Christmas Day On The Indian River Lagoon

Christmas Day on the Indian River Lagoon turned out to be a great day on the water, and many locals apparently agreed.  There were more people on the river Christmas Day than I expected to see with the windy conditions.

The temperature was in the low 70's and the wind was brisk.  I planned on making a quick trip around the drive in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge area when I started before noon, but the fishing side tracked me.

The fist stop was in a very shallow shallow area  just into Catfish Creek.  I was using a Bagly Hammered Gold spoon with a red tag that I found works great in very shallow water.

On the fourth cast, I hooked into a nice sized snook that jerked off the hook, right at the bank as I was unhooking it.

The next stop was at a culvert on Gator Creek that no one usually fishes.  I hooked, landed and released a nice 22" seatrout on the same lure.  I took pics of this one before sending him back home.

Running the marsh road, I stopped several times, "jump fishing" and picked up several small redfish, a catfish, and missed a nice redfish of at least 36".



The pics are here for your enjoyment along with the only gator I saw sunning itself on the bank

Needless to say, I didn't get too close to this one.   It was definitely a Hooser, as my wife would say!

When the weather started getting too balmy, I got tired of pitching metal and went home to explain to my wife why my 15 minute ride took 3 hours to accomplish.

Tight Lines to you all, and Merry Christmas.