Another Windy Afternoon On The Indian River

It was another windy day on the Indian River, but the wind coming out of the West made casting a bit easier than yesterday.

My wife, our wonder dog Elmo, and yours truly hit Shiloh Road on the northern Indian River directly across from the Scottsmoor boat launch.

The water was crystal clear and the fish were spooky on the river side. On the marsh side of the road, the water was cloudy and very shallow. All the fish today were difficult to catch.

Few people took advantage of the beautiful weather today in the drive and for the most part, except for the water birds, we had the place to ourselves.



My wife couldn't break her luck of the past couple of days and today caught ziltch. She missed several fish but wasn't holding her mouth right, or whatever.

I didn't do much better today. The first hour and a half produced only one trout slightly larger than the lure I was casting.

I was using a 2" gold Gator spoon and then switched to a Chug Bug with not hits at all. I then downsized my lures to mimic the 1 1/2 " small baitfish that were all around the culverts and started getting hits.

I changed to a Creme natural shad colored paddle tail lure and began catching more trout.

The day ended with 5 trout for myself and a goose egg for my wife.

On the way out of the drive, we stopped and talked with the only other fisherman who was still in the preserve.

Joseph was still fishing and reported catching a slot redfish and several slot sized trout. He said he caught the redfish on a dead shrimp and the trout on finger mullet he netted in the vicinity.

He was fishing the marsh side of the river and was trying to catch a shark he said he saw busting on schools of finger mullet.

Karen asked him how big the shark was and he replied "at least 4 feet from the dorsal to his tail".

From the description, it sounded like a very hungry bull shark.

I've seen several of them in the Indian River, but this is the first one I've ever heard about on the marsh side.

In any event, Joseph said he wouldn't be wading in that area again trying to net any finger mullet.



The sunset was again beautiful, and the day was perfect even if we didn't catch any huge fish.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

The Sea Trout Are Biting!

The sea trout in the Indian River Lagoon are biting with a vengeance if you present them the right imitation.

Shiloh Road this Saturday afternoon was as windy as some of our Congressional members, and the water was just rough enough to make it hard to detect a bite.

My wife, our wonder dog Elmo, and yours truly hit the shallows in the northernmost part of the Indian River.

The area we normally frequent around Peacocks Pocket, was again closed off for reasons known only to NASA and God. I personally believe they are too lazy or overpaid to bother opening up the gates after the space shuttle lands.

Anyway, for the first hour or so we didn't have much luck. The shrimp my wife was using produced a nice sized catfish which we promptly released, and a nice hit by a trout that she missed.

I was using my favorite top water baits and quickly changed over to Creme swim baits.

I had a couple of half hearted hits on the top water, but after a couple hundred casts I was getting worn out!

We stopped at a place my wife is particularly fond of and after several casts with a green colored Creme bait, I hooked and released a couple of scrappy slot sized trout.

There were tons of horseshoe crabs doing their breeding thing and I managed to inadvertently hook several of them.

On one cast, I hooked into a nice 20" sea trout right at shore, and several casts later, hooked and landed it's 19" relative. Since we didn't get a chance to hit the store, we kept the two for dinner.



After an hour or so, the bite slowed down and we both got tired of fighting the wind so we headed to the hacienda.

I was hoping for a small tarpon or large redfish, but tomorrow's another day.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Reds In October

I'm happy to announce that the redfish are still cooperating in the Mosquito and Indian River Lagoons.

My wife and I hit the river again this evening with good results on her part.

I still can't seem to hold my mouth right. I've been jump fishing for trout with good success, but the redfish I usually pick up this time of year have eluded me.

My wife on the other hand, picked up another slot fish this evening using her tried and true, large, dead shrimp bait.
See the pics of the fish and the beautiful sunset.



We didn't get out until very late this afternoon, so the boat stayed in the driveway.

The jump fishing is pretty good this time of year, with the cooler weather moving the fish and the people around the preserve roads.

We saw a lot of vehicle traffic, and few keeper fish. The excessive weekend traffic usually puts them down a bit and the bite is slow, if you use artificial lures like I do.

The exception is dead cut bait, shrimp, or crab fished on the bottom.

As you can see my wife did it again!

Till next time, tight lines!

Indian River Flats Fishing

April is the month for gator sea trout in the Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon estuaries.

This week in particular has been excellent fishing in the shallow grass flats north of Scottsmoor.

The Scottsmoor ramp is primarily for shallow draft boats, however if you take it easy and follow the markers out from the ramp, it can accommodate boats with a pretty deep draft. Use common sense and you shouldn't have any problems launching.

On Friday afternoon I spoke with some fishermen at the ramp who were gearing up for some wade fishing in the grass flats just north of the ramp.

The gentlemen I spoke with said they were catching bragging size trout by wading out to knee depth and staking one rod out with a live finger mullet. They were then casting top water skitter walk plugs with a second rod to pass the time between bites.

They also reported that they had been catching some huge redfish using the same technique during the middle of the week.





This particular area has been a local hot spot for years and is pretty much under fished.

Returning to Titusville on late Friday, the Max Brewer causeway bridge was loaded with over 50 people shrimping and fishing. The blood red full moon attracted quite a crowd of sport shrimpers. They reported dipping "jumbo" shrimp in large numbers for the past week.

I spent part of Easter Sunday out on the river driving around the Wildlife Refuge watching the finger mullet getting busted up by schools of large trout and a few redfish. I picked up a couple on artificial DOA Shrimp and Terror Eye lures but nothing to really brag about.

Enjoy the collage of pics I took at the Scottsmoor boat ramp.

Tight lines guys!