Pre July 4th Outing On The Indian River

Saturday afternoon on the Indian River proved to be lonely and relatively unfruitful.

For the first time in a long time, there were almost NO people on the North Indian River flats off of Shiloh Marsh Road.

Late Saturday afternoon the entire river was as smooth as glass, with only an occasional mullet breaking the surface and the serenity of the moment.

On the way into the unimproved drive, my wife and I spotted only one other vehicle. The fishermen had waded out about 50 yards from the bank and set up folding chairs with sand spikes to hold their rods that were baited with finger mullet.

My wife and I stopped twice trying to entice some trout for dinner with little luck.

I have a hurt shoulder and had to work hard at casting my usual array of top water plugs, spoons, jigs, and soft baits. The fish just weren't interested in any of my offerings and my shoulder couldn't take the repeated abuse.

My wife tied on her Cajun Thunder bobber with a 4/0 hook, baited with frozen dead shrimp.

The first few stops yielded nothing but a throbbing shoulder, so we continued to one of Karen's favorite coves.

Once we got there, we noted that the water level was down considerably from the normal for this time of year and that the fish were dormant. Absolutely nothing was moving around.

I threw every lure I could think of to raise a fish as I walked along the road to the far point, where the other fishermen were sitting on their chairs out in the river, enjoying the day .

They weren't catching anything on their live mullet; just having a good day on the water.

I gave up on artificial lures and put out two rods baited with chunks of ladyfish in the hope of getting one of those 40" plus bull redfish.

After catching a couple of blue crabs, my wife finally caught a nice slot sized trout on her shrimp that we kept for dinner.

I caught a blue crab, a ton of ant bites on my ankle by standing on an ant hill, and not a thing more.

How humiliating! Except for a blue crab, I got skunked!

On the way out of the area, I grabbed my camera to take some pics of feeding spoonbills and some of the other scenery, some of which I have here.

Tomorrow is the 4th. and if my shoulder can take it, my wife and I hope to try it again at another area; possibly Haulover Canal.

I hear the mangrove snapper are biting!

Till then, Tight Lines!

Waterfowl Hunting On The North Indian River

Sunday afternoon seemed to be a good day to try our luck fishing.

The weather was beautiful and a bit windy, but getting out on the river for some fresh air seemed the thing to do.

My wife Karen, our wonder dog Elmo, and yours truly decided to try fishing the Shiloh Road area, just off of US 1, to see if the powers that be opened up the unimproved road that parallels the North part of the Indian River.

The area is noted for bruiser "bull" redfish and large gator trout. Tarpon and ladyfish can also be found here during certain times of the year.

Today, the trail was closed to everyone including the waterfowl hunters. Evidently only bike and foot traffic is now allowed in the area.

My wife rigged with fresh dead shrimp, and I started pitching a gold spoon at some wakes I saw in the shallow water.

The only thing I could dredge up was a couple of nice sized ladyfish. There were two redfish in the shallows that were well over the slot limit, but the clear water and a bad cast on my part, spooked them.

We only fished a little while but I did take a few pics of the waterfowl on the river.



As you can see, ducks were all over the place. A duckvention no doubt!

I don't keep up with the waterfowl season, but there were shotgun shells scattered around the area.

Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Tight Lines!

Black Drum Are Still In!

Mid July on the North Indian River is still pretty hot for redfish, trout, and apparently black drum.

Usually, the gator trout fishing slacks off a bit during July,but this year seems to be the exception. Large sow gator trout are still hitting in both the Mosquito Lagoon flats and far northern areas of the Indian River.

My wife and I picked up a few small trout this afternoon, along with a couple of ladyfish and a respectable sized black drum.

My wife, Karen, caught the drum right at dusk on a shrimp underneath a Cajun Thunder bobber.

This particular marsh area, that we occasionally fish, usually produces nice redfish; however, today the black drum seemed to be the ticket in the narrow backwater.

Enjoy the pics and until next time, tight lines!

Pre July 4th Tarpon Fishing

Got out late Thursday and decided to try for some of the small tarpon that are now in the north part of the Indian River Lagoon, north of Scotsmoor, Fl.

My wife and I saw a few small tarpon busting finger mullet in the north part of the river, and in the salt marsh canal adjacent to it, but had no takers.

I tried mullet imitating lures, as well as smaller swim baits for over an hour, with absolutely no hits. I didn't bring my cast net, so for today, live bait was not on the menu for these tusslers.

The water in the Indian River was a bit choppy from a West wind, and the temperature hovered in the high 80s with a clear sky; so it was almost perfect for this sort of fishing.

At low light, my wife and I moved to a favorite spot where I knew some trout were always on the prowl. Last week she caught an "almost" gator trout, so we decided to try and repeat the performance.

Karen had several hits here, on a shrimp Cajun Thunder bobber combo, and I picked up several trout in the marsh canal fishing a drop off ledge that I knew was there.

I started catching trout on Creme swim baits, but decided to switch to a new top water lure I had in my tackle box, to try for a larger trout comparable to the one my wife caught last week.

Several casts and two misses later, I picked up a small redfish that exploded on the bait.

The little fella acted like he was one of the bull redfish that this part of the river is noted for.

Several casts later, it was apparent that the bite was about over. This is typical for this area.

The fish turn on in spurts, and provide some great action while it lasts; then like someone turned off a magical switch, it's over.

The low light turned to dusk, so we left the preserve deciding to try again tomorrow.

Maybe Friday will be a lucky day for a tarpon! Tight lines!

North Indian River Trout Fishing Trip

With the temperature at 96 degrees today, fishing was anything but cool!

The space shuttle flight was delay again due to liquid hydrogen fuel leaks, so the dirt roads in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge were all open for fishing, photography, and fun.

The rosette spoonbills and other marsh birds were doing their thing in the shallows at the far north end of the Indian River Lagoon.

The photographers who could stand the heat were getting some great waterfowl shots, as well as photographs of the gators, that started moving abound at dusk.

After I took this little video, the little gator below started to become a pain when he began chasing my lures.

My wife and I got a late start on Sunday and didn't get out on the river until late in the afternoon. Just as well, because the temperature remained in the mid 90's until late in the day.
We fished the uppermost northern end of the Indian River Lagoon where the waters are extremely shallow.
I got my wife to try out some artificial lures and she immediately caught a trout that flipped off her Blue Creme swim bait.

I caught several legal sized trout in the shallows at the north end of the river at the beginning of Shiloh Road, and as the sun began to set, caught seven more trout over the slot limit on a white swim bait, and Shad colored Creme swim bait.


One extremely hungry under sized redfish also gobbled up a creme lure just at dusk.
If the temperature gets a bit cooler next weekend, we plan on taking out the Maverick and hitting the Mosquito Lagoon for some schooling redfish. I got a report that they were nailing them in the no motor zones.
Until then; tight lines!