Easter Weekend Fishing In the Refuge

Easter weekend fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was pretty dismal.

Friday's scouting trip set me up for some potentially great fishing possibilities, so when Karen asked about taking the "boys" (Elmo and Odie) to the "swamp" for a fishing trip, I readily agreed.

We stopped by the bait shop and picked up a dozen finger mullet and headed to Peacocks Pocket Road to try a few spots.

We decided to fish two small ponds where I spotted some oversize redfish yesterday, so I bypassed several likely looking spots in favor of one area.

When we got to the area I set up four rods along the bank all rigged with sliding sinker rigs and live finger mullet.

The ponds we fished were relatively shallow but the redfish were there.  They were busting on baitfish but they were out of casting range.

I started tossing a Chug Bug around until a 9 foot gator got interested in it and started following the bait.

Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, I lured the gator down the marsh canal out of range of our beloved canines.

Although I am not usually a bait fishermen, I decided to give it a shot this afternoon.  We waited till almost dusk for a bite that never materialized on any of our rods.

It was the most frustrating afternoon fishing that I've had in a long while.  Big redfish and a couple of huge sea trout were hitting baits all over the place but they would not come in to hit our baits.

When the mosquitoes started to do their thing, both Karen and myself were ready to call it a day.

We fished Saturday afternoon for three hours and never had a bite.  Totally skunked!

I let the finger mullet that were still alive out to fend for themselves and took a few pics of the area and sunset before heading home.

Despite the fact that we didn't catch anything, we still had a good time in the refuge; especially Elmo and Odie.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Peacocks Pocket Road Is Finally Open

Peacocks Pocket Road Is Finally Open again but Easter weekend fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge was pretty unproductive compared to some of my other outings.

When I got home from work Friday evening, I loaded a couple of rods into the back of the truck and headed for Peacocks Pocket Road which was supposed to be open on April 1st.

As I drove into the area, I was greeted by Ron a fellow angler who catches redfish on a regular basis.

He had his canoe on the back of his pickup truck and was fishing with live finger mullet from the bank.  He told me that Peacocks Pocket was opened two days ago and that the fishing was not that great for this time of the year.

He hadn't caught anything so I left him watching his poles and wished him good luck.

To make a short story shorter, I drove around the road to scout out the areas I normally catch fish in and tossed a few lures around with little success.

I had a couple of followups with a top water Chug Bug and one small sea trout on a gold Johnson's Sprite, but no redfish.

The wind was blowing enough to make casting a pain and the water levels in the marsh area were extremely low.

I spotted several huge sea trout and at least half a dozen oversize redfish mostly in the small ponds.

The biggest problem I encountered was the gators.

I counted 26 gators from the entrance of the barrier at Peacocks Pocket Road to the small boat launch at the Pocket.

Almost every time I cast the Chug Bug, a gator showed enough interest to follow the bait.  It was impossible to use a top water plug, and that was what the fish were hitting.

The "powers that be" did a good job fixing the potholes and divots in Peacocks Pocket Road.  Unfortunately, the vehicle traffic demonstrated how good a job they actually did.

There were a lot of vehicles traveling the road during the hour I was "scouting" on Friday but almost everyone was looking at the spoonbills, pelicans and gators in the shallow marsh.

All except one of the fishermen that I spoke with had no luck on Friday, but everyone was having a good time.

I plan to take Karen, Elmo and Odie fishing tomorrow.

Till then, Tight Lines.