Late Afternoon Scouting Outing

After finishing up the chores my wife had for me today, I decided to take Elmo and Odie on a late afternoon scouting outing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I didn't plan on fishing but I took a couple of spinning rods along just in case something wanted to jump into the truck.

It was around 6:00 pm when we pulled into the entrance to East Gator Creek and there was absolutely nobody in the area.

The air temperature was in the high 80s but there was no wind blowing and the water in the shallow flat was pretty much flat.  

I drove at barely an idle to see if anything was hitting the surface and spotted a few tails in the shallow mud flats on the right side of the road just past the culvert.

I tried to get a video of the action but by the time I could focus on a tail, they were gone.  I did manage some good pics of the sunset.

After several failed attempts to get a shot at the reds tailing, I moved up the road to fish the east side of the road.  The drop off at the far canal.is usually good for a fish or two if you can make a long cast so I gave it a few casts to see if anything was interested.

After several casts, a medium sized ladyfish nailed the white XPS Slim Dog topwater bait I was tossing and made several jumps before I could shake the fish off at the bank.  

When I don't plan on keeping the fish for bait, I usually just flip them off at the bank to reduce the mortality rate.

I had two more strikes and one more hookup before Elmo and Odie started getting into trouble.

Elmo is almost blind and pretty much can't hear anything so it makes keeping track of him a full time job.

Odie is pretty cool, he just follows me around waiting for a fish to check out.

Anyway, I loaded them back into the truck and drove slowly past Catfish Creek loop entrance to check out the area.

I spotted three groups of fishermen along the bank of the Indian River who were dunking finger mullet and dead shrimp.  

One guy had a nice slot redfish but nobody else seemed to be having much luck.

I took several pics of the beautiful sunset before heading back home and picking up a Lil Ceaser's pizza.

Once a month or so I go off my diet and share a pizza with my wife.  

Till next time,

Tight Lines.