The Ladyfish Are All Over The Indian River

Ladyfish are all over the Indian River in large schools and are hitting anything that resembles a bait fish.

Today was overcast and bearable.  The temperature was in the high 70s to low 80s and the wind for a change was almost non existent.

My wife wanted to work on a stained glass project this afternoon so I went fishing alone.

I grabbed a few spinning rods and headed to the Indian River to see if I could match yesterday's luck.

Since there was hardly any wind on the water, I decided to fish East Gator Creek.

 

 This area is extremely shallow and weedy.  With the massive algae bloom that is currently in the river, I made a mental bet that fish should be in this area.  The weedy vegetation oxygenates the water which should attract fish.

As I pulled into the easternmost entrance I stopped at the first culvert to see if I could spot any activity.

I started casting my baby bass patterned Chug Bug and immediately got some action.

A ladyfish hit the plug and danced all over the place until it finally shook off the hooks.

From that point on I was getting a hit, a follow up or a fish on almost every cast I made into the area. 

I caught several ladyfish and a large mud minnow that thought my bait was big enough for it to eat.  See the pics below.

 
Although cars were driving past me looking at the gators and waterfowl, no one was fishing the area.

I caught at least half a dozen ladyfish and missed at least three times that number in the area before I decided to move to another spot.

Where Gator Creek narrows and then opens up towards the culverts that join it to the Indian River, I started catching sea trout.  Big sea trout.

The first fish I hooked was over the slot and made a couple of jumps before shaking off the Chug Bug.  The next fish I landed was just under the slot.

I hooked, landed and released a total of five sea trout in this area and missed four more fish before moving up the road.

Just as Gator Creek opens up again towards the culvert, I spotted a huge wake that I thought was a redfish.  I flipped my Chug Bug in front of the wake and gave it a twitch.

Just as I started into the retrieve, the fish exploded on the plug.  It was a gator sea trout that  was at least 28" long.

The fish made a nice run and broke off as it got into the weeds near the opposite bank taking my favorite baby bass patterned Chug Bug with it.

The car that was driving by as I was fighting the fish stopped and the guy commented something about me missing the fish.  I wasn't too happy with myself for not landing the trout but that's why they call it FISHING not Catching.

I drove into Peacocks Pocket road and started blind casting with a paddle tail bait but only got a couple of ladyfish for my efforts.

I finally decided to fish the spot where I picked up a redfish yesterday and then head for home.

The young man that I spoke with yesterday passed me on the road and we spoke briefly about yesterday's fishing.  His name was Ashford and he was using the right baits for the area.

As I pulled up to the spot I wanted to fish, I saw several large fish out in the salt marsh pond blasting baitfish.

There were a couple of nice sized redfish and at least two gator trout out there but they were all out of casting range.

 






I fan casted the area and managed another couple of slot sized sea trout and a ladyfish.

I tried several long casts into the pond until my arm was about to give out.  I had one short strike from a decent sized fish but didn't get a hookup.

I got tired of casting and as the sun was starting to hit the horizon, decided to head for home.

I didn't expect to catch as many fish as I did today, especially around East Gator Creek but as I mentioned yesterday, the ladyfish are all over the Indian River so you might as well enjoy them.

Till next time, Tight Lines.