Searching For Tarpon

On Thursday afternoon when Karen and I went searching for tarpon along the Canaveral National Seashore, I had a lot of action with several hookups but I couldn't land a fish to save my life, so late Friday afternoon, I decided to see if I could change my luck.

I left the house without anything but a box of topwater lures and some water.  

I don't know what the heat index was, but the air temperature was in the high 90s and there was a lot of thunderstorm activity in the area.

When I entered the Canaveral National Seashore, I didn't waste any time getting to Vista 7 but after making several casts in the area without even a follow up I decided to check out several other areas.

I tried two small ponds along the road that produced a few busts on the XPS Slim Dog topwater bait I was using and managed to land a couple of small ladyfish that I quickly released.

When I finally got tired of casting, I decided to head out of the area but on the way I stopped at a large pond just before the Bio Lab road exit to give it a final last shot.

I smeared up the Slim Dog I was using with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula gel and started fan casting around the area.

On my second cast I missed a good fish that I couldn't identify but it looked like a large ladyfish.

A couple of casts later in the same general area produced a small ladyfish that was double hooked and put up no fight.

I continued casting farther out in the pond and hooked into a large juvenile tarpon that was in the three foot category.  The fish made a jump that shot him at least 6 feet out of the water and tossed back my lure.

I waited a while and juiced up the Slim Dog with some fresh Pro-Cure and after another couple of casts hooked into another tarpon that was larger than the first fish.  

The fish jumped once and made a fast run down the channel close to the road.  On the second jump, which was next to the shoreline, the fish tossed the lure back to me into the bushes.

I couldn't believe that I couldn't land a damn tarpon, but that fishing.

Anyway, I continued tossing the Slim Dog around and caught several more ladyfish that started hitting like crazy just before it started raining in earnest.

I put on a brimmed hat and continued tossing the topwater plug and managed to hook and lose three more tarpon in the three foot category before the bite stopped completely.

The rainstorm evidently perked up the bite and when it stopped raining, the fish stopped eating.

Ticked off at myself for not being able to land just one tarpon, I headed for home to get in my daily walk.

I plan to try the area again tomorrow, God willing.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Tarpon Fishing Along The Vistas

Went to East Gator Creek road to do some topwater sea trout fishing and wound up Tarpon fishing along the Vistas in the Canaveral National Seashore.

It was around 2:00 pm this afternoon when I decided to hit the wildlife refuge and wet a line.

It was raining when I left the house but clear when I drove into East Gator Creek road to fish the first set of culverts.

I hooked into a couple of medium size ladyfish on a Chug Bug and landed one before moving to another spot where losing my lure wasn't as easy an option.

I was targeting sea trout today but I have to report that the only fish that was remotely interested in any of my lures in that area was an under size "dink" trout that I shook off at the bank.

I decided to drive down to see if the shallow flats off of Bio Lab road were fishable.

There was a moderate wind over the lagoon and the waves made topwater bait fishing not an option.

As I drove into Bio Lab, I spotted some juvenile tarpon at the first set of culverts, so I pulled over and started casting a Chug Bug around the area.

Almost immediately, I had a boil on my bait but after many casts I only had one small tarpon hit the plug without getting a hookup.

I switched over to a Johnson Silver Minnow with the same result.  One dumb fish bumped the spoon but I couldn't get  a hookup.

As I was fishing (and not catching) a couple of guys drove up and asked if I would be bothered I they fished the area.

I had no objections and watched them as they fished the other side of the road picking up a couple of ladyfish and missing a couple of juvenile tarpon on a small Mirrolure bait.

There was a large gator in the spot they were fishing that was becoming a problem and was waiting for a handout.

I introduced myself and learned that they had been catching juvenile tarpon all morning on a variety of artificial baits.

Bryce Jones (left) and his friend Caden Laney were kind enough to provide pics of their catch.

They fish the area almost every weekend and apparently have a good handle on tarpon fishing in the area.

Bryce gave me a couple of 2" Tsunami paddletail swimbaits that he said they had been catching tarpon on earlier, but my tackle was too heavy to present the baits properly,.

Anyway, I gave up fishing the area and headed down Bio Lab road to scout out some other areas.

I stopped at a couple of spots and had a ladyfish hit my gold spoon but nothing else seemed to be working for me today.

Finally, I got to Playalinda Beach road and stopped at the first Vista to see if any tarpon were in the area.  As I pulled in I was immediately confronted by flashing blue lights to pull over.

After I presented my lifetime Pass to the officer, we swapped a couple of stories and learned that the whiting bite on the beach was on fire and even some Pompano were being caught on small shrimp and fishbites.

I was taking some pics of the launch site when Bryce and Caden drove up to talk.

I followed them to where they had caught several nice size juvenile tarpon earlier this morning.

We pulled over to the area and sure enough, there were some fish in the area.

I started off casting a Chug Bug, then switched to several other baits (and losing a couple) while Bryce picked up another tarpon on his Mirrolure.   (Click on pic below)

Caden walked up a ditch and missed a couple of fish with his bait.  Finally, as Bryce and Caden left the area, I switched rods and pulled out an XPS topwater bait with a black back and silver sides.

It took three casts before a tarpon swirled on the lure.  This happened three more times but the fish never got hooked.  I'm not sure if the bait was too large but at least I was finally getting some action.

I fished the spot for another 15 minutes or so before giving it up for the day.

Oh, by the way, Bryce shot me this pic of one of Cayden's fish that he caught this morning.

  

Nice Poon..

I'll be going out of town again next week but I hope to hit the area tomorrow a little earlier with some smaller baits.

Regardless, I had a good time today losing lures and meeting some new fishing buddies.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Playalinda Beach In March

Fishing Playalinda Beach in March can be rewarding when the weather conditions permit.  The problem is that when conditions are stellar for surf fishing, the beaches get crowded, fast.

Saturday afternoon I decided to make a quick run to Playalinda Beach to get a fishing report from the gatekeepers and see how many surf fishermen were taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

I left the house after noon and drove up to the Playalinda Beach entrance shortly after.   

The refuge ranger I spoke with said that the surf fishermen were making good catches of whiting, bluefish and pompano at lots #8 and #10 so I headed to the beach to check it out.

I stopped briefly at Eddy Creek and found that the fishing pier that was damaged during the last hurricane was totally rebuilt and some fishermen were taking advantage of it.  

Lot #10 had several vehicles in the parking area and when I got to the top of the boardwalk, all of them seemed to be sunbathers.  Nobody was fishing the surf so I moved down to lot #8.

Lot #8 had about the same number of people on the beach but again, nobody was fishing so I couldn't get a first hand fishing report.  

I stopped at three other lots on the way out of the Canaveral National Seashore and found many more sunbathers but no fishermen.  

The tide was going out so either the fishermen left the beach after fishing the incoming tide, they departed when the beach became crowded, or the fishing reports were so bad that nobody bothered wetting a line today.  I can't believe the latter.

On the way out of Playalinda Beach, I stopped at a couple of the scenic Vistas to toss a Chug Bug smeared with some Pro-Cure around the clear flats.  

At Vista 6, I spotted several fish busting the surface and although I had a couple of followups, I had no aggressive hits on my bait.

When I finally left the beach, I drove up to Haulover to check out the fishing there.   Bairs Cove boat launch was slammed.  Trailers overflowed to the entrance leaving little room for the bank fishermen to pull over and fish, but they managed.

There were fishermen on the banks of both sides of the canal dunking a variety of baits, mostly shrimp, and a couple of the guys I spoke with said they were catching redfish, black drum, stingrays, and lots of catfish.  

I tossed a gold Johnson Sprite into the canal in a couple of areas but never got a hit, so I took a few pics of the scenery and headed back home to get something to eat.

Probably get out this week to give it a try when not so many people are around.

Till next time,

Tight Lines

Life's A Playalinda Beach

This afternoon I decided to hit Playalinda Beach to see if the waves were conducive to surf fishing without getting beat up too bad.

I left the house around 3:30 pm just as it started sprinkling again.  I packed three spinning rods and a 9 1/2 foot surf rod with an Okuma baitrunner reel loaded with 30 pound Power Pro and a pompano rig.

There was very little traffic at Playalinda Beach today and the beach was relatively devoid of human life.     Most of the human population was at Lot #2, but I decided to stop at the first location that had no cars parked in the lot.

When I drove into lot #6. I was rethinking my spur of the moment decision.  That lot had a stairway going up to a sloping ramp over the dune that was definitely going to provide me with my cardio exercise for the day.

I pulled out my surf rod, the small blue cooler I brought with some frozen shrimp and salted clam, and sand stake for my rod.

When I finally made my trek up the walkway and stopped gasping for air, I but a piece of clam on the bottom hook of the pompano rig, a small headed shrimp on the top hook, and clipped on  a 4 oz. sinker to hold bottom.

The surf was rough but this location had a deep trough right at my feet that ran out about 10 feet that led to a shallow break that was only about 1 foot deep.   A second much deeper trough was where I planned to fish.

I waded out to the break with a small bag of bait in my pocket and started fishing.

Almost immediately I got a hookup with a small hardhead catfish which I quickly released.

For the next hour or so I caught and released 9 more hardheads before finally landing a nice "
dinner size" whiting.

It seemed like the whiting moved in and the cats moved out.  Anyway, I caught three more whiting and lost another wading back to my cooler before the bite stopped.

The tide was still going out and I continued catching a hardhead now and then until I hooked a juvenile black drum.

The drum was under the slot, so I released it and went back to hooking catfish.

Finally, a couple showed up just as I was going to call it a day.  I was really getting tired of fighting the current as I was wading back and forth to the cooler to stow the whiting I was taking home for dinner.

Being knee deep in strong current gets you tired pretty quick, especially if you don't go surf fishing on a regular basis.

I drove around Eddy Creek before leaving the Canaveral National Seashore and headed back to the house.

As I was driving up to Peacocks Pocket road, I made a split decision to check out the fishing at the kayak launch.  The other day when I was walking Peacocks Pocket road, I saw a ton of baitfish in the area with big sea trout busting on them.

As luck would have it, nobody else was in the area so I pulled up to the side of the ramp and pulled out my rod with a Chug Bug and started casting around the bait pods.

I missed two sea trout before finally landing an under size fish which I promptly released.

I switched rods and started fishing with the Zara Spook Puppy topwater bait after the Chug Bug stopped getting hits.   It only took three casts to get a hookup with another under slot sea trout.

I made a ton of casts to several likely looking areas but the bite quit around 6:30 pm so I called my wife and headed home.

On the way out to the main road, I almost ran over a 6 or 7 foot gator  that was in the woods across the road from the ditch that parallels the road.

The gator was really moving as he crossed the road in front of my truck and he never stopped until he hit the water.   I knew that gators are super fast for short bursts, but I didn't know they could run that fast on dry land until today.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful.

When I got home I washed off my rods, cleaned my fish, and had a great dinner.

I love fresh whiting.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Scouting Trip In The Refuge

I often recommend Playalinda Beach to my readers for it's surf fishing opportunities and relative isolation, particularly during the fall and winter months, but the other day when I took Elmo and Odie for a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the Canaveral National Seashore was a mass of humanity.

Not a good place for surf fishermen.

It was early afternoon when we left the house and I didn't really expect to catch any fish, but when I decided to take the "boys" for a ride around thee refuge, I took two rods along; just in case.  One had a Chug Bug and the other was tipped with a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon; my baits of choice.

We made the usual run into East Gator Creek road, past the entrance to Peacocks Pocket road, (which is still closed for repairs) and around Catfish Creek Loop road.

There were a lot of visitors in the refuge and a few fishermen, but most of the people fishing were not catching anything except catfish, stingrays, and a few small sea trout. 

I pitched the Chug Bug around a couple of places where I spotted topwater activity but only picked up a few ladyfish.

 I spotted a juvenile tarpon about 4 feet long rolling in the shallows of Catfish Creek, but it had lockjaw.

We left the area and went past the entrance to Black Point Drive towards Bio Lab road.

I wanted to check out the water conditions at the small boat launch so I drove into the area to see only one boat trailer parked there.

A small flats boat was coming in so I waited to ask the guys what they were catching.  The one guy said they caught a bunch of sea trout up to 25" and saw a few scattered redfish along the potholes.  They didn't spot any large schools of redfish and the water wasn't conducive to sight fishing.  The Mosquito Lagoon was crystal clear but it was windy and choppy.

As I turned around to leave the area, I decided to make a run down Bio Lab road.

At the entrance, to the right of the sign, I noticed that several people were crabbing in the shallows and were apparently doing pretty good.  The one couple had a cooler half full of decent size crabs.

I stopped at three places to pitch the Chug Bug towards some topwater action that I spotted and picked up a couple of ladyfish which I released.

 I switched to the spoon at the last spot and caught four nice size ladyfish around two feed long.  I harvested two of them that were bleeding from gill damage to use for cut bait and released the rest of them to fight another day.

All the way down Bio Lab road, we saw only two fishermen wading the shallows in the lagoon, and closer to Playalinda Beach road, there were a couple more people crabbing.

I briefly thought about driving down to check out the beach, but there was an unusual amount of vehicle traffic heading to the beach, so I headed towards the entrance at the guard shack.  Apparently the July 4th holiday had a lot of people taking off for the week.

As I passed the guard shack I could not believe the amount of traffic entering the Seashore.  There was a line of cars from the shack at the entrance, all the way back to the traffic light at the entrance.

I took a couple of pics and made a mental note to never surf fish on a weekend or holiday.

We left the area and since it was now late in the afternoon, I decided to make another quick run into East Gator Creek. 

I saw a lot of topwater activity and started pitching the Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.  I caught two more small ladyfish, missed a sea trout about 25" long twice before it quit eating, and spotted another tarpon about 3 feet long in the creek around the culvert that would not bite before leaving for the house.

All in all it was a productive scouting trip.  I may take out the kayak tomorrow if the wind isn't too bad.

Tight Lines.