpon about 4 feet long rolling in the shallows of Catfish Creek, but it had lockjaw.

We left the area and went past the entrance to Black Point Drive towards Bio Lab road.

I wanted to check out the water conditions at the small boat launch so I drove into the area to see only one boat trailer parked there.

A small flats boat was coming in so I waited to ask the guys what they were catching.  The one guy said they caught a bunch of sea trout up to 25" and saw a few scattered redfish along the potholes.  They didn't spot any large schools of redfish and the water wasn't conducive to sight fishing.  The Mosquito Lagoon was crystal clear but it was windy and choppy.

As I turned around to leave the area, I decided to make a run down Bio Lab road.

At the entrance, to the right of the sign, I noticed that several people were crabbing in the shallows and were apparently doing pretty good.  The one couple had a cooler half full of decent size crabs.

I stopped at three places to pitch the Chug Bug towards some topwater action that I spotted and picked up a couple of ladyfish which I released.

 I switched to the spoon at the last spot and caught four nice size ladyfish around two feed long.  I harvested two of them that were bleeding from gill damage to use for cut bait and released the rest of them to fight another day.

All the way down Bio Lab road, we saw only two fishermen wading the shallows in the lagoon, and closer to Playalinda Beach road, there were a couple more people crabbing.

I briefly thought about driving down to check out the beach, but there was an unusual amount of vehicle traffic heading to the beach, so I headed towards the entrance at the guard shack.  Apparently the July 4th holiday had a lot of people taking off for the week.

As I passed the guard shack I could not believe the amount of traffic entering the Seashore.  There was a line of cars from the shack at the entrance, all the way back to the traffic light at the entrance.

I took a couple of pics and made a mental note to never surf fish on a weekend or holiday.

We left the area and since it was now late in the afternoon, I decided to make another quick run into East Gator Creek. 

I saw a lot of topwater activity and started pitching the Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.  I caught two more small ladyfish, missed a sea trout about 25" long twice before it quit eating, and spotted another tarpon about 3 feet long in the creek around the culvert that would not bite before leaving for the house.

All in all it was a productive scouting trip.  I may take out the kayak tomorrow if the wind isn't too bad.

Tight Lines.