North Indian River Redfish

The North Indian River redfish bite has been on all month and this afternoon, even though I was beat from working around the house and mowing the lawn, I decided to drive up to Shiloh Road and wet a line.

It was around 3:30 pm when I got to the turnoff at US 1 and the weather was awesome.  The air temperature was around 73 degrees and there was almost no wind blowing over the water.

The water level in the marsh and creeks is way up but I couldn't spot any topwater action so I drove up to the barrier and decided to toss a Chug Bug around the area.

I could hear an occasional shotgun blast from the waterfowl hunters in the area but other than that, it was a peaceful afternoon.

There were a couple of oriental ladies watching the spoonbills that were feeding in the area but they were the only people in the area as I started fan casting the area.

I had one hit from a sea trout but no hookups and after a little while I decided to try another area.

As I was loading up my rod, another lady came walking down the road with a nice redfish that someone in her party had caught.

I asked her if I could take a pic and after finally breaking though the language barrier, found that her spouse caught the red on a finger mullet.

The deeper flats in the north area of the Indian River this time of the year is always good for reds and I made a mental note to try the area tomorrow with some live baits.

I took these pics and took off to try another location.

I headed towards Haulover Canal and decided to pull into Patillo Creek to see if anything was happening.

I drove slowly looking for signs of fish and finally stopped at a wide section of backwater when I spotted some cruising redfish.

I spent an hour tossing a Chug Bug, a Mirrolure and finally a Johnsons Sprite ahead of the wakes before finally getting a hit.

The redfish hit the gold spoon that I smeared up with some Pro-Cure and took off like a shot toward the shoreline where it broke off on some stickups.

It never ceases to amaze me that with all that open water, the fish would head toward the one spot where it could break off,..

Anyway, I tied on another gold spoon and continued casting until it started getting too dark to fish.

I never did get another hit but like they say, that's why its called FISHING.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.