Mosquito Lagoon & Indian River Fishing: Gator Creek Trout Bite

Thursday, October 3, 2019

When I heard that the Gator Creek trout bite was getting pretty good and Karen mentioned that she would like to take the dogs out for a ride, I immediately agreed.

It didn't take to long to load up the rods and the bucket of live shrimp that I had left over from yesterday's trip and it was around 5:00 pm when we finally drove into Gator Creek road.

Odie and Elmo were happy to get out again and both had their heads out of the window enjoying the ride.

Karen wanted to try a spot off of Catfish Creek Loop where she caught some nice black drum last year and since it was reopened, I agreed to bank fish for awhile.

There was a chop on the water and the air temperature was around 86 degrees when we set out our rods.

I stopped at Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle to pick up a half dozen of finger mullet and baited up Karen's rod with one of them.

I had a couple of rods out with live shrimp and finger mullet.

The black drum are running all over the Indian River and the redfish bite was sporadic for slot fish, so we had high expectations.

I'd like to say that we caught a ton of fish, but until about 6:30 pm all we did was lose baits.

Elmo stayed in the truck and fell asleep and Odie stayed with Karen while she waited for something to bite.

Finally, at around 7 pm we started catching fish. Karen got a nice hit and pulled in a slot size sea trout that hit her fingerling mullet.

I took a quick pic of the fish before releasing it to grow into a Gator Trout.

I missed two fish on live shrimp and when I switched to a small finger mullet, I finally hooked up with a clone of Karen's trout.

I'm not a patient fisherman, which is why I would rather spend my time on the water hunting for fish and tossing artificial baits.

It's also probably why I miss a lot of hookups with live baits.

Anyway, I missed one more fish before the gnats got so bad that my legs were getting bloody.

I took a couple of pics of the sunset before heading home for dinner and calling it a day.

Although we didn't catch a mess of fish, it was beautiful weather and just being with the dogs and watching them have such a good time made for an enjoyable trip.