Fishing The Cold Fronts

Late Saturday afternoon I tried to get my wife to go fishing with me, but after the crappy luck she had on Friday, she opted to finish a stained glass project she had been working on instead.

Undaunted, I packed up three of my spinning rods each strung with different lures and took off to the river.

I normally do this so I can quickly cast to foraging fish when I get lucky enough to spot them.

Anyway, it was a bleak day on the Indian River Lagoon and a thick layer of fog covered the water. A cold front was moving in and the birds were obviously aware of it. (See the video below.)

As I crossed the bridge and headed towards the entrance to Peacocks Pocket road, tons of seagulls, ducks and pelicans were sitting on the water all huddled together in the main body of the river in anticipation of the front.

The water was dead calm on both sides of the unimproved road as I started jump fishing in several areas.

I missed a nice sea trout on my fourth cast into the marsh canal with my Johnson gold spoon, so I switched to the green DOA jig head with a Strike King 3X jerk bait that had produced yesterday evening.

After two casts I hooked and landed a nice 20" sea trout that after a short fight, I promptly released.

Another 20 yards down the road I had another sea trout that was a clone to the first one I caught. This one put up a better fight and after taking another picture of it, I put it back to grow up.

As I continued jump fishing the glassy calm water, I hooked and released four more sea trout from 20" to 23" and missed two more fish that I'm sure were trout.

I had been hoping for a redfish but the water was so calm the fish were super spooky.

Nonetheless, after spotting a feeding redfish on the Indian River side of the road, (See the video) I shot a well placed cast and hooked up to it using the rod with my Johnson gold spoon. After a brief run, the fish shook off the spoon in the very shallow water right at the bank.

It was getting late and I was becoming the object of affection of thousands of female mosquitoes so I decided to call it a day without a redfish for the dinner table.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be the day.

Tight Lines to you all.

Black Drum In Bobcat Bay

After an almost 7 hour drive home from Columbia, S.C., my wife and Elmo were jonesing to get out on the water and do a little fishing.

Because it was so late in the evening, we decided to just take Peacocks Pocket drive and hope for the best.

The waters of the Indian River Lagoon were like glass with almost no movement and the marsh areas looked almost stagnant.

My wife fished her usual dead shrimp under a bobber rig, and I started with a top water plug.

Although I caught the first redfish, it vied for the smallest redfish of the year competition.

The little bugger was about the same size as my Skitter Walk.

Karen then picked up a slot redfish that she at first thought was a large catfish. After a short fight and photo op, I cut the line and released her to fight another day.



The action slowed down, so we decided to scout for signs of sea trout or redfish farther on down the unimproved road.

We only saw a few rises and finger mullet, so we didn't bother stopping until we hit an area we call "bobcat bay".

Several large swirls in the shallow weed beds, suggested that a redfish or large trout was actively feeding; so my wife chucked out a free lined dead shrimp on another rod we brought along.

Almost immediately, she hooked into what she thought was a redfish, but after a brief fight turned out to be a slot sized black drum. This time I took a short clip of the action before we returned the fish to the Lagoon.

The mosquitoes, gnats, and green headed horse flies were tormenting us and poor Elmo to the point that he was whining to get into the car to avoid the plague. So, we decided to call it a day and leave for home.



The scenery was beautiful and we only saw two other vehicles during the entire time we spent fishing the unimproved road.

Perhaps it was because all the culverts were closed or the insects were blood thirsty, but the people just weren't around this evening.

Hope you all enjoy the photos and until next time; Tight Lines To All!!

Indian River Lagoon Green Eel

Since Peacocks Pocket Road still remains closed in the southern portion of the Indian River Lagoon's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge; my wife and I decided to try for some redfish or trout off of Shiloh Marsh Road.

We started off very late and only saw two other vehicles in the entire area all the time we were there.

I fished topwater plugs and my wife stayed with dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder rig.

On the way into the area, I stopped to cast to several surfacing trout, and only managed to hook a dancing ladyfish on my frog colored "chug bug".

To start off the day properly, I managed to get one of the treble hooks past the barb, into my finger as I was unhooking the ladyfish. My wife saved the day by pulling the hook out with a pair of pliers that I keep in the door boot. (Not for this use!)

We stopped at a couple of spots, got no hits and moved on to one of Karen's favorite areas.

I managed to get several hits, but no fish, until a "runt" trout a little bit bigger than my Chug Bug managed to hook itself on the bait.



Several casts later I had a great strike on the top water lure and thought I had a small redfish, but after a short fight; it turned out to be a large catfish.

Karen had several hits and started yelling that she had caught a snake.

I came over to where she was fishing and was surprised to find a very large green eel on the end of her line.

After a sort scuffle, she brought the eel to the bank and we took some pics of the unusual catch for this area.

Here is a short video and some pics that might give you a chuckle!

We continued fishing for a while, trying to hook one of the redfish that came cruising into the shallows just at dusk; but we couldn't get them to hit on anything. They were a bit spooked for some reason.

Anyway, I took a couple of pics of the beautiful sunset, and since we were both tired; we headed for the "barn".



Hopefully, we'll get the Maverick out this weekend.

Tight Lines To All!

Shiloh Road Fishing Trip

Sunday afternoon was rainy and dreary on the Space Coast, so around three o' clock this afternoon, I gathered my wife and Elmo our wonder dog, and headed for the Indian River to try our luck.

We traveled light. I took only one rod for a change, loaded with a Heddon topwater plug and a small box with some Creme paddle tail lures.

My wife grabbed her favorite Cajun Thunder rig and a small bag of shrimp, and we were off.

We decided on driving up to Shiloh Road to see if it was open for fishing and as luck would have it, it was. It was probably a bad omen when two vultures greeted us into the drive, but we had nothing else to do in the rain but go fishing.

The rain was steady but light enough for us to try several spots along the marsh and the shallows of the north Indian River.

The water was almost dead calm and we saw only a couple of redfish and zero trout.

My wife fished her shrimp and missed one nice sized trout in a spot where she caught an "almost gator trout" last year. That was the only good fish she had on all afternoon.

I "walked the dog" until my arm got tired and had absolutely no hits, so I switched to a white and brown Creme paddletail bait.

After almost wearing out my casting arm, I finally hooked on to either a super large gator trout, or a juvenile tarpon.

I was swimming the lure to the bank when I thought I'd hooked onto a snag. Then the "snag" started moving; FAST.

The fish ran up and down the narrow slough twice before it broke off. I could see that the fish was at least 36" long and that it looked silverish in the murky water, but I couldn't make out what species it was.

I know it was not a redfish because of the way it fought, so the only possible species left was either a big trout, or a small tarpon.

Whatever it was, losing the fish was my fault. When I replaced my topwater plug with the swimbait, I tied it on haphazardly and was in a hurry. Definitely a recipe for losing a fish.
On top of that, I had my drag tightened down way too heavy for 10# mono.

As I told my wife, that's why they call it fishing and not catching!

We got tired of being wet and on the way out of the unimproved drive took some pics of an American Eagle and some crazy spoonbills doing their thing.

Hope you enjoy the pics and till next time; Tight Lines!

Night Shrimping On The Indian River

Night shrimping on the Indian River causeway is beginning to pick up shrimpers but not shrimp.

Saturday evening, I decided to check out the "happenings" at the causeway bridge. The shrimpers were out in droves despite the windy conditions.

The moon phase looked to be about 3/4 full and there was a moderate chop in the river. The shrimpers I spoke with were not filling their bucket limits, but they were all having a good time.

Guy and Cathy, two of the Titusville residents who shrimp at least two days out of the week, said that the water is still too cold for the shrimp to really start the "big" runs.

The shrimp that were caught were BIG. See the pics below of the one I took that was at least 8" long.



There were others caught in the net socks that were at least that size and several that were larger.

This seems to be the trend in this part of the Indian River.



Generally, there are more shrimp netted in the Oak Hill area, but they run very small compared to the jumbos that are regularly netted in Titusville.

The shrimpers were blaming the sea trout for eating all the "good ones" and I really couldn't argue their point. There were a lot of small sand trout schools and many larger slot limit trout swimming over the shrimp lights this Saturday evening.

Anyway, enjoy the pics. I hope to get some fishing in tomorrow if the wind cooperates.

Tight Lines to All!

What Beautiful Wildlife!

The fishing today sucked! There is no better way to describe it. But the photography was great.

My wife and I decided to take our wonder dog Elmo fishing at the headwaters of the Indian River Lagoon.

We decided on Shiloh Road area since it had just reopened last weekend and the fishing had been relatively decent.

Unfortunately the fish had lockjaw. I fished a variety of lures and even broke down and tried fresh dead shrimp with absolutely no success. Nope, not even one single bite in over two hours of solid fishing.

But the waterfowl and spoonbills were in the area in mass. I even got to take a video of an American Bald Eagle that let me get to within ten feet of where it was roosting.

Check out the pics for yourself!

The water was still pretty cold and the wind was whipping up the river and marsh areas, making it hard to cast. However, we are hoping for a better excursion next week.

In any event, it's hard to beat the beautiful wildlife and scenery in the area.

Enjoy the pics, and until next time. Tight Lines!

Shiloh Road Opening

After several months of closure, Shiloh Road has finally opened for vehicle traffic along the northern most portion of the Indian River Lagoon.

The unimproved road is in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is closed by the powers that be during duck hunting season. Although opening day was a couple of days ago, today was a stellar day for viewing the waterfowl and just dunking a bait.

I compiled a short movie showing some of the wildlife my wife and I saw today along with some beautiful scenery.

At the beginning of the road closest to US1, the kayakers were doing their thing in water only around a foot deep. A couple were catching fish, but I couldn't make out what they were.

About a mile into the Refuge, the wildlife officers checked out our fishing licenses and refuge permits.

This is only the second time since I've been a resident of Florida that I've been checked for a valid license. The officer was very courteous and professional as he explained why the road had been closed this long.

When he left, Karen and I started fishing. She used her favorite shrimp bait and I started with white CAL paddle tail baits.

I caught a couple of undersized trout, missed something big that may have been a gator trout and wound up the day with only one keeper of about 17" that I released. My wife didn't get a bite all afternoon using her dead shrimp.

Anyway, this was mainly a scouting trip. We had originally planned to visit our normal fishing spot, but the causeway bridge was closed AGAIN, making us go up US1 past the Scootsmoor boat landing to gain access to the preserve.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we decided to check out the Shiloh area.

The Fish & Game Officer said the fishing conditions should get better in this area as the water warms up a bit. I suspect by next week if the temperatures hold, we should start getting some decent 30# plus redfish and gator sea trout.

Hope you enjoy the pics and till next time, Tight Lines!

Bleak Day On The Indian River Lagoon

Friday evening on the Indian River Lagoon, proved to be a losing proposition for fishermen and shrimpers.

I couldn't resist taking out a rod and checking out the Indian River yesterday but when I drove down to the Lagoon, it was desolate.

The cold front was here and the fish were probably huddled in the deep troughs over dark bottom trying to survive. One thing was sure, they had a severe case of lockjaw.

As I got to the bridge, I expected to see some shrimpers doing their thing but there was only one crazy person on the causeway.

He had the whole bridge to himself. I thought about asking him how he was doing, but he looked so cold and windblown that I didn't want to bother him with dumb questions I already knew the answers to.

My wife, Elmo the wonder dog and I took a drive through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, just to see if anyone was nuts enough to do any late evening fishing.

We saw only one Toyota pickup driving around Gator Creek, and absolutely no one else driving or fishing the river.

The only crazies out there tonight were my wife, my wonder dog Elmo, and yours truly!

The temperature was 34 degrees when we drove around Peacock Pocket, and I didn't spot one swirling redfish or trout anywhere.

With the temperature hitting the high teens tonight, I don't believe I will bother the fish until next weekend.

I should add that right now could be a Killer time to hit the Port St. John power plant discharge.

The warm water from the power plant draws game fish and manatees like a magnet.

Till next time, Tight Lines if they don't freeze first!