Another Great Trout Fishing Trip On The Indian River

Unlike yesterday, when I couldn't buy a bite, today's fishing trip on the Indian River was exceptional.

My wife and I decided late in the afternoon to take Elmo out to the "swamp" and see what was biting, if anything.

Unlike most of the past two weeks, the weather was beautiful with the temperatures in the high 70s.

Since it was almost 4:00 when we got into the truck, I decided to just hit the first entrance to Peacocks Pocket road and fish just around the corner from Catfish Creek.

There was little to no wind on the river side and dead calm on the marsh side of the road, so I started casting with one of my favorite jerk baits.

On the second cast, I felt a sharp tug, set the hook and eventually landed a small redfish.

The fish hit just as my bait was coming off the opposite bank into deeper water. This is relative because the deepest part of the marsh canal in this area is only about two feet.

Karen got out of the truck to take these pictures, but first cast her "Billy Bay" low country lightning pop n gurgle and shrimp combination out to the opposite bank.

She pulled it back about two feet into slightly deeper water and after no more than 10 minutes had a redfish on that was almost a clone to the fish I caught.

Meanwhile I decided to walk the bank blind casting to likely spots to get out of Karen's way.

After about a dozen casts, I picked up two more small trout about 14" and 16" on the same bait.

The lure I was using today was a green DOA CAL jig head with a green Strike King 3X jerk bait on the business end. The lure works great in tannin colored water and the action produced by the extra flexible jerk bait drives sea trout nuts.

Several casts later I picked up a heavier sea trout that measured a hare over 21" using the same bait and my ultra slow retrieve.

This one sloshed around a bit before I got it up the bank, but there was no chance of losing the fish. It inhaled the jig combo.

Karen took some pics and I put the fish back to fight another day.

The bite slowed down and Karen wanted to move up the road a bit to hit another spot. We moved about 100 yards and tried our luck again. This time she fished the river side and I stayed with the marsh canal.

It didn't take long before I picked up another nice sea trout, this one was about 24" and put up a respectable battle before I released it back to the river. Again the fish was suckered into hitting the DOA jerkbait combo.

Karen was not getting any hits so we moved one last time to a culvert about ten yards or so up from where we were fishing.

Since it was getting dark, I switched to a gold Bagley diamond spoon with the hope of hooking up to one of the oversize redfish that prowl the canal around dusk.

On the second cast, I hooked onto what I first thought was a redfish however, I quickly realized it was another big trout. This one put up a good fight but was no match for the heavier gear I was using.

I landed the trout and took a couple of pics as best I could and again released the fish.

Karen wasn't having any luck on the river side and except for the blood thirsty mosquitoes, I stopped getting bites.

It was a little past 5:30 when we decided to call it quits and head back home.

It was only then that we realized how many fish we caught in such a short period of time. I had one redfish and five sea trout and Karen had one redfish. Not bad for a little over an hour's worth of fishing.

On the way back I stopped to get gas and talked to a guy who had limited out on sea trout. He was icing them down for the trip back to Orlando. All his fish were 15" to 19" and were caught on live shrimp.

It was another great trout fishing trip on the Indian River for everyone today!

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Another Great Trout Fishing Trip On The Indian River

Today was colder than yesterday and just as gloomy. I had intended to go fishing today with my wife, but she was coming down with something and didn't feel well.

After being pestered to death by my computer cat Morris and Elmo our wonder dog, I decided to get the hell out of the house and try my luck alone.

I figured the mosquitoes shouldn't be to bad, being as cold and windy as it was; so I packed up three rods and made a sneaky departure.

It was windy and cold. The temperature was in the low 50s and there was a moderate chop on the Indian River. In the wind it felt like 40 degrees.

I decided to fish the first entrance to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge off Gator Creek road and stop fishing at the Peacocks Pocket small boat launch.

I had good luck with my DOA jerk bait combo yesterday, so I decided to start with that rod. Because of it's 6" total length, that particular lure usually catches larger fish.

The wind made it almost impossible to cast to the river side of the road, so I concentrated all my efforts on the deeper waters of the marsh side. Since the water was cold and it was late in the afternoon, I figured the fish would be holding in deeper water.

I know from experience where the deep holes are located, so I started with these spots first.

As luck would have it, on my second cast with the DOA jerk bait, I hooked into a nice fat 24" sea trout.

The fish was sluggish and didn't put up much of a fight so I landed it, took it's picture, and promptly released it.

Fishing the same area with an extremely slow retrieve, I managed to catch another sea trout a bit smaller than the first.

I moved on down the road blind casting the DOA jerk bait off the bank into deeper water and landed another sea trout about 22" long.

This one was also nice and fat, so I took it's picture and released it.

The wind continued to blow and I was getting chilled, but since the fish were biting I didn't see any reason to quit fishing.

As I moved into an area I knew held redfish, I switched to my gold Johnson spoon and started peppering the area fan casting.

As I suspected, an over sized redfish hit the spoon but evidently didn't get a barb into him deep enough because it took off like a bat out of hell to parts unknown.

The fish looked to be at least 30" long. Anyway, as I licked my pride I continued fishing the spoon and eventually hooked into another sea trout right on the bank.

The fish was a clone to the other 22" fish, so I took her picture and released her.

To shorten the story; in about a mile stretch of road, I managed to hook and release seven sea trout between 20" and 24" long on the DOA jerk bait and missed at least four more trout and one redfish on the gold spoon.

All the fish were caught on the marsh side of the road with a super slow retrieve right off the bottom.

As it started to get colder, I moved on down the road to leave when I spotted the first otter I have ever seen in the refuge.

I got out of the truck and tried to run ahead of it with my camera to get the video below, but it didn't turn out very good. You can just make out the otter swimming along the far bank.

As I was starting to leave the area, I did manage to get these videos of a crazy heron leading some spoonbills astray .

Just down the road from where these videos were shot, I jumped what I thought was another redfish, but it turned out to be another sea trout.

After a surprisingly snappy battle, I landed the fish, snapped the picture and released it to fight another day.

All in all it was a great day on the Indian River even though I didn't manage to land a redfish for dinner.


Till next time,

Tight Lines!