Late Afternoon Scouting Outing

After finishing up the chores my wife had for me today, I decided to take Elmo and Odie on a late afternoon scouting outing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

I didn't plan on fishing but I took a couple of spinning rods along just in case something wanted to jump into the truck.

It was around 6:00 pm when we pulled into the entrance to East Gator Creek and there was absolutely nobody in the area.

The air temperature was in the high 80s but there was no wind blowing and the water in the shallow flat was pretty much flat.  

I drove at barely an idle to see if anything was hitting the surface and spotted a few tails in the shallow mud flats on the right side of the road just past the culvert.

I tried to get a video of the action but by the time I could focus on a tail, they were gone.  I did manage some good pics of the sunset.

After several failed attempts to get a shot at the reds tailing, I moved up the road to fish the east side of the road.  The drop off at the far canal.is usually good for a fish or two if you can make a long cast so I gave it a few casts to see if anything was interested.

After several casts, a medium sized ladyfish nailed the white XPS Slim Dog topwater bait I was tossing and made several jumps before I could shake the fish off at the bank.  

When I don't plan on keeping the fish for bait, I usually just flip them off at the bank to reduce the mortality rate.

I had two more strikes and one more hookup before Elmo and Odie started getting into trouble.

Elmo is almost blind and pretty much can't hear anything so it makes keeping track of him a full time job.

Odie is pretty cool, he just follows me around waiting for a fish to check out.

Anyway, I loaded them back into the truck and drove slowly past Catfish Creek loop entrance to check out the area.

I spotted three groups of fishermen along the bank of the Indian River who were dunking finger mullet and dead shrimp.  

One guy had a nice slot redfish but nobody else seemed to be having much luck.

I took several pics of the beautiful sunset before heading back home and picking up a Lil Ceaser's pizza.

Once a month or so I go off my diet and share a pizza with my wife.  

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road seemed like a good idea this afternoon when I finally decided to get in some much needed fishing time.

Since there was only about an hour of daylight left before the sunset, I only packed one rod before leaving the house, and that one happened to be tipped with a Johnsons Sprite gold spoon.

The weather this afternoon was chilly but perfect for fishing.  The air temperature was in the 60s and there was almost no wind blowing across the water.

The sunlight was not hampered by any cloud cover and there were a lot of other visitors in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge taking pictures of the wildlife and trying to catch fish.

I pulled up to the wire rope barrier that crossed the unimproved road to Peacocks Pocket and parked my truck.

I put on my Frog Togs "hoodie" and pocketed a couple of spare lures just in case the gold spoon I was using got broken off or hung on an underwater stickup.

The first culvert at the barrier was open and since there was a strong flow of water, I decided to try a couple of casts.

On my third cast a small redfish nailed the spoon but did not get hooked.  I saw the brief flash of bronze color as the fish hit the lure and the wake as it left the shallow area.

Undaunted, I continued fan casting and after a few more casts hooked up with this sea trout.

 The fish grabbed the gold spoon about three feet away from the culvert and took off like a shot.

After landing the fish and taking a pic it was released to fight another day.

The commotion apparently put down the fish so I started walking up the road and making random casts into the marsh canal.

In the short time available to me, I managed to release two more sea trout about the same size as the first one I landed and missed another larger redfish that for some reason did not get hooked.

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road proved to be great mental therapy.  There was nobody around except for a couple of alligators, some "puddle ducks" and a Kingfisher that kept raising hell with me for some unknown reason.

As the sunset arrived, I took a few pics of the beautiful scenery and started walking back to the truck
. 

As I drove out of the refuge, I decided to stop by the fishing piers to see how well the sport shrimpers were doing.

As I drove into a parking spot the band was playing and there were a lot of people on both fishing piers.  Some were fishing, others were shrimping and many people were just walking around like myself, looking.

I didn't spend much time talking to everybody but the no one seemed to be bragging about a full bucket.   A couple of the guys said the shrimp were big (meaning jumbos) but there weren't many of them. 

After surveying several buckets and walking around for awhile, I wholeheartedly agreed with them.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Indian River Marsh Redfish

An often overlooked fishing area in the Northern Indian River Lagoon system, is the marsh canals adjacent to the main body of the river.

These areas provide some great fishing, especially when the culverts are open and water is flowing.

The running water signals a "dinner bell" to redfish, trout, snook, and lately small tarpon that cruise the banks.

My wife and I call it "jump fishing", and it produces phenomenally at times.

Shiloh Road, and others in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, provide some great "jump" fishing opportunities that are often missed by landlocked anglers.

The pics here are poof that slot sized, and over sized redfish, occupy the marsh side of the roads, as well as the Indian River shallows.

This one was right at the slot limit, and was caught on a Johnson gold spoon at dusk. A slow retrieve got the most strikes with reds and trout.

Since it was so late, and I didn't feel like cleaning the fish for dinner, this one will live to fight another day!

The water level in the river is up due to rains these past few weeks, and the trout and redfish are still hitting artificials with gusto. Prior to catching this redfish, we caught several trout and of course a catfish or two to fill out the short trip.

I've got two weeks worth of vacation time to spend finding the fish, and will report on other areas soon.

Till then, tight lines!