Beach Trip

This afternoon, my wife went to visit her horse, so I loaded up my truck and headed for the wildlife refuge to wet a line and hopefully snag something.

I decided to head over to North Shiloh Road to check out the area for tarpon and swing by Playalinda Beach on the way back to see if the mullet were in the surf yet.

When I got to the first set of culverts on Shiloh Road, I stopped to see if any fish were moving around.

The shallow water in the first pond had a slight wind blowing over it from the North but after making several casts with a Chug Bug and a Saltwater Assassin swimbait on a jig head smeared up with Pro-Cure with no hits, I decided to head up to the barrier at the Indian River to see if anything was swimming around up there.

The water in the shallow ponds was tannin stained but clear, and there was a little ripple on the water.

I tossed around several lures and had only one hit from a very small sea trout, so I decided to drive into Bio Lab road to hit Playalinda.

During the week, Bio Lab is pretty desolate.  I spotted one guy in a kayak tossing a cast net around, I assume to get bait, but he was the only other person on the road.

I stopped a couple of times to toss baits around and caught a couple of ladyfish that I didn't even bother taking pics of.  I returned the fish to the water and continued looking for signs of fish.

The water in the lagoon was a little choppy but the algae bloom made sight fishing in the shallow flats a bad idea.

I drove past the Vistas to Playalinda and around Eddy Creek.  The fishing pier at Eddy Creek has been totally repaired and looks great, but nobody was taking advantage of it today.

I pulled into lot #8 to check out the surf and found only a few people on the beach.

I immediately noticed that the water was a dingy brown color that went out about 100 yards from the beach and realized that it was probably what was left of the slimy brown algae bloom that the surf fishermen around Cocoa were talking about.

I took a few pics, walked around for a while and briefly noticed some finger mullet in the surf but nothing in the numbers that would make me break out my surf fishing outfit.   

Nobody was fishing except the couple on the beach, and they were obviously not catching.

I left the area and decided to head for the hacienda.

On the way back to the house, I decided to check out East Gator Creek road as my last stop.  

I pulled into the area and slowly drove around the loop looking for signs of feeding fish.  Nothing was moving that I could see, but I decided to make one last stop at an area that has received a lot of fishing pressure lately.

I cast my trusty Chug Bug and started catching ladyfish on almost every cast.

After catching and releasing 6 or 7 fish, I packed up my rod and head home for something to eat.

All in all it turned out to be a decent beach trip.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.