Snook In The Culverts

Happy Thanksgiving...

After eating a great Thanksgiving meal, my wife suggested that we take the "boys" for a ride around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I readily agreed and loaded up some rods along with Elmo and Odie who were ready to go.

The temperature was in the low 80s and for a change the wind wasn't blowing so I expected a lot of anglers to be out and about.

We crossed the A. Max Brewer Bridge and I was disappointed to see that there was a barrier up at the entrance to Gator Creek.

As we drove past the entrance, I was surprised to see that there was no barrier to East Gator Creek road but since I was going at a good clip, we voted on checking out the area around Peacocks Pocket boat launch.

We entered Pocket road and as we got to the shallow water launch, only one car was parked in the area. 

The water was calm so I pulled out a rod to briefly toss a small Chug Bug around the area while Karen watched the dogs.

Nothing was happening on top or on the Jerkbait I switched over to, so we loaded up and took off to check out Bio Lab Road.

The water in the lagoon is still brown from algae but is clearing up in some areas.

We traveled down Bio Lab and spotted a couple of fishermen on the bank fishing for redfish with live mullet and another group of people just having a good time at a pullover.

As we got close to the road to Playalinda Beach, I noticed that a barrier to a turnoff was taken down so I drove along the southernmost part of the lagoon to a spot where I used to fish for sea trout and snook.

 

I parked the truck and let the dogs loose to do their thing while Karen and I started fishing.

The culvert was open and flushing plenty of water and baitfish into the backwater.

I tossed out a D.O.A. Jerkbait a short distance in front of the culvert where some small baitfish were scattering and immediately hooked up with a small snook.

 

The fish put up a good fight for it's size so after taking a brief pic I released the fish.

The snook in the culverts and the nearby area were obviously targeting baitfish coming through the culverts but they were spooky as hell.

I watched several large snook in the 30" plus category blasting baitfish on the surface, so I started tossing a BadonkADonk around where they were hitting.  

After many unfruitful casts, I switched over to an XPS Slim Dog that more resembled the baitfish in the area but still didn't get any hookups.

 

I finally switched over to a small Creme Spoiler Shad paddletail bait and started catching small snook again.  The problem was that they were too small.

 

 

Karen was using the Jerkbait and missed a fish and then started using the paddletail bait on the opposite side of the culverts.  Unfortunately, the bite died down and the fish finally quit hitting.

 

I managed to catch and release four small snook an missed at least three more before we finally decided to pack it in.

 

When two gators about 10 to 11 feet long showed up on the scene, Karen was concerned about Elmo and Odie safety so we loaded the rods into the back of the truck and headed home.

 

It was around 5:15 pm when we drove onto Playalinda Beach road and headed to the house.

Although we didn't catch any of the really big snook, we both had a good time fishing with our "boys".

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Another Nighttime Launch

Went down to the causeway on the Indian River to toss a Chug Bug around the shoreline and wound up viewing another nighttime launch.

After about 20 minutes tossing the bait around the shoreline, I had a hit by what probably was a sea trout but the fish got off.

As more people started gathering and asking me what I had caught, I decided to quit tossing the bait and took this video as the shot went off.

The clouds stopped the viewing of the booster coming back down, but they didn't dampen the excitement of the people watching along the causeway.

I got out of the area as soon as the rocket went through the cloud cover.

Might try some fishing before Thanksgiving Day,

Till next time,

Tight Lines

SpaceX Launched Four Astronauts Tonight

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station this evening without a hitch.

I left the house around 4:30 pm this afternoon to fish for tarpon in the Patillo Creek area but when I crossed the bridge and saw all the police in the area, I remembered that a Space X launch was going to occur this evening.

I asked the police officers who were blocking the entrance to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge if I could sneak by so I could fish Patillo Creek, but the guy was obviously not a fisherman and gave me a firm NO.

He turned me and all the other cars behind me around so I decided to put up my gear and watch the launch.

Unfortunately, the launch was around 7:30 pm so I had some time to kill.

The causeway was packed with cars and people but I managed to squeeze into an area.    I made sure my cell phone was fully charged and walked to bridge to get my exercise for the day.

I took some pics of the area as well as the beautiful sunset and parked my butt about half way down the bridge along the railing.

The Titusville Police Department limited traffic on the bridge for the launch and kept everyone occupied by playing tunes over the loudspeaker as they went back and forth over the bridge.

The liftoff was on Pad 39A and it went off without a hitch.  

The Dragon capsule with it's crew of four astronauts were headed to the Space Station with the cheers of everyone who watched the launch below.

The Titusville Police Dept need to learn more about traffic management.  It took almost 45 minutes to get back over the bridge and head back home.

Hopefully, I'll get to try out the tarpon fishing this coming week.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Patillo Creek Culvert Tarpon

It was a gloomy rainy Saturday afternoon, so I decided to wet a line at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

When I drove over the A. Max Brewer Bridge to the refuge and got to the first entrance, I was surprised to see that the roads to Gator Creek and Catfish Creek Loop were cordoned off.

I remembered that there was a SpaceX launch tomorrow, so I decided to drive over to Haulover Canal and check out some other spots.

When I got to the Haulover Bridge, there was a crowd of anglers on both sides of the canal and several boats anchored at both entrances to the canal fishing for oversize reds.

Since I hadn't been to Patillo Creek in a while, I decided to try it out.

I stopped briefly at the first set of culverts when I spotted something hitting on the surface and tossed around a small white Creme paddletail bait for a while.   

After several casts, I had a gar follow the bait and finally got a hookup with a juvenile tarpon of about 14" long.   

I shook off the fish at the bank and continued up to the next set of culverts in hopes of something larger.

When I got to the culverts, the water was really flowing strong and I saw a lot of activity on the surface.  

Tarpon of various sizes were everywhere so I parked the truck and took a couple of rods down to the culvert to fish.

The wind was blowing and there was a misty rain that continued throughout the time I was fishing.  I pulled on my Frogg Toggs and started casting a black backed Badonk-A-Donk smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

On the first cast a large tarpon of about 4 feet or more smashed the topwater bait and tailwalked for a couple of jumps before sending the bait back to me.

I was surprised that fish of that size was in the area so I set my camera on video and set it up on a nail in a board to record any future action.

I started casting the Badonk-A-Donk  around the culvert discharge and had two more hits with a brief hookup before the bite died down.

I switched to the white Creme Spoiler swim bait and started getting more hits.  

After a couple of brief hookups and a lot of "bumps" I switched lures to see if I could get into some larger fish.  

The juvenile tarpon were between 18 and 24 inches or so in length, but after losing a half dozen or so fish, I was getting frustrated.   I just couldn't land a tarpon today for some reason.

Anyway, I kept changing baits and getting hits but no hookups until the rain finally ceased.  When the ran stopped, so did the tarpon bite.

The only lure that was getting any hits was a MirrOlure Heavy Dine sinking bait that I picked up at Bass Pro in Mobile, Al.  I smeared up some Pro-Cure which seemed to help, but I still couldn't manage to land a fish.

I made enough fruitless casts so that my wrist was getting tired so I decided to move to another spot to see if anybody else was catching fish.

Around the bend, I bumped into Al Bookhard and his wife who were fishing the canal for black drum.  

When I asked about his catch, he bent my ear about catching nothing but catfish.  He said that he had caught a limit of black drum when the water was colder, but not much today.

I swapped numbers with him and since I was chilled and tired, headed to the hacienda for some grub.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.