Indian River Gator Creek Sea Trout

Indian River sea trout seem to be biting after the cold front almost as good as they did before the front eased its way into the area this past weekend.

This afternoon I decided to try my luck in the Indian River marsh area around Gator Creek.



Gator Creek is one particular area that I haven't fished on a regular basis. Although several of my friends reported sporadic catches of sea trout and redfish in the deeper holes, I have never seriously pursued fishing the area.

The sun was out and the air temperature was in the high 60s. There was very little wind to speak of when I started out around noon, and later on in the day it totally died off to a dead calm.

There were several groups of roseate spoonbills in the area along with a few species of ducks and herons. All were enjoying the day as I was.



I took four rods along, each with a different lure for variety, but wound up fishing with a gold Johnson spoon and a DOA jerkbait that I had been having luck with this past week.

Unfortunately, Gator Creek didn't pan out. The only thing I spotted were several schools of large mullet that would have made the day for a commercial net fisherman.

I decided to back track and move into Peacocks Pocket road and fish the marsh canal.

Fishing was tough today because the water was so calm. I spooked three trout before I finally landed one on my green DOA jerkbait.

The fish was smaller than the ones I had been catching yesterday. It measured only 17" but put up a decent fight.

I took it's picture and returned it to the water and continued "jump" fishing up the road.

I missed 4 more trout before I hooked another one that measured in at 22". Again I took it's picture and returned it to fight another day.

It was 2:30 when I caught my third trout on the same lure. This one was also about 22" and put up a better fight than the other two trout. Again I took a picture and put it back.

I was hoping to catch a redfish, but I didn't see any tell tale signs of one in the area.

Blind casting damned near wore out my shoulder, but being the die hard fisherman that I am, I continued without any hits until about 4:00.

The water was as calm and flat as a mirror on both sides of the road as I eased into the area we named the "duck blind".

As I started casting, I spooked a redfish in the 30" range not more than 8 feet from the bank.

I continued casting to it until I just got tired and finally decided to give it up. It was about 4:30 when I made the decision to head for home and get something to eat.

As I was driving out of the area, I kept watching the water on the marsh side of the road hoping to spot a redfish. About a mile from the "duck blind", I spotted a swirl right on the
opposite bank from the road, so I quickly stopped the truck and walked back to where the fish should have been.

I lobbed the jerkbait perfectly on the bank and pulled it into the water to where I thought the fish should be.

Almost immediately a redfish churned up the water and gulped down the lure.

At first the fish didn't fight much, but when he realized he was hooked he took off up the canal on a nice run. A few minutes later I lipped the fish with the boca grip and pulled it from the water.

The redfish was only 26" and since it was in the slot I was thinking about taking it home for dinner.

Anyway, I didn't feel like cleaning it and I wasn't feeling well because of an ear infection, so I decided to let the fish go to fight another day.

About the time the fish hit the water, my wife called to see if I caught anything. After giving her an abbreviated report, I decided to pack it in and head for the Hacienda.

Hope you all enjoy the pics and until next time,

Tight Lines.

Catching Nice Redfish After The Atlantis Shuttle Launch

The last Atlantis space shuttle flight launched at 2:20 this afternoon without a hitch, and drew the usual huge crowd of spectators. The traffic took almost 2 hours before everyone finally cleared out of the viewing areas.

My wife and I wanted to check out Peacocks Pocket road, to see if it was open for vehicle traffic, and to get in some late fishing before dusk.

We drove past the area and the gate to the road was still padlocked, so we headed up to Shiloh Marsh Road to try our luck.

The weather was gorgeous and a slight wind on the Indian River provided just enough ripples for some potentially great fishing.

On our first stop, Karen chucked out her usual dead shrimp offering under a Billy Bay, "lowcountry lightning" Pop n Gurgle bobber.

I started chucking a Bagly hammered gold spoon, and before I could make my third cast, Karen hooked up to a nice 31" redfish that put up a very respectable fight.

The fish swallowed the 5/0 hook, so I cut the fluorocarbon leader, and released the fish to fight another day after I took some pictures of her catch.

I tried several spoons, jigs, jerkbaits, and finally my favorite topwater plug without even a hit.

Not wanting to get "skunked", I finally broke down and put on a dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder bobber and started popping away.

I missed a nice redfish on the rig after a brief fight, and thought I had finally hooked into another bruiser red, only to find that it was a medium sized stingray.

The spot where we were fishing was relatively shallow, and near an open culvert.

There were some rocks at the culvert, that was providing cover for schools of baby croaker that were attracting redfish and sea trout.

Unfortunately, they were not having any of what I was offering. Today, I couldn't buy a bite on lures, so I finally put on one of the last dead shrimp we had for bait and just let it soak while I went for my Nikon.

There was a little water moccasin that was having much better luck fishing than I was, so I decided to take some pics of the critter. It was the first time I ever saw a snake catching fish.

Hope you enjoy them, along with the incredible scenery.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get out tomorrow and do better, so until then; Tight Lines to All!

2010 Redfish Tournament Tour At Titusville, Fl.

Mayday was a beautiful day for the Redfish Tour Tournament held on the Indian River at Titusville.

My wife and I had planned on taking our Maverick flats boat out for a ride on the Mosquito Lagoon, but when I drove by the river, there wasn't a parking space to be found. I had totally forgotten about the Redfish Tour being held today.

Instead I did some work around the house and decided to take a few pics of the happenings on the river.

My video camera was on the blink, so I just compiled a little video of the weigh in and the winning entrant ceremony that was conducted by the Indian River. Hope you enjoy it.

The first place and grand prize winners of a new $30,000 Ranger flats boat rig was Chris Huston and Mike Tucker who won the tournament with two fish totaling 15.27 pounds. I hope they pardon me if I butchered the spelling of their names!

Anyway, after taking all the pictures I needed; my wife and I headed for the north shallows of the Indian River to do some late afternoon fishing.

We found a spot midway down unimproved Shiloh Road and started fishing in earnest. My wife was motivated by seeing all the redfish that were caught and released at the weigh in; and she wanted one for herself.

As luck would have it, she got her wish. Fifteen minutes after we parked the truck, she caught a nice slot sized redfish on her standby Cajun Thunder rig, with a shrimp bait.




I took some pics and we released the fish to fight another day.

The wind was really picking up and the water was getting rougher. I was throwing Creme paddle tail lures, a white jig head with a 4" gulp and a D.O.A. CAL bait with little success.

I picked up two slot sized trout walking the shoreline and the action simply stopped dead.

I tried several lures in my tackle box and finally settled on a small Bagly hammered gold spoon.

That did the trick! In an hour and a half, I picked up five trout between 15 and 20 inches, and missed at least 3 more.

The fishing slowed down as the the wind continued to pick up and both Elmo (our wonder dog), and I were tired. Karen had finally also had enough for one day, so we packed up and left the preserve before dusk.

All in all it was another great day on the Indian River, even if we didn't get to run the Maverick.

Till next time, Tight Lines!