Fishing Peacocks Pocket road this afternoon seemed like a good idea, so after a brief scouting trip at Playalinda Beach, I headed to the southern entrance of Pocket Road to try my luck along the road.

I parked off the wire rope barrier at the road and took a light rod spooled with 6 pound line and a small size Creme paddletail bait from my truck to fish with.

They have been working on Peacocks Pocket road for a couple of years and were expected to have it finished up by March of this year, but even though the road has had some massive improvements, it is still not open to vehicle traffic.

However, if you don't mind a tangle in the brush once in a while, you can usually pick up some sea trout, black drum, and redfish along the ditches; especially around the shallow ponds.

As I walked along the road this afternoon, the water in the ditches was like glass in most areas which made delicate casts a necessity.  

I walked a few yards up the road casting into the deeper pools and started catching sea trout on my white Creme bait.   The problem was that except for one fish, all the fish caught were dink trout like the one below.

During the time I was fishing the ditches, I landed and released at least a dozen sea trout in the 10 to 13 inch category and lost my one and only bait on a good size fish that broke off in the vegetation that is still left in the water along the bank by the work crews.   

As they worked on the road, they cut down most of the bushes that were growing along the bank.  Although this makes casting much easer, landing a good fish is damn tough; and there are some big fish in the ditches.

The above pic shows what I'm talking about.

As the insects started to eat me alive, I decided to give up on the fishing and head home for some grub.

Till next time,

Tight Lines

January Sea Trout Fishing

Sea trout fishing in January is usually killer in East Central Florida and regardless of how you fish for them, they provide plenty of action on light tackle.

I hit the wildlife refuge this afternoon to see if Peacocks Pocket road was still open and to pick up a few sea trout.

The air temperature was in the low 60s and dropping and there was absolutely no wind on the river or the marsh areas where I planned to concentrate my fishing efforts.

I brought along three spinning rods rigged with a topwater plug, a CAL swimbait and a Carolina style rig with a 4/0 Owner hook, just in case the fish weren't interested in artificial baits.

It was almost 4:00 pm when I drove into the first set of culverts and saw a group of bird watchers in a couple of small trailers loaded with tons of camera gear.  These guys looked like professional photographers, and were at the same spot yesterday when my wife was fishing with me.

I was going to ask them about their activities but because of the time factor, I decided to catch them on the "flip flop" if they were still there.

I started "jump fishing" the banks, casting to likely looking areas with the DOA "New Penny" CAL bait and a life like jig head.  I smeared up the bait with some Pro-Cure and started off with super slow retrieves.

The first two spots didn't produce any hits or follow ups and there was no sign of fish activity, so I continued moving up the road.  The next stop produced a couple of hits right on the bank, but I missed both fish and decided to move on.

The last spot I fished at was a spot where I usually catch reds in the summer time.  It is at the mouth of a small pond where the water drops into the deeper marsh canal.   Because of the brush on the banks and the hidden stickups in the water, it's hard to fish and harder to land a fish but it usually produces and today was no exception.

On the third or fourth cast I hooked into a small sea trout which I promptly released.  Two casts later I hooked and released a clone of the first fish.  I took it's picture, released it and moved a few yards up from the spot, casting as I walked.

There was a telltale sign of a large fish pushing a wake along the bank so I eased up to the spot and tossed the lure at the fish.  Unfortunately, it spooked and took off up the marsh canal.

I spent the rest of the time fishing that general area and missing three more fish before I decided to call it a day.  The air temperature was dropping and the fish had stopped biting.

I turned around to see if the camera crew was still in the area around the culverts but they left so I headed back to the house.

In an hour and a half of fishing, I managed to catch three sea trout and missed at least four more fish on the Pro-Cure smeared shad tail bait.

If the weather holds, I plan to hit the area again tomorrow.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Dog Days Topwater Fishing

Dog days topwater fishing can be productive when conditions are favorable and apparently this evening they were.

Fishing Peacocks Pocket Road is one of my favorite pastimes when I get off work in time to enjoy the evening bite.

East Gator Creek Flats

This evening when I drove into East Gator Creek Road the air temperature was 93 degrees and there was almost no wind to speak of.  Not exactly great conditions for topwater fishing, but I decided to focus on tossing Chug Bugs and SkitterWalks until either I caught something or the bugs bled me dry.

Fortunately, I didn't have to endure the latter until I was ready to head home.

When I drove past the first set of culverts at the junction of Peacocks Pocket Road, I decided to test out a Chug Bug to see if anything was interested.   It took five casts before I hooked, landed and released a nice ladyfish that jumped all over the place before giving up the fight.

It was a great start and I had high hopes of duplicating the result so I headed to one of my favorite deep water ponds where I knew some nice sea trout were prowling around the drop offs.

The pond was flat in some areas and had a slight ripple in others.  I started casting close to the bank and gradually extended my casts outward towards the choppier water.

I spent a lot of time fan casting the area and finally got a hit from a nice sea trout.  The fish nailed the plug right out of the water but didn't get hooked.

I continued casting the area and was about to move on up the road when a nice 17" sea trout nailed the Chartreuse/Metallic Silver Chug Bug. 

The fish put up a respectable fight before I shimmied down the bank to land it.

I took a couple of pics and released the fish to grow into a "gator".

Several more casts into the same area produced another smaller sea trout that I also returned to the marsh canal.

It was getting late so I moved up to another pond that I occasionally fish and started fan casting to likely looking areas.

The bugs were getting to me and after making several casts I was about to give up and head for home but a Snook nailed the Chug Bug close to a submerged grassy island.

The fish caught me by surprise and hooked itself before I had a chance to set the hooks.  At first I thought I had hooked a ladyfish but after the second jump when I saw the telltale lateral line along it's side, I had no doubt that it was definitely a nice Snook.

The fish jumped two more times and started to head towards deeper water in the marsh canal when the hooks pulled out.

Some guys on the other side of the pond were watching the battle and were more upset that I lost the fish than I was.

I made several more casts before moving on up the road.

As I passed an area called the "duck blind" I noticed a couple sight casting the Indian River shallows for reds or sea trout.

Indian River Sight Casting

Their boat was in a foot of water and they were fishing the exact spot where I picked up a redfish a couple of weeks ago.

I took a couple of pics before moving on, but the bugs were becoming particularly viscous as it got closer to dusk and I wasn't equipped with bug spray.  Dog days topwater fishing can be a blast but not when you're covered with mosquitoes.

As I headed for home I took a couple of pics of the beautiful sunset.  Enjoy.

 

Till next time, Tight Lines.

March Winds For Sea Trout

The March winds were blowing this afternoon making for some tough casting,  but March winds for sea trout can make for some of the best fishing of the year.

I didn't get out this afternoon until 5:30 pm and that was a spur of the moment thing.

I packed several spinning rods and decided to bring along the unused shrimp I unsuccessfully fished with yesterday, just in case I spotted some tailing reds or black drum.

I was fishing Peacocks Pocket Road primarily on the marsh side.  The Indian River side of the road was too windy for me to bother with.

The air temperature was 78 degrees when I left the house and there was a steady wind blowing out of the south making for some great wind surfing.  I picked up on this as soon as I hit the top of the bridge and saw all the multicolored para-sails.

There were tons of people taking advantage of the March winds on their boards and a few more trying their luck on the leeward side of the causeway.

 

I started fishing with a Berkley paddle tail swimbait smeared up with some Pro-Cure scent.

The wind made it hard to detect a bite and I missed at least a half dozen fish before I finally landed a nice fat 16" sea trout. 

I was going to take the fish home for dinner but I decided to release it instead.

The stretch of the canal that I had been fishing provided me with three more sea trout of the same general size before the bite slowed down and I decided to move on up the road.

I had hits at almost every stop I made, but the wind made it tough to get hook ups. 

I lost three more fish before I picked up the last sea trout of the day.  The fish was just under size, so I released it along with the other fish I caught this afternoon.

There were tons of waterfowl in the refuge this evening along with a lot of visitors watching them.

I saw only two other guys fishing with finger mullet on the river side this afternoon, but I didn't bother asking them if they had any luck.  They were busy cutting up a mullet for bait when I passed them.

As I got close to Bobcat Bay, I tossed the swimbait out on the river side to a swirl I happened to see and promptly got a hookup with a small snook. 

The little snook jumped twice before tossing the bait back to me.

Although I stopped at a couple more spots on the way out of the refuge, the small snook was the last fish of the day.

I flipped out the fresh dead shrimp at two small pond areas today, but never got a hit on them. 

Today plastic baits were the ticket.

As I headed back to the house, I took several pics of the waterfowl.

This guy eyeballed me to death, so I had to get his pic.

Fishing the March winds for sea trout can be productive but you almost need a sixth sense to detect a strike when fishing with artificial baits. 

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Fishing Peacocks Pocket Road

Fishing Peacocks Pocket road is becoming a habit for me and my wife.

Every Friday evening after I return home from work I'm usually jonesing to go fishing and the closest place is the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge around Peacocks Pocket road.

The thunderstorms this afternoon died down at about 5:30 p.m. so we packed up a few rods, netted some bait and headed for a couple of our favorite spots.

Our first stop netted me a couple slot sized sea trout. One was caught on a live finger mullet and the other on a CAL DOA white paddle tail bait fished just off the bottom.

The water was almost dead calm this afternoon and longer casts generated more hits than the usual lobs I use when fishing this area.

There were plenty of finger mullet in the marsh side of the road and because of last weeks incessant rains, the water levels were up a bit from where they were last week.

Karen was fishing live finger mullet for a change and when we were almost out of bait changed over to 6" live ladyfish.

At our second stop, Karen missed a nice redfish that ate her finger mullet and pulled off.

Several minutes later she hooked this nice slot size 20" sea trout on a free lined ladyfish, which she promptly released.

At our second stop I missed a nice redfish and landed another slot size sea trout that I also released.

A couple stopped to talk to me about the fishing and the bird life in the area and while I was talking to them, I didn't realize I was standing on an anthill.

As they left, I started feeling real pain in my leg all the way up to my crotch as the angry ants chewed away at me. I got rid of my sneakers and swatted away the ants but I was in real agony for awhile.

It was getting late but we continued to fish even though I was feeling miserable from the ant bites and just as I was ready to ask Karen to call it a day, she missed another redfish on a live ladyfish.

We finally decided to give it up and come back tomorrow for another try.

As we were leaving, I stopped to talk to the only other fisherman we saw in the preserve. I noticed him casting a CAL type jerkbait up the road from where we were fishing and decided to ask if he had any luck.

He told me he caught three sea trout and two smaller redfish which he released. I didn't get his name but I did give him the name of this website.

Jokingly, he asked me if I wanted to by his flats boat. He said he didn't need it with the fishing as good as it was in this area.

I told him that I have a Maverick I seldom use, for exactly the same reason.

One this is for sure, fishing Peacocks Pocket road is getting better if you know how to fish it and hit it at the right time.

I'll never get over the beautiful sunsets.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.