Learning How To Fish A Chug Bug

Learning how to fish a Chug Bug  is a big deal for someone who fishes almost exclusively with live, frozen, or chunked up baits.

My wife wanted to take the "boys" to the "swamp" this afternoon, so I packed up three spinning rods with various topwater baits, loaded Karen, Elmo and Odie into the truck, and headed for the area where I landed a juvenile tarpon yesterday.

When we left the house the temperature was in the high 80s and it looked like a thunderstorm was on the horizon. 

Karen wanted to see the exact spot where I caught the fish, I guess hoping that it would still be there.

When I pointed out the spot to her, she couldn't believe that a fish that size would be in that location, so I pulled out the rod that I caught the tarpon with and tossed the beat up Chug Bug to the other bank.

On the first cast, a small ladyfish nailed the Chug Bug and after two jumps pulled free.

That sealed the deal with my wife, and for the first time in a long time she asked me to show her how "it works".

I gave her a brief tutorial on topwater bait fishing and offered her the other rod to practice with.

We drove over to Catfish Creek Loop and pulled over to let the dogs do their thing and I started casting the Chug Bug around the area.  The water was dead calm in most areas with only a hint of a ripple on the Indian River side of the road.  

I had several hits from ladyfish and landed a couple before a sea trout nailed the bait.  

After I released the undersize fish, Karen caught her first fish on a Chug Bug; a small sea trout.

I took these pics of her first fish but she didn't want to be in any of the pictures.

Not dressed properly is my best guess.

Anyway, the sky started getting darker and the late afternoon thunderstorms could be seen over Titusville in the distance.

The ripples on the water picked up and so did the fishing. 

Karen landed and released another sea trout and a ladyfish before getting a birdsnest on her reel.  It's something I learned to deal with when fishing with PowerPro against the wind.

I had the same problem but rather than wasting time trying to unravel a birdsnest on my reel, I decided to switch over to the other rod that a Slim Dog XPS topwater bait tied on it.

It was getting late and I didn't feel like changing out the bait with another Chug Bug, so I started walking the dog on the shallow mud flats with the XPS Slim Dog.

I had a couple of hits from small ladyfish before finally landing one, and jerked the hooks out of the  mouth of a nice snook before hooking up and landing a small redfish, all in the same area.

The redfish was only about 20" long, but it put up a respectable fight on the shallow flats before I could finally land it.

Karen took a couple of pics and we released the fish to grow into a bull red someday.

A gator discovered that we were fishing topwater baits and bullied his way into our area, so we packed in our rods and headed towards the house and some spaghetti dinner.

On the way out I took a shot of the VAB at the cape.

We may try to get out tomorrow for a repeat performance.

Till next time, 

Tight Lines.