Gator Creek Topwater Action

When I drove home late Friday night, I planned on getting in some Gator Creek topwater action Saturday morning, but like many well laid plans, I didn't get to wet a line until this afternoon.
Well, better late than never.

Anyway, after making a water change in our tropical fish tanks, it started to rain so I quickly decided to head to East Gator Creek for some topwater action.

I was going to bring Elmo and Odie along, but I knew it was going to be muddy out and I didn't feel like mucking up my truck so I left them home for another trip.

As I crossed the bridge, I saw a lot of activity on the north side of the causeway. People were fishing, swimming, wading, eating, and in general having a good time despite the afternoon storms.

I brought along two spinning rods today. One with 60 pound Power Pro, a 3 foot length of fluorocarbon leader, and a Bass Pro Shop XPS Slim Dog topwater bait. The other with 20 pound Cajun Red mono and a two foot length of 30 pound fluorocarbon leader and a Chug Bug tied on by a loop knot.

It was sprinkling when I pulled over to park at the first culvert on East Gator Creek road but by the time I pulled out a rod, it stopped.

My first cast into the culvert with the Chug Bug produced an aerial strike from a two foot long ladyfish.  I had my SJCAM SJ4000 version of a Go Pro on my hat, but my batteries weren't charged up so I lost most of the interesting portion of the video that I hoped to get.

After the strike, the fish jumped several times and as I brought it close to the bank at the culvert, an 8 foot alligator tried to make a meal of it.

The gator missed the fish and I jerked it out of the water onto the bank.

The fish was hooked well and as I was trying to remove the sharp trebles, the fish tried to escape and the rear treble sank into my right hand.

I went to the truck, got a pair of fisherman's pliers from my toolbox, and tried to get the hook out of my hand.  I was holding the fish, the Chug Bug, and the pliers in my left hand, all the while trying to get the damn hook out of my right hand.

It took way too long, but I finally yanked the barb out and unhooked the ladyfish.  I decided to keep the lady for cut bait and put it in the cooler.  It was one hell of a start for a fishing trip to say the least.

I put some Iodine on the puncture wound and went up the road to continue fishing the shallow flats along the road.

I caught a couple more small sea trout on the Chug Bug and decided to pull out the other rod and fish the XPS Slim Dog.

I picked up two more small sea trout on the Chug Bug and missed a much larger sea trout on the Slim Dog as I fished my way along the unimproved roadway.

I headed towards Catfish Creek Loop and stopped to fish a small pond where I usually manage to catch a few sea trout.

I picked up two more speckled sea trout and what looked like a sand trout before changing rods again to fish the Slim Dog.

After about ten casts walking the dog, an absolutely gorgeous oversize red redfish nailed the Slim Dog at a dropoff near a small island.

The fish put up a nice fight and as I finally managed to land it, I couldn't believe it's color.   The photo really doesn't do it justice.

I took some pics and a selfie before releasing it to fight another day.

As I moved up the road to Catfish Creek Loop, there were three other guys fishing the open culvert, and the road was barricaded.

I didn't want to mess up their fishing, so I turned around and headed back towards East Gator Creek road and continued fishing likely looking spots.

To make a long story short, I hooked and released three more sea trout, two of which were keepers, and I missed a juvenile tarpon that spit my XPS topwater bait.

At my last stop, I stepped on a red ant hill and got attached by the biggest damn red ants I've seen in the State of Florida.  I quickly removed my sneakers and started shaking them off my shoes.

These things were over a half an inch long, were extremely aggressive, and had a really painful bite.

About this time, I realized that I was having too much fun and hurting way too much for any further fishing, so I took one last pic of the sun going down over the shallow mudflats and headed for home.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.