Tough Fishing On Bio Lab

Since it was raining and I hadn't had a chance to wet a line in awhile, I decided to scout out some areas and possibly snag a sea trout or two.

I got some gas and headed out to Shiloh Road off of US 1.

When I got to the first culvert, I noticed a KSC officer with binoculars checking something out so I continued to the barrier at the shallow kayak launch.,

Other than a lot of water birds in the area, I saw no sign of fish activity.  

Undaunted, I pulled on my Frog Toggs and started tossing a topwater Chug Bug around the shallow marsh.    It took me about 20 casts or so before I was convinced that no fish were in the area and moved on.

On the way out, the KSC vehicle was gone so I pulled out another rod with a Creme Spoiler Shad and tossed it around both sides of the road, again with no results.

The rain slacked up a bit so I headed to Patillo Creek Road to check it out.

There were two fishermen in kayaks fishing the mangrove shoreline and two other groups of fishermen dunking shrimp for black drum.  None of the bank fishermen had any luck and after tossing a Johnson Sprite, the Creme Shad, and an XPS topwater around several areas without a single follow up or hit; I decided to move on to greener pastures.

I drove up to the north barrier and fished the small pond and cove on both sides of the road with several lures and again, no luck.  

Another guy who was walking back to his car with a bucket of live shrimp told me he was also getting skunked.

I left Patillo and drove around the north bank of Haulover Canal to see how those guys were doing. 

There were plenty of people fishing from boats and from the bank but nobody seemed to be catching anything.  The rain had stopped and everybody seemed to be having a good time just enjoying the day.

I stopped along the bank to take a pic of some buzzards competing with a Blue Heron and tossed around a gold Johnson Sprite spoon for about a half an hour, but never got a hit.

I decided to give Bio Lab road a shot just for the hell of it before heading home so I pulled into the first culvert and spotted a medium size tarpon floating along the bank at the culvert.  

I took a couple of pics of the decaying fish and a buzzard trying to figure out how to get a meal from the fish before pushing on.

There were a few anglers fishing the banks on the Mosquito Lagoon side of the road for black drum and reds, but the two guys I spoke with said the bite today was dismal.  I agreed, wished them luck and kept on the road to a spot I usually am able to pick up a few snook.

As I was driving down the narrow unimproved one way road, I almost got run over by an EMS vehicle and a couple of KSC (Kennedy Space Center) patrol cars.  

I pulled over and took a video of the action wondering what was going on as three more KFC vehicles rushed down the road.

As I pulled into the spot I wanted to fish, two more KSC vehicles drove past me before I had a chance to park.

A couple who were crabbing at the culvert where I planned to fish were leaving so I asked them if they caught anything.  The guy said the fishing was horrible and the crabs weren't cooperating either.  

He also told me that the KSC officer who he spoke with said a boat had capsized and if I heard a whistle to call 911 and report where it was coming from.

I never heard a whistle and after tossing several artificial baits around several areas, never got a hit.

At this point I finally decided that I was skunked, so I packed all the rods into the back of the truck and headed home to get something to eat.

The launch scheduled for this morning was rescheduled for tomorrow at 10:00 am so I may give it another shot after the launch, if it goes up.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Bio Lab Snook

I was planning to hit the beach this morning, but around 9:00 am, a Space X launch rumbled the house so I thought that it would be closed.

After mowing the lawn this morning and taking care of some chores, my wife asked me if I wanted to grab some fast food and take the boys for a ride in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge if it was open.

I was hungry and readily agreed; so we packed up Elmo and Odie and headed to Arby's for some grub.

With a bag of food in hand we headed for the closest spot where we could eat, which was Gator Creek.  

Gator creek was cordoned off, apparently because of work they were doing on the culverts, but East Gator Creek was open.  

We took the turn and were stopped briefly by a couple of guys who were pulling out their Gheenoe.  

When I asked if they had caught anything, the guy said they were fly fishing and caught no fish.  They told me that they spotted several black drum and a lone redfish but all the fish had lockjaw.

I wished them well and suggested that next time they should try the other side of the road where there were some nice sea trout, tarpon, and reds.

After we left them, we pulled over to enjoy our sandwiches and decided to head over to Bio Lab Road.

As we pulled into Bio Lab Road, I was surprised at how flat the water was on the Mosquito Lagoon and how many bank fishermen were along the road.

Karen said that it was probably because of the Christmas Holiday and I agreed.

We saw one little girl reeling in a small puppy drum and talked to several other bank fishermen who were using shrimp for bait that caught at least a couple of keeper drum.

I decided to head to the flats at Whale Tail to see if anyone was in that area.

We got to an area where I caught some snook a few weeks ago and although there were a couple of guys fishing with live bait in the area, decided to toss a topwater bait.  They weren't catching anything and warned us about a large alligator that was along the bank.

Karen immediately went after Odie and Elmo and put them in the truck to make sure they didn't become dinner for the gator.

I chose a rod that had a Badonk A Donk on and started casting along the mangrove roots.

On my first cast  I missed a fish that hit the bait as I was pulling it out of the water for another cast.

Several casts later I had a nice hit from a slot size snook and after a decent fight took a pic and released the fish.

I continued fishing and after 5 or 6 more casts into another area, got another hookup with a smaller snook that I also released.  

Karen took the pic below of the fish before I returned it.

I caught and released two more snook before a guy in a Kayak came into the area and put down the bite.

He was casting what looked like a white swimbait but he didn't seem to be having any luck.  Anyway, the fish stopped hitting my topwater bait so I took a couple of pics of the area before packing it in.

We left Bio Lab Road and exited via Playalinda Beach road to head back home.

Karen was getting tired and I was ready to call it a day.

Might get out tomorrow to hit the beach or try for some more snook.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.