A "ride" In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Despite the 90 degree plus temperatures this afternoon, my wife and I took Odie for a "ride" in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge along Bio Lab Road.

Odie had just undergone oral surgery and was pretty sore but he perked up a lot when we asked him if he wanted to go for a ride.

The air temperature was 93 degrees when we left the house around 2:30 pm which is undoubtedly the worst time to do any fishing, but I brought along a few rods "just in case" we came upon any tarpon.

Bio Lab Road was where I wanted to scout out to see if there were any tarpon in the area.  

The water in the lagoon was down and the water clarity was better than I expected.  You could easily see the dark splotches of grass among the bottom in the shallow flats along the road.  

There wasn't much baitfish activity on the flats and although we saw several fish hitting bait on the surface at the deep edge of the flats, I didn't bother to fish the area.

We drove to the southernmost section and pulled into an area we call "manatee bay"

and spotted several manatees in the area.

I started tossing a topwater plug along the mangroves hoping for a snook or tarpon and after several blind casts had a brief hookup with what looked like a juvenile tarpon.

The fish smashed the lure and almost immediately shook off.

Because of the heat, Karen wanted to head for home so we meandered out of Bio Lab Road towards Playalinda Beach and hit a couple of Vistas before leaving.

All three of the Vistas we stopped at were void of any fish.  I had expected to see some tarpon or ladyfish but nothing was hitting any of my baits.

I tossed a sub surface Mirr-O-Lure, Johnson Sprite gold spoon, and a Tsunami Paddletail bait for several casts at each spot with only one follow.

At this point, Odie was panting and my wife was getting very uncomfortable, so I decided to head for home.

Till next time

Tight Lines