Gator Creek Redfish

The Gator Creek Redfish have been hitting well for the past couple of weeks and this Sunday evening was no exception.

After fixing the tailgate of Karen's Silverado, I decided to take Elmo and Odie for a quick scouting trip around East Gator Creek road before it got dark.

Although I didn't plan on fishing, I took along a couple of spinning rods with a topwater Chug Bug and an XPS Slim Dog just in case I saw something hitting on the surface.

We crossed the bridge and saw that a lot of people were still partying and fishing along both sides of the causeway.  

I pulled into East Gator Creek and slowly drove around the unimproved road making a couple of stops to toss around the Chug Bug.

The only thing I riled up was a small gator of about 4 feet long that simply would not leave my plug alone.

I moved to another spot and had the same problem with another larger gator, so I drove up to the small pond near the entrance to Peacocks Pocket Road and tossed the Chug Bug around until it got close to dusk.Chug Bug

I had a couple of followups but no real action but the dogs were having a great time hanging out the window and enjoying the scenery.

As I was driving out I spotted this water snake in the road digesting a fish.  I took a couple of pics and left him alone with his undigested dinner.

There were a lot of bank fishermen in the area so I decided to drive along Gator Creek to see if anybody was catching fish.

As I rounded a bend on a point, I saw several guys watching an angler fighting a fish so I pulled over and took these images of the action.

The guy caught a nice redfish that looked like it was just in the slot.  

He was fishing in a narrow creek that flows onto a mud flat that very few fishermen bother to target.

He caught the red using shrimp for bait and was one of the happiest fishermen I've had the pleasure to talk to in a long time.

After taking the pics I drove out of the refuge and headed for home.

Several fishermen were still on the causeway dunking shrimp for drum and reds as I crossed the bridge.

I plan to hit the beach and the river next week to catch up on my fishing.

Till next time, 

Tight Lines.

Playalinda Beach In March

Fishing Playalinda Beach in March can be rewarding when the weather conditions permit.  The problem is that when conditions are stellar for surf fishing, the beaches get crowded, fast.

Saturday afternoon I decided to make a quick run to Playalinda Beach to get a fishing report from the gatekeepers and see how many surf fishermen were taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

I left the house after noon and drove up to the Playalinda Beach entrance shortly after.   

The refuge ranger I spoke with said that the surf fishermen were making good catches of whiting, bluefish and pompano at lots #8 and #10 so I headed to the beach to check it out.

I stopped briefly at Eddy Creek and found that the fishing pier that was damaged during the last hurricane was totally rebuilt and some fishermen were taking advantage of it.  

Lot #10 had several vehicles in the parking area and when I got to the top of the boardwalk, all of them seemed to be sunbathers.  Nobody was fishing the surf so I moved down to lot #8.

Lot #8 had about the same number of people on the beach but again, nobody was fishing so I couldn't get a first hand fishing report.  

I stopped at three other lots on the way out of the Canaveral National Seashore and found many more sunbathers but no fishermen.  

The tide was going out so either the fishermen left the beach after fishing the incoming tide, they departed when the beach became crowded, or the fishing reports were so bad that nobody bothered wetting a line today.  I can't believe the latter.

On the way out of Playalinda Beach, I stopped at a couple of the scenic Vistas to toss a Chug Bug smeared with some Pro-Cure around the clear flats.  

At Vista 6, I spotted several fish busting the surface and although I had a couple of followups, I had no aggressive hits on my bait.

When I finally left the beach, I drove up to Haulover to check out the fishing there.   Bairs Cove boat launch was slammed.  Trailers overflowed to the entrance leaving little room for the bank fishermen to pull over and fish, but they managed.

There were fishermen on the banks of both sides of the canal dunking a variety of baits, mostly shrimp, and a couple of the guys I spoke with said they were catching redfish, black drum, stingrays, and lots of catfish.  

I tossed a gold Johnson Sprite into the canal in a couple of areas but never got a hit, so I took a few pics of the scenery and headed back home to get something to eat.

Probably get out this week to give it a try when not so many people are around.

Till next time,

Tight Lines

Fishing The Wales Tail

Went fishing a little earlier this afternoon along the Bio Lab Road flats down to the Whales Tail area with Karen and the "boys".

We got out to Bio Lab boat launch around 3:00 pm and only stopped at one area along the southern part of the drive to actually fish.

On the way, I stopped to buy a couple of bags of fresh dead shrimp and a bag of frozen fingerling mullet for bait from Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle.   The owner said the fishing at Playalinda was in high gear. 

The surf fishermen were catching good numbers of whiting, pompano, and bluefish along the upper lot numbers.

If I hadn't had Elmo and Odie along with us, I would have tried the beach, but since they were along for the outing, I packed up the bait and headed to find an open spot along the drive.

We finally decided on an area in the southern part across from the Whale Tail flats and set out four spinning rods.

I put out two Okuma baitrunner spinning outfits with shrimp, and Karen tossed an outfit that had a Cajun Thunder rig with a shrimp below.

The weather was warmer than the past few days and there was a lot of vehicle traffic along Bio Lab.  There was a slight wind, but nothing that affected the fishing.

I was going to toss a topwater Chug Bug around while waiting for a bite, but I had a bite almost immediately after setting out my first shrimp.

I missed the fish and put on a fresh shrimp and sat down to wait for a bite.

Karen put Odie on a leash that he immediately hated, and Elmo sat in the truck for some unknown doggie reason while we fished.

I didn't wait long before I hooked up with a medium size catfish that I quickly released.  Only a few minutes later, Karen also picked up a larger cat.

I was hoping for a redfish or black drum so I tossed out another bait and waited instead of tossing a topwater plug around the area.

It didn't take long before I hooked and landed a large stingray.  The fish was about 2 feet wide and put up a decent fight when he realized it was hooked.

I clipped the tip of his stinger, unhooked the fish and set him free.

As the afternoon flew by, Karen and I caught several more catfish and a couple more stingrays, no redfish or drum.

At least we didn't get skunked.....

I noticed the absence of vehicles passing by and when I checked my cell phone found that it was almost 6:00 pm;  time for the refuge to close.

Karen and I quickly packed up our gear and headed to the exit.

The refuge managers close the area down at 6:00 pm sharp and I didn't particularly care to find out what would happen if we stayed past the magic hour.

I do know that they put up the wire rope barrier at the exit and close down the sliding gate entrance to the seashore pretty much on time every day.

Hope to get in some fishing tomorrow after taking care of the chores.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

A Cold March Day In The Refuge

Although it was a cold March day in the refuge today, my wife wanted to take a ride to the "gumball" as she calls the radar dome near the Beacon 42 boat launch.

After almost getting skunked yesterday, I really didn't feel like blindly tossing topwater baits around in the cold weather but I quickly relented and started packing up a few spinning rods.

Elmo and Odie were in the truck almost before I could open the door.

As we drove across the US 1 bridge I decided to drive into Shiloh Road to check out the water levels and see if any of the local guys were picking up any reds on the shallow flats.

As we crossed the first set of culverts, I was genuinely surprised how low the water was in the creeks.  The water had dropped at least a foot and a half, leaving a lot of mud along the banks.

I was going to turn around and leave but Karen spotted a flock of white pelicans in the shallow creek so I tried to get a pic of them.

We went to the wire rope barrier across the road and found three groups of fishermen already dunking shrimp and cut baits for redfish.  The scoop in the area was that a lot of oversize fish were being caught and only a few slot reds.

As we left the area and headed into the refuge, Karen wanted to check out Patillo Creek, so we headed into that area.

A father and daughter team were dunking live shrimp and had caught a couple of black drum at the turnaround but other than that nothing was happening.

We pulled into a spot at the shallow flats on the Indian River to let Elmo and Odie do their duty.

I pulled out my rod and started casting an XPS Slim Dog around the flats and had a half hearted hit on the fifth or sixth cast but other than that, nothing was happening.

It was around 5:30 pm and the air temperature was 53 degrees F when we decided to load up the dogs and head over to Haulover Canal.

The current in the canal was moving quite fast and there were only a few guys fishing for mangrove snapper with shrimp on one side of the canal. 

Other than the egrets and herons that were looking for dinner along the shoreline, I spotted only one other fisherman parked at the bridge.

A lone angler was readying up his rod to start fishing from his kayak at the other end of the canal.

We drove around to the other side of the canal to watch the Manatees that are usually around the boat launch and spotted several at the entrance.  

On the way out, I had to take a pic of this lone vulture waiting for a dinner snack.

It was getting late, the temperature was dropping, and Karen was getting cold so we headed out of the refuge for the house.

On the way home, we spotted a whitetail doe crossing the road.

A perfect ending to a nice day.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Bio Lab Road Fishing

Spent a few hours with Odie this afternoon fishing Bio Lab Road with topwater baits with little success..

Despite the cold weather that rolled into our area late yesterday afternoon, I decided to hit the flats again along Bio Lab road to see if anything was interested in getting caught.

We entered via the boat launch and stopped along the road in several areas to fish a Chug Bug and XPS Slim Dog hard bait.

The wind was not as strong as it was on Monday, but the air temperature was only in the high 50s.  

I stopped to talk to the only other fisherman I saw on the road who had caught an oversize sea trout and two oversize redfish on fresh dead shrimp.  He was using sliding sinker rigs on both of the rods he had out and said the bite had slumped off just before I drove up to talk with him.

I wished him luck and started blind casting the Slim Dog bait a few yards up the road from him on the other side of the road.

After what seemed like several hundred casts, I had only one hit so I got Odie and moved to another spot up the road close to the Whale Tail flats.

Along the lower flats I finally hooked up with a small sea trout that I released before moving down to where Karen and I spotted a bunch of sea Manatees yesterday.

When I pulled into the area, the first thing I noticed was that the sea Manatees were still in the area.

Evidently they staged in this area during colder weather.  

I started fishing the Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure on both sides of the culvert.  I tried fishing a normal retrieve, a very slow retrieve, a fast retrieve, and a stop and go retrieve with absolutely no hits.

It was around 5:35 pm when I called Odie to hit the truck and head out of the area before the 6:00 pm closing time.

The cold weather was obviously not helping any with my topwater fishing.  

As Odie and I left the area, I made a mental note to bring along some live or fresh dead shrimp the next time I planned to fish the area.

There were plenty of fish there, but they just weren't interested in topwater baits.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Whale Tail Flats

Around 4:00 pm this afternoon, Karen asked me if I wanted to take the "boys" fishing for a little bit, so I hurriedly packed several spinning rods in the truck along with a pack of frozen shrimp and headed to the Whale Tail flats in the Mosquito Lagoon off of Bio Lab Road to wet a line.

We saw several fishermen along BioLab road dunking shrimp and cut baits for redfish but the group I spoke with said they were only catching stingrays and catfish.

 I wished them well and drove to a spot we visited earlier along the southernmost banks of the lagoon.

I rigged Karen's rod with a popping float and split shot to keep her shrimp just off the bottom, and a second rod with a sliding sinker rig to hug bottom for redfish.

Karen took Odie with her to fish "her spot" while I rigged an XPS Slim Dog topwater bait to fish along the mangrove roots on both sides of the culverts.

The cold front was moving through the area and the air temperature dropped from 86 degrees F to 67 degrees F in the span of an hour or so.

I fan cast the area and had only one hit and two followups in an hour's time.

I spotted several families of Manatee moving into the area and finally stopped fishing to take some pics of the gentle animals.  

A family group moved right up to the culverts I was fishing and just stared at me, so I recorded this short video of the oglers.

The video ended with the manatees quickly disappearing when a large snook of about 30" spooked them.   I didn't know that Manatees could move that fast.

The snook was chasing baitfish right up to the deeper water around the culvert and hit one of the Manatees.  

About this time Karen walked back to the truck with Odie and told me that she lost two big fish in the mangrove roots along the bank.

She thought that the fish on the float was a large sea trout and the one on the bottom a redfish.

Regardless, the terminal tackle on both of her rods was gone and since it was almost 6:00 pm, we packed up our gear and headed to Playalinda Beach road to get out of the area before the refuge managers locked the barriers to the road.

They close BioLab and the beach at 6:00 pm, promptly.

We plan to get out again this week to catch what Karen lost in the mangrove roots.

Till next time,

Tight Lines

March Topwater Fishing

Topwater fishing during the month of March is usually pretty good to great in our area so I decided to give it a try this afternoon even though it was almost dusk before I got a chance to get on the water.

I was working with the crew who cleared out some of the nastiest vines and trees I've seen in a long time and after they left, I grabbed Odie, a couple of spinning rods, and headed to east Gator Creek Road.

The first thing I noticed as I drove into the refuge were the gators in the shallows.  They were all over the place which is obviously why the creek got it's name.

I parked at a bend in the unimproved drive and started pitching an XPS Slim Dog around the shallow flats to see if anything was interested in getting caught.

The air temperature was in the high 60s, there was no wind on the water, and the surface in most areas was glassy calm.  Just the right combination for topwater fishing.

At first the only thing trying to eat my lure was a few large ladyfish.  A couple hit the topwater bait and were briefly hooked but after the first or second jump, they flipped free.

As it got darker, the magic half hour for sea trout arrived and I picked up two dinks on the XPS Slim Dog which I promptly released.

Several casts to the other bank yielded follow ups so I decided to make a cast and let the lure just sit on the surface.

The dead stick tactic worked on my second cast and I picked up a sea trout of about 19" or so that I promptly released.

I had one more hit on the same lure before the mosquitoes started sucking too much of my blood to make fishing enjoyable.

I called Odie into the truck, and we headed home for a Pizza at Lil Ceasars.

I'm home all week so I'm planning on hitting Haulover, Playalinda Beach, and the flats at BioLab Road at least once before I head back to work.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.