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.