Saturday Scouting Trip

Got out late Saturday afternoon for a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I was going to take my two best friends, Elmo and Odie, but they both needed their summer haircuts and it was way too hot for them in the truck.

I didn't plan on fishing but I took a few spinning rods along, just in case something interesting was happening.

I got on Hwy 46 to I-95 North and headed towards Shiloh Road to see if any juvenile tarpon were still in the creeks.

When I drove into the dirt road, I spotted some wild pigs along the side of the road which immediately took off.

I pulled out my cell phone and set it on camera in case anything other wildlife was interested in getting it's picture taken.

When I drove up to the culvert and stopped to see if there was any fish activity in the area. There were a few small glass minnows along the bank but other than a couple of mullet, nothing was happening.

The water on the Indian River side was brown and although the marsh side was clearer, there was a lot of floating algae on the water.

I drove up to the barricade to North Shiloh Road to turn around and only saw a couple catching crabs along the bank.  It was around 4:30 pm and the air temperature was in the high 80s, so I really didn't expect many fishermen in the area.

As I was driving out of the area towards US-1,  I spotted a large bobcat in the middle of the road walking towards my truck.  As I slowed down to grab my call phone for a pic, the bobcat waked off to the side of the road and quickly disappeared in the grass along the marsh.

I got a quick video of the large cat which was definitely not one of my better shots.

Closer to the main road, I spotted a couple of raccoons crossing the road which also disappeared in the brush when I got closer to them.

I was low on gas so I decided to head into the Kennedy Space Center to check out Haulover Canal.

About a mile past the entrance sign, I spotted a group of Sandhill Cranes along the side of the road.

I pulled over and took these pics which I made into a short video.

The cranes kept walking up the road as I drove toward Haulover to check out the area.

When I got to the bridge, there were several boats in the canal but relatively few fishermen on the banks.  I didn't bother to drive down and check out the catch because my gas gauge was on empty.

It was late and I decided to hit the closest gas station and grab a Lil Ceasars pizza for dinner.

I never bothered wetting a line this afternoon, but the scouting trip did produce a lot of wildlife sightings.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.