Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Is Closed Again

The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is closed again for whatever reason.

I finally got a chance to get out of the house and do some fishing this afternoon and when I got to Gator Creek road was faced with a barrier.

East Gator Creek Road and Peacocks Pocket road were also closed so I continued to the Canaveral

National Seashore to see if it was open for visitors.

When I drove up to the guard shack and inquired about the closure, the ranger on duty said they had a burn in the area which is why he thought the area was barriered off.

I asked him if he had any fishing reports on beach fishing and was told that lots #10 and #11 were "hot" and the surf fishermen were catching nice size whiting and pompano on sand fleas and peeled shrimp.

As luck would have it, I didn't have a surf rod with me.

I packed three spinning rods and my 9 weight fly rod with some gotchas and poppers.

I asked him if Bio Lab road was open and he said he had taken down the barrier earlier in the morning.

I decided to drive down to the beach and check out the lots and then drive through Bio Lab road to fish the Mosquito Lagoon around the Whale Tail flats.

I stopped at lot #2 where there some vehicles and took a few pics of the deserted beach. 

A lone fisherman was dunking shrimp and wasn't catching anything so I moved on.


The lots were all virtually empty this afternoon.  It could have been because of the bad weather or just lack of interest.

Anyway, except for a couple of guys at the Eddy Creek fishing pier and some folks at lot #9, the area was empty.

I entered Bio Lab road from the beach road and stopped at the closed flats where I could wade out and fish the potholes.

I fished with a gold spoon and a jerk bait and only had one light hit on the plastic.

The wind started whipping up when I was out about a hundred yards or so and the waves started getting higher, so I made my way back to the truck and tried to warm up a bit.

A couple of other guys were fishing the area with no luck, and there was a lot of vehicle traffic on the road checking out the scenery.  I thought this was unusual for Bio Lab, anyway the wind got stronger so I made a quick run around the Boy Scout camping area and headed for home.

When I got close to Titusville, I decided to make one last stop in an area where I sometimes jump small Tarpon.

I pulled up and took a spinning rod with a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon and slowly waded out into the shallows.

Several fish were rolling on the surface so I started casting in front of  them to see if I could scrounge up a bite.

I had a tap from an unknown fish and two casts later a hookup with a two foot ladyfish.  The fish nailed the spoon and put up a dazzling fight jumping all over the place.

I landed and released the nice fish and continued casting.

I missed two more ladyfish before landing another that was over two feet long.

Several casts later got me a brief hookup with one of the rolling Tarpon.  The fish hit the spoon and made one jump that sent the spoon back at me.

I continued casting for another half hour or so and never got another hit so I waded back to the truck and headed for the house.

Hopefully the refuge will open soon.

Till next time, Tight Lines.