Tarpon Fishing Along The Vistas

Went to East Gator Creek road to do some topwater sea trout fishing and wound up Tarpon fishing along the Vistas in the Canaveral National Seashore.

It was around 2:00 pm this afternoon when I decided to hit the wildlife refuge and wet a line.

It was raining when I left the house but clear when I drove into East Gator Creek road to fish the first set of culverts.

I hooked into a couple of medium size ladyfish on a Chug Bug and landed one before moving to another spot where losing my lure wasn't as easy an option.

I was targeting sea trout today but I have to report that the only fish that was remotely interested in any of my lures in that area was an under size "dink" trout that I shook off at the bank.

I decided to drive down to see if the shallow flats off of Bio Lab road were fishable.

There was a moderate wind over the lagoon and the waves made topwater bait fishing not an option.

As I drove into Bio Lab, I spotted some juvenile tarpon at the first set of culverts, so I pulled over and started casting a Chug Bug around the area.

Almost immediately, I had a boil on my bait but after many casts I only had one small tarpon hit the plug without getting a hookup.

I switched over to a Johnson Silver Minnow with the same result.  One dumb fish bumped the spoon but I couldn't get  a hookup.

As I was fishing (and not catching) a couple of guys drove up and asked if I would be bothered I they fished the area.

I had no objections and watched them as they fished the other side of the road picking up a couple of ladyfish and missing a couple of juvenile tarpon on a small Mirrolure bait.

There was a large gator in the spot they were fishing that was becoming a problem and was waiting for a handout.

I introduced myself and learned that they had been catching juvenile tarpon all morning on a variety of artificial baits.

Bryce Jones (left) and his friend Caden Laney were kind enough to provide pics of their catch.

They fish the area almost every weekend and apparently have a good handle on tarpon fishing in the area.

Bryce gave me a couple of 2" Tsunami paddletail swimbaits that he said they had been catching tarpon on earlier, but my tackle was too heavy to present the baits properly,.

Anyway, I gave up fishing the area and headed down Bio Lab road to scout out some other areas.

I stopped at a couple of spots and had a ladyfish hit my gold spoon but nothing else seemed to be working for me today.

Finally, I got to Playalinda Beach road and stopped at the first Vista to see if any tarpon were in the area.  As I pulled in I was immediately confronted by flashing blue lights to pull over.

After I presented my lifetime Pass to the officer, we swapped a couple of stories and learned that the whiting bite on the beach was on fire and even some Pompano were being caught on small shrimp and fishbites.

I was taking some pics of the launch site when Bryce and Caden drove up to talk.

I followed them to where they had caught several nice size juvenile tarpon earlier this morning.

We pulled over to the area and sure enough, there were some fish in the area.

I started off casting a Chug Bug, then switched to several other baits (and losing a couple) while Bryce picked up another tarpon on his Mirrolure.   (Click on pic below)

Caden walked up a ditch and missed a couple of fish with his bait.  Finally, as Bryce and Caden left the area, I switched rods and pulled out an XPS topwater bait with a black back and silver sides.

It took three casts before a tarpon swirled on the lure.  This happened three more times but the fish never got hooked.  I'm not sure if the bait was too large but at least I was finally getting some action.

I fished the spot for another 15 minutes or so before giving it up for the day.

Oh, by the way, Bryce shot me this pic of one of Cayden's fish that he caught this morning.

  

Nice Poon..

I'll be going out of town again next week but I hope to hit the area tomorrow a little earlier with some smaller baits.

Regardless, I had a good time today losing lures and meeting some new fishing buddies.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Working On The Culverts

Took Elmo and Odie for a ride around Gator Creek road only to find that the powers that be were still working on the culverts.

Hopefully the area will be open by the 4th. but regardless, they needed to do some work on the road.

At the entrance to East Gator Creek, I stopped to cast a Chug Bug around the first culverts to see if anything was interested. 

Elmo stayed in the truck looking out the window helping me spot fish.

I made three casts with the Chug Bug and got a hit by a large ladyfish that blew the topwater bait out of the water. 

I made several more casts into the shallow trench but the fish never returned, so I moved up the road to continue scouting the area.

I made two more stops to toss the Chug Bug but some fish but I never got another hit.

The dogs were getting hot and the air temperature was in the low 90s.  Not a good scenario for man's best friend or for  topwater fishing.

I headed out of the wildlife refuge and planned on taking the long route around Gator Creek road but it was cabled off. 

The work crews had a load of culverts along side of the road that they were apparently going to install under the roadway.

I drove home to drop off Elmo and Odie and since it was late, I decided to make a quick run over to Shiloh Road to check out the creeks.

When I got to the first set of culverts,  the water levels in the creeks had risen considerably since last month.

I watched the water for signs of fish but nothing except some mullet were in the area. 

I pulled up the road a bit and walked across the marsh to fish an area where I caught several snook last year.

I had two rods with me. One with a small size Chug Bug and the second with a gold Johnson silver minnow.

I fished both baits until the mosquitoes and horse flies became intolerable. 

I had one nice hit on the Silver Minnow but missed a hookup.  The Chug Bug, which is my all time favorite bait never even got a follow.

I had enough for one day so I walked back to the car and headed home to get a Pizza for dinner.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket launched this morning from NASA's Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:30 a.m. EDT..

It was originally scheduled for liftoff at 11:30 p.m. but when I drove down to a spot on the Indian River to watch the launch, I heard about the re-schedule from one of the onlookers on the bank of the river and headed back home to get a couple hours of sleep

The weather was beautiful and the water on the river was glassy.   Schools of finger mullet were meandering along the bank and I was silently berating myself for not bringing along one of my topwater rods.

I took this video of the launch and the recovery of the boosters returning to the Space Center .

The second go around was a charm and the launch apparently went on without a hitch.

I plan on going out tomorrow night to try some topwater fishing along the banks of the causeway.

I spotted several trout busting on the finger mullet when I took the video.  Till then,

Tight Lines.