Catfish Creek Loop Redfish

Late yesterday afternoon when I was pitching my favorite Chug Bug around the East Gator Creek in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, I drove up to the barriers at Peacocks Pocket and Catfish Creek Loop roads and ran into Mike and Paul Miller as they were walking out from the barriers.

When I rolled down the window and asked Mike if they caught anything, he showed me a video on his smart phone of a nice oversize Catfish Creek Loop redfish that they picked up earlier.

He said that they caught the redfish while bottom fishing with shrimp on  light tackle and that it took around 18 minutes to land and release the fish.

He was using an open face Shakespeare reel with 10 pound test line and a sliding sinker rig as terminal tackle.

Mike said the fish looked like it was 27" to 30" long and probably weighed 18 to 20 pounds, but when I watched the video again, it looked like it was just over the slot and in the 10 to 12 pound range.

Paul is holding the red in the pic to the left, you be the judge but regardless, it was a nice catch and I appreciate him sharing the video (below) with us.

I'm not sure if Mike or Paul caught the fish, but he did it right.

The cove that they caught it in is in the northern part of the Indian River where redfish cruise close to shore in singles and small schools throughout the day.

They are most active closer to dusk, which is when I like to target them with jerk baits and topwater baits like Chug Bugs, worked super slow.

When I left them, I drove back to a small pond where I missed a couple of small sea trout and a redfish earlier.

I spent about 20 minutes fan casting the Chug Bug around the edges of the pond and had a couple of half hearted hits from trout, but nothing of any size hit my bait so I headed back to the hacienda.

I may come back to the area Sunday to see if I can pick up a fish before I leave town again.

Till then, Tight Lines.

Catfish Creek Loop Redfish

Catfish Creek Loop redfish are often found in the shallow marsh areas opposite the Indian River.

This afternoon's fishing trip started late. I didn't get home from work until around 6:00 pm and my wife wanted to wait for her eyeglasses to be delivered before going fishing, so she suggested that I go alone and we would get an earlier start tomorrow.

I didn't wait around long for Karen to change her mind.

I picked four spinning rods to take along.  Two were rigged with top water Chug Bugs and two with different patterned paddle tail swim baits.

Since there wasn't much time before dusk, I drove into the first entrance to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and headed for Peacocks Pocket Road.

This evening the air temperature was 82 degrees and there was a mild wind coming out of the east which was just enough to cause a ripple on the water.

As I got to the first set of double culverts, I saw some fish swirling in the shallows but after a few casts I could only pick up a medium sized ladyfish.

I quickly unhooked and released the fish and decided to move on to try for some sea trout or a red.

Normally I would have spent some time playing with the ladyfish but time was of the essence.

On a lark, I decided to swing around Catfish Creek Loop road to see if anything looked promising.

Blind casting on the river side didn't produce anything and as a large gator came up to where I was fishing, I decided to drive over the short stretch of crushed granite roadbed to fish the marsh areas on the other stretch of the road.

 

 

I stayed with the Chug Bugs and hooked another ladyfish in the marsh shallows.

Several casts later, I missed what looked like a nice sea trout.  The fish hit the plug three times but never hooked itself.

Blind casting to the opposite bank and into the entrances of the small ponds produced a couple of follow ups but no fish.

The scenery was beautiful so I took a few pics of the area and later the sunset.

 

 

 

I moved past another couple and their kid who were enjoying the scenery while still fishing and started fishing an area where my wife had caught a sea trout on a prior fishing trip.

Blind casting the area wasn't producing anything except an occasional followup so I walked several yards up the road to fish another larger pond area.

I gooed up the top water bait with some Pro-Cure and after two casts had a fish follow the bait only to miss it.  The water exploded under the Chug Bug but the fish never hooked itself.

My wife called and asked me when I was planning to head home so we could walk around the neighborhood together.  I told her I was just about to give it up for the day and hung up the phone.

I decided to try a couple more casts to the fish that missed the Chug Bug.

As luck would have it, on the very next cast a nice redfish blasted the Chug Bug and started peeling line off my reel.

Not wanting to lose the fish, I took my time and played the fish until it finally gave up the battle.  The 26" red made three more strong runs before I could finally gill it and hoist it on to the bank.

I got my Nikon and took these pics for this site before releasing the fish.

The sun was setting so I decided to leave the mosquitoes in the "swamp" and head home.

On the way out of the refuge I briefly stopped to see how a couple of other fishermen were doing.  They had four rods out with live finger mullet but were not having any luck.

When they asked me how I did, I told them the truth but I don't believe they believed me.

Anyway, as I headed home I wondered if any other Catfish Creek Loop redfish were caught this evening.

When I called Karen to tell her about my luck and that I was on my way, she became suddenly up to fishing the area tomorrow if the weather was decent.

Till next time, Tight Lines!