Sea Trout and Ladyfish On The Flats

The weather was wet and windy when I decided to hit the flats in East Gator Creek for some sea trout and ladyfish action.

This afternoon was my first chance to wet a line sine I got home Friday night so despite the weather, I decided to get in some topwater fishing.

I knew from prior experience that fishing the fronts and thunderstorms can be extremely productive and this afternoon proved my theory.  

As I slowly drove into East Gator Creek Road looking for signs of topwater feeding activity, it started raining just enough to cool things down.  

The air temp was still in the 80s and there was enough wind to make walking the dog a pain in the butt.

I started out blind casting the weedy flats with a small Bass Pro Tourney special popper that I smeared up with some Pro-Cure inshore formula gel.  I do this to increase my hookup ration and the stuff really works.

I made three casts around the first culvert and had a couple of follow ups but no hookups so I moved down the road blind casting around the shallows.

The water was crystal clear and I spotted several long nose garfish along the bank.

I drove up the road to another weedy flat and again started blind casting the area.

After a few casts I hooked up with a ladyfish around 20 inches that got off after a few jumps.  

A few casts later and I landed another smaller version that I quickly released.

The wind was slowing down but the rain was becoming steadier and the bite was perking up.

I started casting parallel to the bank with a Badonk A Donk that I had on my other rod and hooked into a couple more ladyfish which I landed and released.

Moving up the road into a sheltered area, I hooked into a nice sea trout that I took a pic of  and quickly released.

In that spot I managed to hook and release two more ladyfish and one more smaller sea trout.

As the rain slowed down to a halt, I took a slow ride around Catfish Creek Loop to see what was happening in that area.

I stopped to briefly talk to two fishermen who both said the sea trout bite was picking up.  The one guy was using croaker under a popping float and had three sea trout and the other group was using finger mullet.

As I was talking to the second angler, I spotted some tails on the Indian River side of the road.  He told me that the other fisherman had just lost an over size redfish at the bank.  He said the tail was huge and the fish was probably in the 15 pound category.

He said the school was just outside of casting range from the bank but with the corakers he was using for bait, I'm pretty sure he'd be getting a hookup before dark.

I bid him farewell as I took a pic of the sunset and headed home.

Till next time, Tight Lines.