Fishing Playalinda Beach

Since the conditions today were supposed to be optimal for surf fishing, I decided to try fishing Playalinda Beach where I  scouted some areas yesterday with my wife and the "boys".

I headed out around 9:30 am to hit the falling tide with a trio of surf rods, a cooler, and my newly purchased sand flea rake.

I stopped at Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle to pick up a bag of "fresh dead" shrimp in case the sand flea rake didn't pan out and headed out to lot #10.

There were a few cars parked at the lower numbered lots but only one at #10.

As I walked the ramp to the beach, I reminded myself to pay attention to the rips in the area.

These are great to fish but not so much fun if you get caught up in one.

I know because it happened to me once at lot #8.

Anyway, when I got to the lookout at the top of the walkway, I took a bit of time to read the waves and decide where to fish.

A man and his son was catch fishing north of the walkway, so I decided to fish south of him where I spotted a decent looking area yesterday.

I picked a spot where the Sanderlings were picking around in the surf and where there were a lot of shells.  It looked like a rip area so got out the rake and started searching for sand fleas.

Although they were smaller than I'd like, it didn't take long to get some for bait.

I rigged a double hook rig with 3/0 Eagle Claw circle hooks and finished it off with a 3 oz sinker at the bottom.

I was using a Penn Fierce 8' surf combo I picked up on sale at Bass Pro to fish the closest trough and an Okuma Coranado bait runner reel on an Ande Tournament 11' 0" rod for the outer troughs.

It took several casts to locate where the fish were but I finally started to catch fish on the sand fleas.

I caught 5 pompano that were all undersized, one really small black drum, and several nice size whiting that I took home for dinner.

When the bite slowed down around 1:30 pm, I decided to pack up and head to Haulover Canal.

On the way to the truck, a game warden on a four wheeler pulled up and asked me about my catch.  I told him what I caught and that I didn't need a fishing license due to my age.  I offered to get my wallet from the truck to prove my age and thanked him for the complement when he said I didn't look it.

When I got to Haulover Canal, it took a while to get a parking spot.  There were fishermen lining both sides of the canal and most were catching fish.

I hooked a large fresh dead shrimp on my other Okuma rig and sent it to the middle of the canal.

It didn't take long before I caught a small stingray which I quickly released.

I had two more bites which I missed and finally hooked into a large redfish.  The fish made three really long runs and got tangled with another line before breaking off on the rocks, at least so I thought.

A minute later, the fisherman next to me, Vlados, started hand lining the fish I had on my line that had just broken off.  I walked over to help him and his friend  bring the fish in and after a few minutes we had it right at the bank.

The redfish was well over 40 inches long and had a couple more fishing lines tangled up with it.

As it got close to the bank and I was pulling out my camera to take a video, the fish broke off.

I was going to continue fishing but I had enough of the close quarters for one day, so I packed up my gear and headed for the house.

On the way home, I decided to give East Gator Creek a try.  It was getting close to dark and the mosquitoes were viscous as usual, but I just had to give it a try.  The full moon makes fish do crazy things, especially in the refuge.

I pulled into an area where I caught a few tarpon earlier in the year and started casting an XPS Slim Dog topwater bait that I smeared up with some Pro-Cure gel.

It took two casts before an under size sea trout nailed the bait.  I released the fish and continued fishing.

Two or three casts later, I hooked into another larger sea trout that got off when it got tangled in the sea grass.

I wanted to fish a small pond on the way to Catfish Creek Loop before it got dark so I drove up the road to that area.

The first cast hooked me up with a small "rat" redfish that I thought was a large sea trout.

The fish put up a respectable run for it's size before giving up the fight.  I took a quick pic and released the red to grow into a bull some day.

The skeets were killing me and I was getting weak from loss of blood and nourishment, so I headed back to the house

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Took a couple of pics on the way of of the sunset.

Tight Lines.