Sunset On The Mud Flats

It was almost sunset on the mud flats before I was able to get into the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and wet a line.

A "cold front" was expected to hit our area so I thought that it would be a good time to get out and catch up on my fishing.

Catfish Creek Road was the closest location and since I've been catching fish around some of the culverts in that area; I targeted the same locations.

My first casts around the mud flats picked up a hit and a miss, so I moved to the culvert I fished the other day and started getting solid hits.

I was using a Creme paddletail bait that is one of my "go to" lures for this area and casting tight to the grassy bank.

After several misses, I finally hooked, landed, and released a slot sea trout that nailed the bait in the culvert flow.

When things cooled down a bit, I picked up this rat redfish that inhaled the lure.

Several casts later, I hooked into a solid red that might have been his mother that hit the mangrove roots along the bank and broke off my favorite lure.

I tied on a Tsunami paddletail bait and started fan casting the area again.  

The sun was getting low and after getting some pics of the area, I landed and released a dink sea trout that nailed the lure.

There must have been a school in the area because I picked up two more fish before the bite died off.

I was about to leave the area and head home when I spotted some action around the grass, so I shot a couple casts to the area and picked up another rat redfish.

The sun was dipping to the horizon and after a few more fruitless casts, I decided to head home for some dinner.

On the way out I took these pics of the area.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Catfish Creek Redfish

After undergoing a major surgery and getting a case of Covid that screwed up my post op schedule, I finally managed to get a line out in the water and catch a few Catfish Creek Redfish this afternoon.

I loaded two spinning rods into the truck and took Odie along with me to scout out some areas to bank fish.

I really expected this to be a scouting trip, but it was about 4:30 pm when I left the house and the beach was closing up when I got there to access the flats on the southern end of the Mosquito Lagoon.

We turned around and headed to Catfish Creek which was the only area open to vehicle traffic.

Although only one person was fishing the area, several vehicles were tooling around the unimproved dirt road checking out the scenery.

I saw an open culvert with moving water so I pulled out a Creme Paddletail bait and started pitching it around the muddy flats.

It took only four cast to get a solid hookup with a speckled sea trout of about 20 inches.  After a brief fight, I got the fish to the bank and as I was trying to figure out how to skinny down the rocks to land the fish, the hooks pulled out.  Nice release....

I continued fishing the area and continued getting hits that I kept missing.  I'm definitely out of practice.

Anyway, after a few casts I hooked into a rat redfish that I also lost at the bank.

A couple more casts and a second red was on the line that I managed to land without breaking my neck on the rocky bank.

In about 45 minutes fishing the area, I managed to miss about eight fish and land two rat redfish that were all about the same size as the one below.

Odie was getting into trouble with some prickly weeds and the bite slowed down so I left the area and headed home.

I was surprised that I got as many fish as I did form the area, but from years of experience, I've learned that a flowing culvert is often like fishing in a hatchery. 

Till next time, 

Tight Lines......