Hunt For Reds In October

The Hunt for Reds in October fishing contest ended today, which is why I waited until later in the afternoon to fish the marsh.

My wife was doing her thing today and didn't want to go fishing with me, so I packed up a few rods and headed for the "swamp" to get in a little redfish fishing.

When I entered Peacocks Pocket road the air temperature was 83 degrees and there was a mild wind blowing over the Indian River.

I decided to fish the marsh canal today in an effort to pick up a cruising red, so I opted for fishing gold spoons and my favorite Chug Bug.

I started fishing with a gold Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon and quickly picked up a couple of slot sea trout and a ladyfish.

I switched over to a weedless silver spoon that I had on my other rod and quickly picked up another ladyfish that was in the 20" range.

As the wind started to die down, I "jump fished" the marsh canal with a baby bass pattern STORM Rattlin Chug Bug.

I picked up a couple of small sea trout on the Chug Bug and bumped into a reader of this website, Craig Bates.

He was also fishing the canal using a black and silver Chug Bug.

I stopped to shoot the breeze with him a bit and discovered that he lives in the Orlando area and is a bass fisherman.

He showed me a pic of an over slot sized redfish that he caught in the Indian River some time ago, north of one of the islands. I asked him to send me an email with the pic and told him I would post it on the site.

I moved on and started blind casting an area where I picked up redfish a few weeks ago and after several casts to the opposite bank I was rewarded with a slot sized redfish that hit the Chug Bug right on the bank.

The fish made a fast run and turned directly into a bush at the bank where it got hung up. I gave the fish some slack but it just sloshed around until it finally shook the hooks loose.

Since this was my last baby bass pattern Chug Bug,, I took off my shoes and waded out to untangle the lure from the brush hoping that an alligator didn't think I was for dinner.

I retied my Chug Bug and drove past where Craig was fishing and stopped at another spot where I briefly hooked up with another red.

The fish wasn't hooked well and the Chug Bug pulled out at the beginning of the run. From the size of the wake it pushed, it looked like a nice oversize red.

Undaunted, I continued down Peacocks Pocket road and stopped at another spot where my wife had caught her 36" redfish a couple of years ago.

A few casts with the Chug Bug produced another slot size sea trout and a ladyfish, but no redfish.

Meanwhile, Craig passed me and parked at a spot where I knew some big reds frequently cruise out from a small marsh pond into the deeper canal.

As I was packing it in for the evening, I drove up to where he was fishing and saw he had a nice slot size redfish.

I asked him if I could take his pic and he agreed so here are the results for the evening.

 

He said he had to "horse" the red past a gator that was eyeballing the fish as he was landing it.

I gave him my pliers to get the hooks out of the redfish just as my wife called to see when I was coming home.

I probably could have picked up a red at another section that I fish regularly, but I was getting bitten by no see-ums so I decided to hit the road and head for home.

October is one of the better months for catching redfish in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and my wife and I will probably be out again next week to try our luck.

The "Hunt for Reds in October" was over for this year's contestants, but not for me.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Reds In October

The best time to fish for Reds in October is whenever you can get out to do it!

My wife and I took Elmo out for our Saturday outing to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on the north Indian River lagoon to see if we could catch some redfish.

The weather was a pleasant 75 degrees and there was a brisk wind blowing most of the afternoon which made casting a challenge.

We went out about 2:30 p.m. and stopped at a couple culverts to cast net some finger mullet but today there were none to be had.

Undaunted, I decided to use artificial lures and fortunately Karen brought along some fresh jumbo shrimp to use in case we didn't net up any live bait.

We fished at a couple of stops along Peacocks Pocket road and neither one of us got a hit

The water levels in the marsh were at the highest levels I've seen this year and what had been dry mud flats this summer were now under at least a foot of water.  This is where the redfish were feeding.

The next stop was in an area like this.  I was using a gold Bagley spoon with a red tag and Karen was using shrimp under a chartreuse  clacker bobber.

On the fourth cast I missed what I thought was a nice redfish and two casts later I hooked up with a nice fat 24" redfish that belted the spoon right in the weeds.

 

 The fish put up a nice fight on the 10# rig I was using and after landing it and taking the pics below, I returned it to fight another day.

Several more casts later I had another hit but missed the red.  Karen wasn't having much fun casting into the wind and the alligator below was getting too interested in what we were doing so we decided to move on up the road to a more sheltered spot.

We stopped briefly at the "duck blind" where Karen missed a redfish.  I fished both sides of the road without getting a hit so we decided to move to another spot.

 

At the next spot, I dropped Karen off and walked back to fish about a 150 yard stretch of weed lines in the marsh.

After about two dozen unproductive casts, I finally nailed another sassy redfish.  The fish was a clone to the first one I caught and after taking it's picture, I released it to fight another day.

Karen missed two redfish and I missed two fish that were probably reds right in the weeds.

It was starting to get chilly and the wind never did let up much so we decided to call it a day and get an earlier start tomorrow.

There is a redfish tournament next week in this area and for good reason.  Fishing for Reds in October for me is the best time of the year.

The temperature makes for comfortable fishing, the mosquitoes aren't out in force and the fish are generally more active before the colder weather sets in.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Shiloh Marsh Road Fishing Trip

My wife and I decided to take our wonder dog Elmo for a trip to the North Indian River Shiloh Marsh Road area to see what we could pick up for dinner.

After I mowing the lawn and getting drenched by a mid afternoon thundershower, I was more than ready willing and eager to get some fishing in.

Because the wind was blowing in from the northeast; we opted to fish the Indian River's Shiloh Marsh Rd area instead of the flats around Mosquito Lagoon's Bio Lab road.

It had been raining and the road was sloppy, but we hoped that the rain would promote the redfish bite, so we plodded on looking for signs of fish.

I noticed some finger mullet activity in the very shallow waters on the marsh side of the road so we stopped to try our luck.

Another fisherman and his family stopped to see how we were doing and after talking to him a bit, discovered that he was a reader of this website. Small world!

I should have gotten his name but I didn't think about it at the time. Anyway, he was definitely in the right area to fish, especially with the kayak or canoe he had in his truck. I'm not sure which it was.

He left and we continued fishing.

My wife put on her usual dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder bobber rig and I tried a Johnson gold spoon.

After several casts without even a follow, I tied on a top water Zara Spook Jr. that looked like a pretty good imitation of the silver mullet in the shallows. Several casts later, I lost the lure to the swamp.

After a few choice cuss words, I decided to try a frozen finger mullet that we brought along from our last trip. I cut the tail off and stabbed it several times to get the "juices" flowing and pitched it into the area I though there should be redfish.

Meanwhile, my wife called out to me that she had caught a trout. I put my Okuma bait runner on free-line and went over to where she was fishing to help her out and take a couple of pictures.

The slot sized trout looked like dinner to me, but my wife wanted me to release it, so like any obliging husband I acquiesced to her wishes.

The water was high and both redfish and sea trout were in extremely shallow waters chasing down mullet and other crustaceans.

I walked farther down the road after spotting a redfish chasing something in water that was less than 6" deep. He was tailing and sloshing around enough for me to shoot the finger mullet right into the swirl.

The fish immediately picked up the bait and started running down the narrow creek. After a respectable battle and several strong runs, I finally managed to lip it out of the water.

The fish was gut hooked so deep that I decided to make fish sandwiches out of it. It measured out at 26" which was just enough for my wife and I to eat for dinner.

We moved out to another prime area where an open culvert was flowing. Karen chucked out her rig and I put on another gold spoon and started casting. I had a few hits from what probably were small trout and my wife lost another trout on her rig.

Since I already had my fish, I pulled out my Nikon CoolPix 8700 and started taking pics of the awesome sunset you get to see here.




There were some nice trout feeding in the running culvert but my wife was fishing the other side and I was just enjoying the sunset.

After losing some baits to trout, we decided to call it an evening and head for home.

Hope you enjoy the pics and until next time; Tight Lines!

Hunt For Reds In October

This weekend was anything but what you would expect an October weekend to be like.  The weather has been nothing short of blissful and the fishing has started to improve.

Some of my friends, who religiously fish the Mosquito Lagoon, say that the fishing this past week has started to improve.  Small schools of redfish are still cruising the flats, and with the windy conditions have made it easier to cast to them.

Sea trout are still easy to catch however the larger, gator trout, aren't hitting like they were earlier in the spring.
You can still pick one up early in the morning or just at dusk, but the sow gator trout get that way because they are extremely wary.  The clearer water make them doubly so come winter.

My wife, my wonder dog Elmo and I spent some time on the Indian River Saturday, and this evening, getting some nature pics and a little fresh air.

I fished top water Chug Bugs, SkitterWalks, a shallow running Yozuri Minnow, gold spoons, jigs, and just about everything else you can think of trying for a redfish or large trout.  Other than a few small trout, nothing earth shaking occurred.

My wife removed her Cajun Thunder rig and fished large dead shrimp both afternoons with some better results.  She picked up several catfish, a large stingray, puffers and missed a couple redfish.

After wearing out my casting arm, I reverted to fishing frozen shrimp in a small canal we often frequent.

 I picked up a top end slot redfish just at dusk that put up a great fight.  The particular rod I was using was threaded with 10 lb. Cajun Red Lightnin line and 20 flourocarbon leader, so I had to spend some time getting the red to land.

Until this evening, I was beginning to think I had some sort of fish curse on me.
Oh well, that's why they call it fishing instead of catchin.

Till next time; Tight Lines To You All!