Dog Days Tarpon

After yesterday's outing at the Canaveral National Seashore road to Playalinda Beach, I expected another stellar day hooking and releasing ladyfish and tarpon, however, today the fish had a serious case of lockjaw.

I left the house around 1:30 pm and arrived at the pond I fished yesterday around 2:00 pm.

Despite the overcast conditions, a  lot of people were on the road going to the beach but nobody was fishing the Vistas or the ponds.

I stopped and pulled out the outfit I used yesterday with the beat up XPS Slim Dog, smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula gel, and started casting around the same areas as I did yesterday.

After the third or fourth cast I hooked into the biggest tarpon to date.  The fish was well over three feet long and could only get half out of the water when it tried to jump and toss off the lure.

The fish stayed hooked until the fourth jump which was really a head shake when the hooks pulled out of it's mouth.

I was not a happy camper because I really wanted to get a pic of the tarpon for this site but I put on a happy face and continued casting around the area looking for another bite.

For the next hour, I made an undetermined amount of casts with several topwater baits and never got another hit or follow up from a tarpon or even a ladyfish.

I tried two other Vistas with the same result.

I have no earthly idea what happened to put down the bite but it stopped cold.

With my tail between my legs and sweat dripping down my shirt, I gave up the idea of fishing and headed home for some air conditioning.

I may get out to fish again before heading back out of town, but I hope the fish are hungrier than they were today.

Till next time, Tight Lines. 

Searching For Tarpon

On Thursday afternoon when Karen and I went searching for tarpon along the Canaveral National Seashore, I had a lot of action with several hookups but I couldn't land a fish to save my life, so late Friday afternoon, I decided to see if I could change my luck.

I left the house without anything but a box of topwater lures and some water.  

I don't know what the heat index was, but the air temperature was in the high 90s and there was a lot of thunderstorm activity in the area.

When I entered the Canaveral National Seashore, I didn't waste any time getting to Vista 7 but after making several casts in the area without even a follow up I decided to check out several other areas.

I tried two small ponds along the road that produced a few busts on the XPS Slim Dog topwater bait I was using and managed to land a couple of small ladyfish that I quickly released.

When I finally got tired of casting, I decided to head out of the area but on the way I stopped at a large pond just before the Bio Lab road exit to give it a final last shot.

I smeared up the Slim Dog I was using with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula gel and started fan casting around the area.

On my second cast I missed a good fish that I couldn't identify but it looked like a large ladyfish.

A couple of casts later in the same general area produced a small ladyfish that was double hooked and put up no fight.

I continued casting farther out in the pond and hooked into a large juvenile tarpon that was in the three foot category.  The fish made a jump that shot him at least 6 feet out of the water and tossed back my lure.

I waited a while and juiced up the Slim Dog with some fresh Pro-Cure and after another couple of casts hooked into another tarpon that was larger than the first fish.  

The fish jumped once and made a fast run down the channel close to the road.  On the second jump, which was next to the shoreline, the fish tossed the lure back to me into the bushes.

I couldn't believe that I couldn't land a damn tarpon, but that fishing.

Anyway, I continued tossing the Slim Dog around and caught several more ladyfish that started hitting like crazy just before it started raining in earnest.

I put on a brimmed hat and continued tossing the topwater plug and managed to hook and lose three more tarpon in the three foot category before the bite stopped completely.

The rainstorm evidently perked up the bite and when it stopped raining, the fish stopped eating.

Ticked off at myself for not being able to land just one tarpon, I headed for home to get in my daily walk.

I plan to try the area again tomorrow, God willing.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Tarpon In The Vistas

This afternoon I decided to get out to Playalinda Beach to catch a few whiting for dinner and see if there were any tarpon in the Vistas on the way to the beach. 

I loaded up a couple of surf rods and one river rod with a Bass Pro topwater popper, just in case and headed to the beach. 

On the way to Playalinda, I stopped at the bait shop and picked up some frozen shrimp and a pack of finger mullet for bait. The girl at the shop said that the tide was on the way out and most of the surf fishermen were catching whiting and a few keeper pompano on sand fleas and shrimp. I figured that since I was already loaded up, I might as well head out to the Lots even though the tide was heading in the wrong direction.

 When I showed my lifetime pass to the girl at the kiosk, I asked her why she was wearing a mask when she was all alone in the booth.  She said it was required, so I left it alone. I'm convinced we have all gone mad! 

 Anyway, as I drove past the first Vista I was going to stop but decided to hit the beach first.  

The first lots had several cars so I headed up to #9 and checked out the area. The water was dirty and the tide was going out. There was a good current moving which would require a heavy lead to hold bottom, so I moved up to lots #10 and #11 to see if conditions would be more conducive to fishing.

These lots were also about the same; dirty, roily water and a heavy current.   I planned to fish around lot #10 but after talking with a surf fisherman who was there most of the morning without any fish, I decided to wait for a high tide tomorrow morning to fish the surf. 

I planned to head back to fish East Gator Creek but decided to stop at Vista 7 to give it a shot.   

On the third cast with my popper, I hooked into a juvenile tarpon around 3 feet long.   The fish jumped twice before sending the lure back to me.   

I loosened up the drag on my reel and continued tossing the small topwater popper around the area.   After several casts, another tarpon slightly smaller hit the plug and got off after the first jump. 

I always bow to the tarpon when they get hooked but today for some reason the lures kept getting thrown back to me.  

After several more casts around the area, the bite died down so I moved up to the next Vista and continued casting the small popper. 

This Vista produced hookups with two more tarpon about the same size as the last site and one smaller tarpon about two feet long.    All the fish were hookups that got off after a couple or three jumps.

Frustrated, I gave up and headed back home to tell Karen about my trip.

Karen wanted to pick up a prescription and take the "boys" for a ride, so I packed up the river rod and we headed out to Walgreens.  They filled her scrip and we headed over to Bio Lab road to scout for snook spots and see if there were any tarpon in the area.,

We didn't see any tarpon, but I found a few nice spots for snook along the road.   When we came to Playalinda Beach road, I decided to try the Vista where I hooked into the larger tarpon earlier, and Karen agreed.

When we drove down to the Vista,  I got out of the truck and on the first cast hooked into a tarpon that was over three feet long.    The fish took a lot of drag, jumped four times, and on the last jump broke off my favorite topwater popper.

It was the only one I brought with me so I tied on a large Zara Spook that I tossed around for several minutes without even a follow up.    The tarpon apparently were only interested in smaller baits today so I packed up my rod and we all headed back to the house.

I broke my diet and ate four slices of pizza from Lil Ceasers before doing my afternoon walk.

Till next time,

Tight Lines..

Fishing East Gator Creek

Finally got a chance to wet a line this afternoon at East Gator Creek.

This was my first chance since I got home from North Carolina to go fishing so I picked the closest area available to hopefully catch some fish.

When I got to East Gator Creek, there was a decent breeze on the water which made topwater casting a bit of a challenge.  

I brought three rods along each tipped with a Badonk A Donk, a Bass Pro XTS popper, and a XPS Slim Dog topwater bait.

I had a box of Chug Bugs in the back with a few DOA lures just in case, but on this trip, I never got a chance to use them.

I already completed my walk for the day and it was around 6:00 pm when I tossed my first lure on the flats.  

The  XTS topwater popper I was using was black on top with a silver/white belly below.  I smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula gel to spice up the bait and started blind casting the area.

After many casts around the grassy flats I finally hooked and landed a ladyfish of around 15" that jumped all over the place before giving it up.

In the next hour or so, I managed to hook and land two more smaller ladyfish around the same area.

I moved up the road and started casting to the far side of the flat where a deep dropoff paralleled the weedy shallow flat where I saw a fin break the surface.

I made several casts across to the deeper water and finally got a follow up from a juvenile tarpon.  The fish looked like it was interested in my bait but even with the Pro-Cure, it had lockjaw.

Several unproductive casts later, I finally decided to give it up and run around Catfish Creek loop to see if anybody was catching fish.

I saw several groups of fishermen dunking live mullet and cut baits but nobody admitted to having caught anything.

I took a few pics of the sunset as I was going around Catfish Creek 

By the time I finished circling the road, the full moon was coming up and I decided to head for home.

Hopefully, I'll get out to wet a line in the next couple of days.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.