Peacocks Pocket Road Closure

The Peacocks Pocket road closure was a total surprise for me this past weekend.

When I got back to town, the first thing Karen and I did was to take our two "best friends" for a scouting trip to see how the locals were doing with the redfish and sea trout.

When we got to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and saw that the barriers were up, I was not a happy camper.  We drove down towards Peacocks Pocket kayak launch hoping that the gate was open, but it too was chained and closed.

Since the weather was great, we decided to see if any of the other areas in the refuge were open to fishing and vehicle traffic.  We drove towards L Pond Road and as usual it too was chained, so we took a ride towards Haulover Canal and managed to check out most of the unimproved roads leading to the Indian River around Dummit Cove.

We found a couple of people fishing at the Boy Scout camping area but they weren't having any luck.

I pretty much resigned myself to a fishless afternoon, so Karen and I decided to head over to Bairs Cove boat launch.

When we got there, we were happy to see that a large group of sea manatees were in the cove playing around.  I stopped the truck and took a video of their antics before moving on to check out some other potential fishing areas.

We crossed Haulover Canal bridge and checked out the fishermen who were bank fishing on the side opposite the boat launch.  The three guys I spoke with were catching sting rays, catfish, and one had a redfish on which he lost at the bank.

I wished them all good luck and headed towards Patillo Creek and Shiloh Road to see if anybody was fishing that area.

We only saw three fishermen fishing and wading the flats south of the deeper canal and I didn't bother them to find out if they were fishing or catching.  Instead, we let the dogs out to do their "duty" while I cast a topwater XPS walk the dog bait to see if I could stir up a sea trout or two.

After thirty casts or so, I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to catch any fish this afternoon.

We drove up to Shiloh Road where again, another barrier was blocking vehicle traffic.

I took several pictures of the areas we scouted out and headed to the hacienda for dinner.

When I got home, I called the Fish and Wildlife people to see why the roads were blocked off to vehicle traffic.

The third lady I spoke with told me that Peacocks Pocket Road would be closed until May 15th. because of road repairs.   She said it could be opened earlier but that it was doubtful.

I asked her about the possibility of Shiloh Road and L. Pond Road being opened, and was told that both roads were closed indefinitely.  The funding was not available to repair the unimproved roads and is not likely to be available anytime in the near future.

She told me that both roads could be fished by hiking or biking, but vehicles were prohibited.

I politely thanked her for the information and hung up wondering what is being done with the revenues from our license fees.  With the national debt heading towards 20 trillion dollars and government waste in the billions, I wonder why nobody in our government can't scrape up enough money to fix a couple of great fishing access roads.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Sea Trout Fishing During A Thunderstorm

Sea Trout fishing during a thunderstorm is often extremely productive and this afternoon's trip was no exception.

My wife planned to go horseback riding, so I packed up four rods along with a cooler full of water and headed for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to do a little sea trout fishing.

When I left the house it had been raining steadily, but I decided to go fishing anyway hoping against the odds that the rain would let up in the "swamp".

As I crossed the bridge across the Indian River I knew that it wouldn't.

It was raining cats and dogs and the lightning was visible on the horizon.

I turned on to Peacocks Pocket road from the easternmost entrance and as I was driving past the kayak launch the rainstorm increased in strength.

There was no point in even trying to fish during a lightning storm, so for safety's sake I stayed in the truck until the lightning passed by.

 

As soon as it was possible to fish, I started blind casting into the Indian River hoping to pick up a sea trout or a redfish.

It pays to fish the fronts because it is almost always productive, but thunderstorms are a different proposition entirely.

After making several casts to likely looking spots I quickly realized that either there were no fish in the area or they just weren't in the mood for my baby bass Chug Bug top water bait.

It was still raining so I decided to fish the salt marsh canal on the other side of the road.

It took only a couple casts into the narrow canal to stir up some action.

I had a couple of misses on the Chug Bug from sea trout but they would not hold onto the plug.

I pulled out my little container of Pro-Cure super gel and smeared the sticky stuff all over the Chug Bug paying particular attention to the flashy trailer on the rear treble hook.

The second cast hooked me up to a chunky slot size sea trout that put up a great fight in the confines of the narrow canal.

Since my wife wasn't with me, I tried to take some pics of me and the fish while holding the camera awkwardly with my left hand.

I continued fishing the marsh canal and picked up a gator sea trout of about 28" at the entrance to a small pond.

The big fish blasted the Chug Bug and literally tried to inhale the bait.

I learned to give the fish slack when they hit a top water lure so they hook themselves and this fish did just that.

I fought the big trout carefully and finally found a spot to pull it up the bank.

After taking a couple of pics of the fish, I released it to fight another day.

As I was smearing some more Pro-Cure on the Chug Bug, I noticed two redfish tailing their way down the middle of the narrow marsh canal.

I cast well past their path and let the lure settle before twitching it. One of the reds swirled completely around and hit the plug as I twitched it but when I dropped my rod tip to let the redfish hook itself on the plug, the fish wasn't there.

I tried several more casts to the fish but they were spooked and showed no interest in my offering.

It was still raining so I got into the truck and drove several yards up the road to a new spot to continue fishing.

The canal was wider in this area and I started making long casts close to the opposite bank and working the Chug Bug back at an angle.

After a few casts and a followup, I hooked onto another big sea trout that was well over the slot.

This fish also put up a nice fight but I finally gilled it out of the water, took it's pic and released it.

As long as the rain was still coming down, I was catching fish.   And, as soon as the rainstorm subsided, the fishing slowed down and finally came to a halt.

Before the rain stopped entirely, I managed to land eight sea trout that were all in or over the slot.  (15" to 24")  Two of the fish were in what is commonly called the "gator trout" category.

The biggest was 29" and the next biggest was just at 27".
 

Sea trout fishing during a thunderstorm is not what I would recommend to everyone, but for me it was a fishing bonanza.

All during the time I was in the refuge I saw only two other vehicles and two other fishermen.

I had the entire area all to myself for the majority of the time I was fishing.

After all, how many people are crazy enough to go fishing during a thunderstorm?

As the sun was setting I was privileged to an awesome sunset.  I took a few pics for you to enjoy.

 

 

As I was driving out of the refuge, I passed Ashford, the young fisherman I met last weekend and his buddy who were also leaving the area.

When I asked him about the fishing, he said he caught a nice 24" redfish on a Chug Bug earlier in the day.

All in all I can accurately report that sea trout fishing during a thunderstorm can provide some great fishing if you can tolerate the rain and don't mind the no see ums and mosquitoes that brings them out.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Perseverance Is A Great Element Of Success

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.

These words of wisdom by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also apply to successful fishing..

Saturday evening was almost a bust in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge but perseverance won out in the end.

The air temperature this evening was in the low 80s and dropping as thunderstorm activity moved through the area.

 

As I entered the refuge at around 7:00 pm, I almost ran over a feisty gator that was crossing the road at my first stop.

The wind was beginning to pick up so I started fishing with a baby bass pattern Chug Bug at the third set of culverts.

There were still ladyfish in the area that smacked the Chug Bug with gusto, right up until the gator that crossed the road got interested in my bait and started to become a pest.

The wind was getting stronger and the temperature was dropping into the high 70s as I "jump fished" several likely looking areas from the unimproved road.

The young man I talked to who was using a "super sized" Chug Bug the last time I saw him stopped and asked me how I was doing as he was leaving the refuge.  I told him all I caught till then was a ladyfish at the culvert and that he was leaving just when he should be starting to fish.

Fishing in August almost mandates that you fish early and late if you plan on catching anything at all.  Anyway, he took my advice, turned around and started shadowing me as I was moving from spot to spot.

I personally hate it when fishing becomes a lot like work and the fishing this evening was just that.  The wind was making casting difficult and unless a fish blew up on a top water plug, you couldn't detect a strike.

I switched to several soft paddle tail baits and another pattern of Chug Bug as I "jump fished" the area and missed several small sea trout and a redfish before dusk.

It was getting darker and I was still fishless but I persevered.   As the young man decided to leave the area, he wished me good luck.

I decided to try some Pro Cure scent on my lures to up the ante.  The stuff is supposed to drive fish crazy.  Although I don't believe this for a second, the gooey stuff does seem to get the fish in the mood to strike and it keeps them holding on to the bait longer.

After the next couple of casts with a paddle tail bait gooed up with Pro Cure, I picked up the slot sea trout in the pic.

I released the fish and went back to the spot where I missed a redfish earlier.

The third cast hooked me up with this red.

It wasn't one of the largest redfish that I've caught in the area, but it sure did save the evening from being a bust.

I hate getting skunked!

The wind usually stops as the sun goes down but this evening it continued to blow as I left the area.

It occurred to me that perseverance is a great element of success, especially for fishermen.

I would not have caught any fish this evening had I left the refuge with everyone else.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

P.S.  I didn't get the young man's name but maybe I'll remember next time.

Salt Marsh Sea Trout

Salt marsh sea trout are generally much more difficult to catch than those in the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon.

In the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the sea trout get a lot of fishing pressure and visitor traffic from people all around the country who enjoy taking pics of the wildlife.

In a word, the fish are savvy.

Karen and I didn't even think about fishing today until about 6:30 pm when the afternoon thundershowers started rolling through the area.

We loaded up Elmo (our wonder dog) and several rods with various artificial lures and headed for the "swamp" (as my wife affectionately calls it).

The temperature was in the low 80s when we got to Peacocks Pocket road and there was virtually no wind on the water.

 

I drove slowly into the refuge looking for any sign of fish but other than some finger mullet in the marsh canal, I didn't spot anything of any size until about half way through Peacocks Pocket road.

The water in this area was dead calm and except for the occasional fish busting the surface feeding on finger mullet, the surface looked like a mirror.

 

 

Karen baited a fresh dead shrimp on a 5/0 hook on one rod, and the other with a Cajun Thunder float over a jumbo shrimp.

I started out blind casting a Berkley Fire Tiger paddle tail bait on a light spinning rod with 10# line to likely looking spots in the marsh canal.

In the next hour I missed six sea trout and caught two smaller fish on the paddle tail bait and on a freshwater Chug Bug.

The one big sea trout I hooked off the tip of a grassy island was in the 25" range but it shook out the paddle tail lure on the second jump.

The two sea trout I managed to hook were so small, I could have used it for bait.

 

There were several huge redfish in the salt marsh pond adjacent to the canal busting bait but they were way too far off to make any sort of decent presentation to.

Karen lobbed her baits in between two small grass islands where the reds sometimes use as a corridor to the deeper marsh canal.

She had one pickup but missed whatever the fish was.

Salt marsh sea trout sometimes feed all night long, especially during full moon periods but this evening the fish quit hitting just as the sun was setting.

The mosquitoes weren't bad this evening but the gnats were killer.  When they swarm on you, it feels like your skin is on fire and they seem to thrive on insect repellant.

Elmo started whining and Karen and I both were getting the hell bitten out of us, so we decided to call it a day.

 

The sunset was awesome as you can see by the pics and even though we didn't pickup a redfish this evening, the salt marsh sea trout were a lot of fun.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Another Windy Saturday Afternoon Fishing

It was another windy Saturday afternoon which almost prevented me from going fishing.

However, after replacing a screen in our pool area, I was more than eager to leave the house and wet a line despite the windy conditions.

Since Elmo was jonesing to ride with me to the swamp, Karen decided to come along at the last moment.  Like most fishermen, she hates fishing on windy days.

We packed our rods and headed for the same spots in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge where I hooked up to some reds yesterday.

Our first couple of stops weren't memorable enough to comment on but at our third stop things started picking up.

The wind was blowing from the northeast for the most part and the weather was 79 to 80 degrees.

Most of the areas we fished had a moderate chop on the water and casting was challenging to say the least.

Karen insisted on using a jumbo dead shrimp under a pencil float to try for a redfish.

I started out using a  Johnson Sprite Spoon - 3 4 oz but quickly changed to this
Tsunami Holographic Swim Shad Softbait - 3'' - 3 8 oz. -  Lure that produced yesterday evening.

I had a few encouraging taps that I could feel but no fish until a reader of this site drove up and asked me if I was John.

Alan Forehand (pardon the spelling) and his family were down from Carolina and asked about the fishing.

He said he was visiting for the week, read my blog every Monday morning and wanted to catch some sea trout.

I suggested some lures, gave Alan a few tips and recommended wading the flats in the area or just fishing from the bank with live finger mullet.

Just as Alan and his family drove off, I landed this 16" sea trout on the same bait that I recommended to him.

I hooked another clone to the first fish in the same area and released both fish before moving on to an area that was easier for my wife to cast.

At the next spot I spotted several small pods of mullet in very shallow water. Occasionally the fish would scatter as a red or sea trout would charge in for the kill.

Karen fished the marsh side and I started fishing the Tsunami soft bait on the Indian River side of the road.

On the second cast around one of the mullet pods I hooked up to another under size sea trout (below) which I promptly released.

Karen and I both saw lots of fish but casting to them was definitely a problem.

As the sun began to set, we both had enough of the wind and decided to head towards the house.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted two huge wakes traveling down the marsh canal.

I decided to give Karen one last chance to hook a redfish so I drove well ahead of the wakes, pulled over to the side of the road and tossed out her shrimp bait.

We waited for the redfish to show but it either moved into a pond or stopped to feed elsewhere.

When the mosquitoes got to Karen, we packed it in.

Maybe tomorrow the wind will be more cooperative.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

P.S.

Alan, Right now the sea trout are still going crazy in both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River flats.

Wade fishing early in the morning or on overcast days is your best bet for a Gator Sea Trout.

Use top water plugs around schooling mullet pods, especially when you see the fish being chased.  When no pods are present, fish the sandy "potholes" (lighter areas) you can see as you wade.

Sea trout lie just off these spots to ambush baitfish as they swim by.

On windy days, use a 5/0 worm hook and a floating jerk bait (D.O.A.CAL, Strike King, etc.) on a long fluorocarbon leader when using Power Pro or other type braid.

Try going down Bio Lab road towards the shallow water boat launch.

 Drive to the right and fish the potholes in the Mosquito Lagoon flats on the left side of the road.

 DO NOT try wading across the ditches. There are big gators in these areas and I don't mean gator trout!

You can also try wade fishing around the Scottsmoor boat launch with free lined finger mullet, live croaker, mullet under a float, or lures. This area is noted for large sea trout and bull redfish.

Good luck and Tight Lines!

Gold Spoons Really Rock!

Gold spoons really rock, especially when you fish them before a rainstorm.

After driving 400 miles to make my late afternoon doctor's appointment, I didn't get a chance to wet a line this afternoon until about 5:00 pm.

My wife Karen opted to stay home because of the weather so I loaded three spinning rods into the truck and headed for the nearest potential hotspot. 

As I left the house it started sprinkling and before I got to Peacocks Pocket Road in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, it totally stopped.

The temperature was a pleasant 70 degrees and there was relatively little wind.  Since there was no one around the shallow water kayak launch, I decided to start fishing in the shall bay around the corner from it on the Indian River side of the road.

Nothing beats a gold spoon to locate fish if you know how to fish them right.

With a gold spoon, you can cover a lot of water very quickly and once you find them, you can switch to soft baits or whatever rocks your boat.

After about a dozen casts I finally hooked up to a slot size sea trout which I quickly released.

I continued fan casting the same area and around 6:00 pm, I hooked into this 26" male sea trout.

The fish put up a very bullish fight and at first I thought I had hooked into a redfish. 

I was fishing for meat this afternoon so I decided to keep one fish for dinner and this was it.

I hooked two more smaller trout in the area before it started to rain so I decided to move up the road to another favorite spot that my wife and I named "bobcat bay".

There were two fishermen wading the shallows and one of them was fighting a redfish that he brought to shore and quickly released.  I took a couple of quick picks of the action that didn't really turn out that well, but here they are despite being out of focus.

 

I made a few casts to a cruising redfish on the marsh side of the road but it wasn't eating so I moved up to another area where my wife caught redfish a few weeks ago.

Here I met Sean Mclaughlin with his fishing equipment neatly packed on the back of his bike.

I asked him how he was doing and he said "You're John, you're the reason I'm out here".

He obviously was a reader of this website and I was genuinely surprised anyone would recognize me.

He told me that he was from Orlando and that he hadn't been out to this area in a while. 

Although he wasn't catching any fish, he said the guy in the pickup just up the road from him had missed a nice "bull" redfish on the Indian River side. 

Sean said he was down on the shrimping pier the other evening and caught some nice sea trout but this afternoon he wasn't doing anything.

I gave him some advice along with a couple of the lures that I use in the area and decided to head for home to clean my fish.

I made a couple of halfhearted casts to the area where Jeff, the guy in the pickup truck, said he missed the big redfish but if there was anything in the area, it wasn't interested in my gold spoon.

Sean was packing it in and said he was heading back to Orlando before the lightning got too close. 

I took a few shots of the storm as I was leaving Peacocks Pocket road and was glad I didn't have to make the drive to Orlando that Sean was in for.

One thing is sure, gold spoons really rock if you're after big fish and need to cover large areas of water in a hurry.

In only an hour and a half I managed to land three fish and miss three others.

I just love refuge fishing!

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Wildlife Photography Outing

Saturday's wildlife photography outing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge proved to be much more successful than our goal of catching a monster redfish or gator sea trout.

Karen and I left for the refuge around 3:30 pm but didn't start fishing until a little after 4:00.
This afternoon there was a substantial amount of visitor traffic in the refuge.

The roseatte spoonbills are starting to fly in from their migratory routes and everyone with a camera loves taking pictures of them as they are feed with their heads moving side to side in the shallow marsh areas.

This short video below shows you what I mean.

Despite the traffic, I decided to at least try and catch something, so I started blind casting with my favorite beat up Bagley gold spoon.

I bought Karen a new Ugly Stick from Wallmart and mated it up with an Okuma bait runner reel and some 10# Cajun line.

She was using jumbo frozen shrimp with a Cajun Thunder clacker float and a 5/0 Owner hook.

I wasn't sure how the rod would work out but Karen liked the setup and could cast a country mile with the float.

For the sake of brevity, we fished until dusk without any substantial results.

I gave up on my gold spoon and switched to a topwater Zara Spook Jr. which attracted some sea trout that couldn't figure out how to get themselves hooked!

The fish kept hitting the bait out of the water but I couldn't hook up with one.

Karen and I spotted several tailing redfish that were in very shallow water but they were having nothing to do with her shrimp or my plug.

We spotted several wade fishermen in the Indian River side of Peacocks Pocket road, but they didn't seem to be doing much.

The temperature was in the high 70s and the wind was minimal making for a beautiful afternoon in the swamp.

Although we didn't do as well as we normally do, it was great just to get out with Elmo and enjoy the day.

Wildlife photography outings in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this time of year always provide plenty of opportunities for amateurs and professionals.

Another Beautiful Sunset

I was hoping to get in some fishing this afternoon but the wind was too brisk for my taste.

I would up spending most of the day on the computer deleting the content of some of my websites trying to find the malware that got my 1&1 webspace locked up.

I have hackers!

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Gator Trout In The Marsh Canals

January is one of my favorite months for catching gator trout in the marsh canals of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I didn't get a chance to get any fishing time in this week end until late this afternoon.

The air temperature hovered just above 60 degrees and there was virtually no wind on the water.

The waters I fished were exceptionally clear and lower than I expected.  And, there no apparent fish activity anywhere.

The only thing breaking the calm were the "mud hens" which could be seen all over the marsh.

I didn't start fishing until about 4:00 pm and didn't waste time trying to find any new "hot spots"/.

I drove into the refuge through Gator Creek road where I took these pics and continued up through Peacocks Pocket road where I started fishing.

In my haste to leave the house, I only brought two rods.  One was rigged with a DOA Cal jerkbait with a green head and the other with my favorite beat up Bagley gold spoon.

I "jump fished" several spots using the gold spoon to locate fish and missed two slot redfish.

I was fishing too fast so I slowed down my presentation.

I caught a couple of slot size sea trout in areas where I usually fish before moving to a shallow pond area that usually holds redfish.
      



I picked up another slot size sea trout that I decided to keep for dinner and around 5:30 pm I hooked up with a huge gator trout that creamed the gold spoon.

At first I thought I had a big red on the line but as the fish started sloshing around in the shallow water, I knew by the way it was fighting that it definitely wasn't a redfish.

After a surprisingly short fight I managed to get the fish to the bank.

That's when I realized it was probably the biggest sea trout I've caught to date. 

The fish was at least 33" long and about as fat around as a slot redfish.

I didn't have my Boga grip and in the area where I was fishing there were too many trees at the water line to land the fish.

I started leading the fish around the brush to where I could get down the bank and land it and as I started sliding down the bank to grab it, the damn treble hook fell out of the side of the fish's mouth.

The fight wore a hole in the side of the fish's paper thin mouth and when I slackened up on the line as I was slipping down the bank, it let go.

To say the least, I was aggravated but I would have let the fish go anyway.

I continued fishing in a couple of areas down the road from where I caught the big trout but I didn't have my heart in it.

It was getting colder when my wife called asking me when I was heading home,  so I decided to call it a day.

 

There were only a couple of vehicles in the refuge this afternoon which is common for this time of the year and I was the only person fishing.

Fishing for gator trout in the marsh canals this time of year doesn't seem to be very popular with the local fishermen but it certainly is productive if you know how to do it.

I plan on hitting the same spot tomorrow to see if the gator trout is still in the area.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Catching Another 34" Redfish

Well catching another 34" redfish in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge wasn't exactly what I had planned for this afternoon but I'll take it!

My wife and I got "cabin fever" and decided to take Elmo our wonder dog fishing despite the windy overcast conditions.

We left the house a about 3:30 pm and went straight to a spot where we had been catching reds the last few weeks.

The first spot was too windy to fish but we gave it a shot anyway. It was so windy that the Bagley gold spoon I was using was being pulled over the surface on most of my casts.

After realizing that it was useless fishing this area, we moved on to a more sheltered spot up Peacocks Pocket road.

That spot was occupied by another fisherman and his family who had about 6 rods in the water.

I asked him if he had any luck and he said he caught a ladyfish, a 21" redfish, a trout and a turtle all on dead shrimp and cut ladyfish.

Not wanting to infringe on his area, we moved to the next spot where we spent another fruitless 20 minutes there with absolutely no bites. 

Karen wasn't used to casting directly into the wind and I would up unsnarling her spinning reel a couple of times.

The rig she was using was her usual Cajun Thunder pencil float with a dead shrimp underneath but the wind kept dragging the shrimp around creating a lousy presentation.

I finally gave up on artificial lures and switched two spinning rods over to frozen dead shrimp on a 4/0 hook.

We moved to an area we call "snook point" and started fishing a shallow water stretch where the wind wasn't killing us.

I was untangling another birds nest for Karen when she yelled that a redfish was taking my line down the canal.

I ran for the pole and briefly fought the fish but it got off the hook.

After pitching two more shrimp just off the bank in the same area, I hooked up with the 34" redfish in the short video below.

The fish took off like a shot down the canal and I yelled to Karen to get the camera and take a video of the fight.

She refuses to learn how to operate the video on the Nikon, so I took the camera and tried to change the settings while fighting the big redfish at the same time.

As you can see by the unprofessional video, it didn't turn out that well. I couldn't get the fish into frame and missed most of the fight.

Anyway, it is what it is.

As I was landing the red, the hook snapped off at the snell and I got a "wet foot" sliding down the bank trying not to lose the fish.

I finally got Karen to take a picture before releasing the oversize fish.

We could have probably caught a couple more fish in the same area but Karen was aggravated with me giving her orders about not being able to use the camera and I was getting wind chill.

We decided to head for home and call it a day.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be catching another 34" redfish!
Till then, Tight Lines.

October Marsh Fishing

October marsh fishing usually picks up when water temperatures start to drop.

This month the water table in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has risen considerably and the areas where I normally catch fish this time of the year aren't as productive.

The redfish and larger sea trout are feeding in the newly flooded shallows chasing finger mullet, eating crabs and other crustaceans.

Because of time constraints, I didn't get a chance to do any real fishing this weekend.

Friday night Karen and I took Elmo our "wonder dog" out for a spin in the marsh just to see what was shaking. We were surprised at the number of people out there fishing and taking pictures.

The sunset was beautiful enough for me to take these photos.

       

 

Unfortunately, the fishing wasn't so great. Karen had a couple of hits and I never got a bite.

I started out using a gold spoon to locate fish and after a while switched to a jerk bait.

Karen was using dead jumbo shrimp and later we both changed over to live finger mullet.

We fished about an hour and a half until the mosquitoes drove us off.

Saturday, I spent most of the day working around the house and trying to fix our riding lawn mower's steering.

We didn't get out until about six in the afternoon and the water was dead calm on both the river side and marsh side of the road.

We saw four fishermen in the area and the only people who were catching anything were an older couple fishing at the "duck blind", a spot Karen and I occasionally frequent.

The gentleman had just landed an upper slot redfish that he caught on a live finger mullet.

All his wife could say was "finally"!

Saturday evening's sunset was awesome as you can see from the pics below.

 

Hopefully, next week the water levels will be down a bit and the fish will come back out of the shallows into their normal feeding areas.

Till next time.

Tight Lines.