Late Afternoon Sea Trout Action

After yesterday's scouting trip around the refuge, I decided to try and get in some sea trout action in the refuge.

I changed the water in the tropical fish tanks and took care of some business before deciding to get out and wet a line.

It was around 6:30 pm when I loaded up a few rods into the truck and head out to the nearest water.

The causeway was loaded with people celebrating Memorial Day and fishing along the banks.

I was going to try and fish Peacocks Pocket by the kayak launch but decided to try East Gator
Creek instead.  It was closer and would give me more time on the water.

The first culvert looked "fishy" but it was extremely shallow so I tied on a gold  1/8th oz. Johnson Silver Minnow, smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula and made of casts around the mangrove roots.

I had a hit but missed the fish so I moved on to another spot up the road.

The second area looked uninteresting but I stopped anyway and started casting the gold spoon across the shallow grass flats.  The water was tannin stained but clear and I spotted a couple big black drum along the deeper trough just at the bank.

After several casts I again missed a fish before finally connecting with a slot size sea trout.

I took a pic, released the fish , and continued casting.

I walked up the road blind casting across the shallow grass and managed to hook up with three more sea trout about the same size as the first one.

I released all the fish and moved up to another area where I landed a nice juvenile tarpon last year.

Unfortunately, no tarpon today.  I switched to a topwater Chug Bug and started casting into the flat waters hoping for a larger sea trout.

I had a couple of followups but no hookups except for a very large gator that kept following my Chug Bug, so I switched rods and started casting the spoon again across the shallow grass.

As I was about to give up for the day, I hooked into another sea trout a little smaller than the others I was catching up the road.

I took a quick pic, released the fish, and decided to head for the house and get some dinner,.

I took a pic of the sunset and hit the road.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.