Fishing Memorial Park

After a week at work without wetting a line,  I decided to do some fishing at Memorial Park where the U.S.S. Alabama has been setting since the end of World War II.

I originally planned to fish the jetties at Dauphin Island for bull redfish, but when I drove down there yesterday,  a barrier was put up to prohibit visitors from parking in the beach area, probably because of fears of the tropical storm.

Anyway, the sea walls and bridges along Battleship Parkway in Mobile, Al. can provide some decent fishing for a variety of species if you can catch the tide at the right time.

I fished the seawall just past the bridge at Memorial Park using freshly purchased shrimp and managed a mixed catch of  Croaker, whiting, catfish, and a small juvenile black drum.

When I got there I rigged a knocker rig on my lightest river rod and managed to catch a small croaker on the first cast using a small piece of peeled shrimp.

I hooked the croaker just behind the dorsal fin and pitched it out on the surf rod I brought along for big redfish.

I was using a Penn Baitrunner reel loaded with 30 pound Cajun Red line and a short length of 40 pound fluorocarbon leader. 

The wind was blowing and there were rain clouds coming in on the horizon from the Pensacola Fl. area but the bite was steady so I pulled out a folding chair, took a seat and proceeded to catch a mess of fish.

Although most of the croaker were pretty small, I kept a few of the larger ones for dinner.

At the end of a couple of hours fishing I had landed, two small whiting, several hard head catfish, a really small black drum that I at first thought was a sheepshead, and at least two dozen croaker.

I'd like to say that I caught a bull redfish on the live croaker, but alas, only a blue crab mangled my bait.

I took a few pics of the area before the clouds moved in and I left for my apartment.

I didn't feel like cleaning the croaker, so I gave them to a guy who was fishing along the wall next to me who wasn't doing so well.

Anyway, although the fish weren't large by any standard, the bite was great and I had a lot of fun catching.

Till next time,

Tight Lines

Life's A Playalinda Beach

This afternoon I decided to hit Playalinda Beach to see if the waves were conducive to surf fishing without getting beat up too bad.

I left the house around 3:30 pm just as it started sprinkling again.  I packed three spinning rods and a 9 1/2 foot surf rod with an Okuma baitrunner reel loaded with 30 pound Power Pro and a pompano rig.

There was very little traffic at Playalinda Beach today and the beach was relatively devoid of human life.     Most of the human population was at Lot #2, but I decided to stop at the first location that had no cars parked in the lot.

When I drove into lot #6. I was rethinking my spur of the moment decision.  That lot had a stairway going up to a sloping ramp over the dune that was definitely going to provide me with my cardio exercise for the day.

I pulled out my surf rod, the small blue cooler I brought with some frozen shrimp and salted clam, and sand stake for my rod.

When I finally made my trek up the walkway and stopped gasping for air, I but a piece of clam on the bottom hook of the pompano rig, a small headed shrimp on the top hook, and clipped on  a 4 oz. sinker to hold bottom.

The surf was rough but this location had a deep trough right at my feet that ran out about 10 feet that led to a shallow break that was only about 1 foot deep.   A second much deeper trough was where I planned to fish.

I waded out to the break with a small bag of bait in my pocket and started fishing.

Almost immediately I got a hookup with a small hardhead catfish which I quickly released.

For the next hour or so I caught and released 9 more hardheads before finally landing a nice "
dinner size" whiting.

It seemed like the whiting moved in and the cats moved out.  Anyway, I caught three more whiting and lost another wading back to my cooler before the bite stopped.

The tide was still going out and I continued catching a hardhead now and then until I hooked a juvenile black drum.

The drum was under the slot, so I released it and went back to hooking catfish.

Finally, a couple showed up just as I was going to call it a day.  I was really getting tired of fighting the current as I was wading back and forth to the cooler to stow the whiting I was taking home for dinner.

Being knee deep in strong current gets you tired pretty quick, especially if you don't go surf fishing on a regular basis.

I drove around Eddy Creek before leaving the Canaveral National Seashore and headed back to the house.

As I was driving up to Peacocks Pocket road, I made a split decision to check out the fishing at the kayak launch.  The other day when I was walking Peacocks Pocket road, I saw a ton of baitfish in the area with big sea trout busting on them.

As luck would have it, nobody else was in the area so I pulled up to the side of the ramp and pulled out my rod with a Chug Bug and started casting around the bait pods.

I missed two sea trout before finally landing an under size fish which I promptly released.

I switched rods and started fishing with the Zara Spook Puppy topwater bait after the Chug Bug stopped getting hits.   It only took three casts to get a hookup with another under slot sea trout.

I made a ton of casts to several likely looking areas but the bite quit around 6:30 pm so I called my wife and headed home.

On the way out to the main road, I almost ran over a 6 or 7 foot gator  that was in the woods across the road from the ditch that parallels the road.

The gator was really moving as he crossed the road in front of my truck and he never stopped until he hit the water.   I knew that gators are super fast for short bursts, but I didn't know they could run that fast on dry land until today.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful.

When I got home I washed off my rods, cleaned my fish, and had a great dinner.

I love fresh whiting.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Shiloh Road Snook Fishing

The rainy weather has made fishing a hit or miss proposition for me but this afternoon after a brief shower, I decided to take a drive down to Shiloh Road for some Snook fishing.

I packed up a couple of spinning rods and decided to leave Elmo and Odie at home for a change.

They love going fishing with me, but it's hard to fish and keep an eye on them without Karen being along.

Shiloh Road is still closed but there were still several vehicles at the barricade.  Some people were fishing the deeper water flats but most of the folks I saw at the end of the road were crabbing, and doing quite well I might add.

When I crossed over the first culverts I noticed some activity on the Indian River side of the road.

 
A large sea trout was making it's way along the shoreline busting small baitfish here and there.

I pulled out the rod with a Zara Spook Puppy and made a few fruitless casts into the area before I changed rods.

The other rod had a Bass Pattern Chug Bug tied on, so I started tossing it around on the other side of the road to see if I could rustle up anything.

After fan casting the area using a variety of retrieves, I finally got a small under size sea trout to hit a "stop and go" retrieve.

At least I didn't get skunked.  Anyway, I switched sides when I heard another fish blasting small baitfish along the bank and started tossing the Chug Bug into the grass, and gently hopping it into the water.

This tactic proved to be the ticket, because on my second cast into the reeds, I jerked the Chug Bug into the water, gave it a little jerk and let it set.    As soon as I twitched the lure, a snook literally sucked up the Chug Bug.

The fish put up a nice fight and I took my time landing it so I could take these pics.

The snook was under the slot so after I took some pictures, I gently released the fish to grow up and fight another day.

I continued fishing with the Chug Bug up the road from where I caught the first snook for another half an hour or so and missed two more sea trout before hooking into another small snook.

This one was a little smaller than the first one but also put up a pretty good fight considering it's size.

I released the fish and was deciding if I should leave the area or not.   The bugs were starting to eat me alive, so I packed up the rod and headed towards Patillo Creek to see if it was open for fishing.

As I was driving there, two wild turkeys flew low across the road right above my truck and one of them grazed my antenna.  I pulled over to check for damage and was happy to see that only a small chip of paint was missing.

It was beginning to sprinkle when I pulled into Patillo Creek and I immediately noticed that work was being done to the roads.

The large mound of dirt on the left side of the road near the entrance was over halfway gone and when I drove on the road, all the ruts and ditches were filled up.  Yeah!

I drove past two vehicles that were coming out and a fisherman that had a couple of rods at at the creek.   He said he was fishing for black drum and was using shrimp for bait.

I left him and was happy to see that they also repaired this section of the road.   The large divots and ruts were now filled up with fresh dirt.

When I got to the turnaround, I was surprised to see that it was no longer there.  Workers had leveled out the area and made it into a dirt parking area.

I got out and started pitching the Zara Spook and Chug Bug but only had a couple of followups.

There were some baitfish in the area as well as some sea Manatees that looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

I  took a short video and a couple of pics before leaving the area and heading for home.

The gnats were getting to me and I was getting hungry.

Hopefully before I head out of town again, I'll get a chance to get in some more fishing

Till then, Tight Lines.

Boynton Beach Inlet

Had to make a trip to Dania this morning to pick up a few hundred pounds of Koi food for the Koi in our pond. They are being fed well to say the least, and have almost outgrown our 25 foot pond.

The rain, the wrecks, and the road construction along I-95 around Vero made the trip less than enjoyable, but even with these problems I made the trip in pretty good time.

When I got to my destination, my friend Johnny Cheung did his best to sell me some of his Koi but I came for food, not more fish.

He had some nice butterfly Koi in several sizes and grades so I took a few pics and a short video to show my wife.

As I left and headed back home, I decided to see if there was anything going on at the Boynton Beach Inlet.

The weather was better but when I got to the Inlet, it was obvious that it had been raining hard.  The waves were coming in and the surf was rough.

 There were only a few fishermen along the jetties and nobody I talked to was having any luck.

One guy who was tossing around a red and white hair jig said he caught and released a small barracuda and an under size snook, but the guys fishing bait didn't seem to be faring as well.

I was going to toss around a subsurface plug but after getting the crappy fishing report, I decided to get something to eat and head back home.

Before leaving, I took a few pics of the area and then headed out to I-95 to fight the traffic.

Hope to get out and wet a line tomorrow around Bio Lab road when I get finished working around the house.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Space X Satellite Launch

Fishing Peacocks Pocket seemed like a good idea this afternoon, especially when I heard about the Space X Satellite Launch that was supposed to lift off at 4:14 pm.

Yesterday, I spend a couple of hours shooting the bull with a couple of military vets waiting for the launch that never occurred, so his afternoon I decided to pack a couple of fishing rods in the truck and see if I could combine the launch with some topwater fishing.

I hadn't been to Peacocks Pocket road lately, and when I started walking the washed out road past the barrier, I knew why.

The road was totally trashed from the last hurricane.  The water in the Indian River was low and in the marsh, it was even lower.

I selected a spinning rod loaded with 30# Power Pro braid and a topwater Zara Spook Jr. and started negotiating the treacherous road.

At the first set of culverts where the refuge managers had piled a lot of granite rocks along the bank of the Indian River to minimize erosion, I spent a little time casting around the schools of mullet with no success.. 

I had some time to kill before the launch so I walked the road and started fishing the marsh canal, blind casting as I walked.

I had a couple of sea trout hits and finally landed a fish that was almost at the slot which I immediately released..

The water in the marsh canal was an ugly brown color from the brown algae bloom, but the water on the river side was actually pretty clear.   I walked up on several small schools of fingerling mullet that were holding tight along the bank, scattering as I walked the road.

Evidently, the fish were too spooky in the clear water.  After many casts, I never got even a followup.

The marsh canal was another story.   As I blind cast the canal to likely looking spots, I managed two fish in about an hour and missed two more on the Zara Spook, Jr.

I was getting tired from walking through the high grass and across the uneven terrain and since it was getting close to launch time, I turned around and headed back to my truck.

I spotted a couple of guys in kayaks fishing around an offshore island and as I headed back to a spot I picked to watch the launch and got out of the truck, the launch was in progress.

I quickly took this short video of the launch that was in progress.

I waited for a while to see if the boosters would return to the launch pad but from where I was parked, it was impossible to see anything.

After a short wait, I decided to hit the road and drive over to Wally's World to get something for dinner and call it a day.

The weather was hot and even though there had been a slight breeze over the water, it was not ideal conditions for topwater fishing.

Hopefully, before I head out of town again, I'll be able to get in some quality fishing.

Till then, Tight Lines and Bent Rods.