Sharks In The Surf

Friday afternoon was a great day for a scouting trip, so when I finished working on the interior of our newly erected shed, I packed up a few rods and headed to the beach to see what happening.

I had been receiving mixed reports of bull whiting, pompano, and shark being caught at Playalinda Beach so that was my first stop, via Bio Lab road.

Bio Lab road was relatively void of bank fishermen but there was a lot of scenic traffic.

The temperature was in the 80s and there was a mild breeze blowing across the Mosquito Lagoon.  

The water in the shallows was dirty but looked clear at the dropoffs, but in the southernmost portion of the lagoon, brown algae was abundant.

The warm air temperatures had a plethora of alligators sunning along the banks in many areas.   I counted a baker's dozen as I drove along Bio Lab road to the beach and stopped to take a few pics.

As Bio Lab turned into two lanes, I decided to pull into an area where I caught some snook earlier in the month.

The water on the lagoon side of the culverts was dirty, but the tanin stained water on the right side of the unimproved road was clear.

This time of the year the baitfish are not yet in the lagoon system and crustaceans are the forage of choice for sea trout, drum, and snook, so I pulled out a D.O.A. Shrimp smeared with some Pro-Cure gel and started working it slowly along several areas on both sides of the culvert.

After a dozen or so casts without a single hit, I moved across the barrier to fish that area.  

My second cast to the mangrove roots produced a nice hit but no hookup and as I reeled in the shrimp bait I spied a 10 foot plus gator on the bank that I missed as I walked up to the area.

I took his pic and decided to head back to the car and hit the beach.

As I drove down the road to the beach, the amount of vehicle traffic was impressive for a Friday afternoon. 

The first parking lot was closed due to repairs, but from lot #2 to #10, every lot had parked cars.

It was almost 5:00 pm when I stopped at lot #8 to talk to an angler that was loading his gear up to leave.   

He didn't do too well with pompano but he cleaned up on some nice size whiting.  He was fishing along the closer troughs using sand fleas and small pieces of shrimp for bait.

I noticed he was using a short rod which is probably why he didn't score any pompano.  They are running out past the last sand bars and require long casts.

At Lot #9 another angler in a balloon tire equipped beach cart was loading up to leave.  He and his wife said they caught a bunch of bull whiting on shrimp and sand fleas but no pompano.

Another fisherman who was just leaving as I pulled in said the only thing he caught was a large Lemon Shark he estimated to weigh in at about 80 pounds.

He said the fish had him running up and down the beach screaming drag quite a while before he could finally land it.

I took some pics of the calm seas before moving up to lot #9 where only one fisherman said he caught a couple of  keeper pompano.

It was around 5:30 pm when I stopped to take a shot of the Space X pad before heading out of the area to get something for dinner.

Didn't too much good fishing this afternoon, but it really wasn't a fishing trip.

Might get out tomorrow,

Tight Lines.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Sightseeing Venture

Late Friday evening in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge turned out to be a sightseeing venture rather than a fishing trip.

Although I had several rods with me in the truck, I did little casting.

The grass in the refuge hasn't been mowed in quite some time which is both a pro and a con.

Higher grass means fewer visitors to contend with, but it also makes spotting and landing fish much more difficult.

It's difficult and almost impossible to skinny down a bank and retrieve a fish when you can't find it!

Anyway, when I traversed the refuge Friday evening, only two other groups of people were cruising Peacocks Pocket road and only one of them was actively fishing.

Midway up Peacocks Pocket road I fished several deep water areas trying for a sea trout or two and I did manage to briefly hook up with two fish.  Both were lost at the bank.

The refuge was thick with gators this evening.  From East Gator Creek through the end of Peacocks Pocket road I spotted over a dozen gators in the marsh and in the river.

This evening would not have been a good time to wade fish.

This particular gator was cruising the marsh canal and got in the way every time I stopped to cast.

Close to the kayak launch I met up with Craig and Mary.  Two friends who fish the area on a semi-regular basis.

Today they didn't have much luck but they shared some pics of recent catches they made of redfish, sea trout and Red Snapper they picked up last week during the short opening season.

I asked them to email me the pics so I could post them here, so when I get them, they will be posted.

Anyway, I left them to their fishing and headed out of the refuge.

On the way out I spotted two nice redfish and a couple of sea trout but didn't bother trying to catch them.  The brush was entirely too high and I value my Chug Bugs too much to lose them along side the bank.

The bugs in the refuge were insane.  They seem to zone in on anything remotely breathing or having a circulatory system.

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted several wild hogs rooting along side the road and a couple of coons.

The wildlife was in abundance this evening in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, as were the insects.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Playalinda Beach Whiting

After my doctor's appointment this afternoon, I decided to head over to Playalinda Beach to see if I could catch a few whiting for dinner.

 

I picked up some shrimp at the local tackle shop and headed east to the beach.

Parking Lot #11

The air temperature was hovering in the mid 90s and there was very little wind on the water.

The tide was coming in and there were thunderclouds in the area.

There was almost no one at the beach today and those who were, parked at the closest parking lots.

I stopped briefly at lots # 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10 to see if anyone was fishing, and finally decided to fish lot #11 where I was the only one on the beach.

Shark Fishing

There was one surf fisherman who had a kayak and a shark outfit in a sand spike who was obviously fishing for shark at lot #8.

A couple of other guys who looked like they were fishing for whiting were with their families but other than that, there were no other fishermen on the beach today.

I took along a 12' Tournament surf rod mated to an Okuma bait runner reel and a 7' spinning rod that I use for sea trout along Peacocks Pocket road.

Since the surf was calm, I decided to try the short "river rod" for whiting.

I tied a small number 4 hook  on a short  piece of fluorocarbon leader above a small swivel and 1/4 oz. egg sinker and baited up with a "pinkie" size piece of peeled shrimp.

To save walking back to my cooler, I loaded up a baggie with fresh dead shrimp, stashed it in my pocket and waded out to a small rip.

There were a lot of glass minnows in the surf and some pogies here and there so I started out by flipping my bait only a few feet ahead of the dirty water in the surf.

My strategy paid off immediately.  A small whiting nailed the shrimp and was quickly landed and released.

I was hoping for some "bull" whiting but unfortunately all the fish caught today were 12" and under.

I used the same strategy to catch about two dozen whiting, some of which were placed in the cooler for dinner.

Just for the hell of it I decided to try casting out past the breakers but after wasting a half an hour without getting a single bite, I continued flipping peeled shrimp just past the dirty water in the surf.

After a thunderstorm passed by I caught and released a small black tip shark that ate a piece of shrimp right at my feet.  The pretty fish was only about two feet long but it put up a nice fight on light tackle before giving it up.

I was getting tired of fighting the waves in the rip so I packed up my two rods and headed for the truck.

On the way home I decided to see what Peacocks Pocket road had to offer in the way of fish.

The air temperature was 90 degrees when I drove up to the first set of culverts past the kayak launch and there was absolutely no air movement.  The water was like glass in both the Indian River side of the road and in the marsh.

I tried a gold spoon and a topwater "Bass" Chug Bug on the river side but the only thing it attracted was a large gator that finally caused me to leave the area.

Alligators were grunting and croaking all over the place this afternoon making topwater fishing a challenge.

They followed my Chug Bug at almost every stop I made.

A little way down Peacocks Pocket road I started pitching the Chug Bug around the deeper pools in the marsh canal and was rewarded with a nice slot size sea trout that blasted the lure right out of the water.

I took this pic and released the fish to grow up into a "gator trout".

 

At the next spot my Chug Bug stirred up some action but the fish would not eat the bait , so I switched to a gold spoon and after a couple of casts picked up this slot size trout.

Several casts later into the same area produced another sea trout on the same gold Johnson's Sprite spoon.

The fishing continued like this until I finally decided to give it up for the day.  In the course of an hour and a half, I managed to hook and release six sea trout on Chug Bugs and gold spoons.

The rains we had this past week has caused the water in the marsh areas to rise substantially.  This is causing the sea trout to spread out from their normal feeding areas.  

The redfish are still in the deeper pools of the salt marsh, the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon.

With any kind of luck I'll be able to take the boat out this weekend, weather permitting.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Sea Trout Are In The Ditches

The sea trout are in the ditches in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

My wife has been sick for the past week and I haven't been feeling much better so I broke down and visited the local walk in clinic and discovered that I had a severe upper respiratory infection.

After getting the antibiotics scrip filled, I took one and decided to hit Peacocks Pocket road to see if anyone was catching fish.

There were several vehicles in the area bird watching with only two people actually fishing and they were not catching fish.

I brought along a couple of rods that I hastily tossed into the back of the truck and started blind casting to likely looking spots in the marsh canal.

The Berkley power bait produced a couple of light taps but no hookups so I decided to tie on an old gold diamond spoon to see if I could dredge up a redfish.

I was feeling pretty crappy and I didn't plan on fishing long, especially since the wind was blowing steadily and the air temperature was beginning to give me a chill.

I tossed the gold spoon into a couple of areas and got a quick hookup with what I thought was a redfish.

The fish made two nice runs and then started sloshing around like the big sea trout that it was.

When I got the fish close enough to identify it, I played it carefully to a sparsely brushed area of the bank, grabbed it by the gills and landed the fish up the steep bank.

A couple in a small coupe stopped by to ask me what I was using and if there were any fish on "that side of the road".

I explained to them that fish are in very skinny water this time of the year almost anywhere and they are hungry.

I decided to take the sea trout home for dinner so I dispatched the fish, put it in the back of the truck and headed home.

On the way out of the refuge, I took these pics of what the "bird watchers" were looking at.  There were several more gators that I didn't bother photographing and tons of other birds in the area that I'm blessed to see on a regular basis so I didn't bother putting them up here. 

I particularly like the spoonbills and pelicans.

 

 

 

 

On the way home, I stopped by the local Exxon station to gas up and a fellow angler walked over to chat with me about the fishing conditions.

I showed him the sea trout in the back of the truck that I was keeping for dinner and we talked briefly about where he was fishing and what he was using.

I don't remember his name, but he told me he came here from the west coast of Florida to visit his family.

I suggested some flats for him to fish for a bull redfish with cut baits and we parted ways.

When I got home and started filleting the fish, it measured 23 inches long.  Not a real "gator trout" but fun to catch and good eating.

Till next time when I hope to be feeling better, 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!