Gator Creek Ladyfish

After the SpaceX launch this morning, I made a quick trip down to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see if I could pick up a few Gator Creek ladyfish on topwater baits.

It was around 4:30pm when I finished my walk over the A. Max Brewer bridge and headed out to East Gator Creek.

There was some fish activity around the first culvert but because of the time, I moved on to the shallow flats where I had seen schools of predatory ladyfish the other day.

I had three rods with me tipped with a Badadonk, a trout pattern Skitterwalk, and a Bass Pro Shop Popper that I picked up on sale last week in their Mobile, Al. store.

I smeared up some Pro-Cure on the popper and on my first cast hooked and landed a ladyfish around 14".  The fish jumped several times like a small tarpon and immediately headed towards the mangrove roots that line the unimproved roadway in the refuge.

I gave the fish line and it veered away from shore to open water where I then horsed it onto the bank for a release.

I briefly thought about keeping it for redfish bait but I didn't have a cooler with me so I released the fish to fight another day.

Several casts later around the same area I missed a larger fish and after a few more casts finally hooked and released another ladyfish that was a clone to the first one.

I missed two more fish before moving down the road to fish another location.

At this spot I switched baits and started tossing the Skitterwalk across the shallow grassy flats.

After a dozen or so casts I picked up a small birds nest from casting into the wind and while I was trying to untangle the damn thing, either a sea trout or a redfish busted on the bait.

The fish splashed a bit and somehow got off the hook.

After finally untangling the snarl on my reel, I switched to the BadaDonk and after at least a couple of dozen blind casts without a hit or a followup, decided to head back home for dinner.

Hopefully I'll be able to get out a bit tomorrow,

Till next time, Tight LInes.