Herd of Manatees

Check out this herd of Manatees I discovered in the southern part of the Mosquito Lagoon.

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Didn't get many bites but sure got some giggles watching the manatees.

Click the pic above.

Till next time

Tight Lines.

Manatees On The Culverts

Went out to Bio Lab road to check out the fishing opportunities and saw a bunch of manatees on the culverts in the southern portion south of Pelican Island.

I took Elmo and Odie along with me to scout the areas and had a great time checking out the wildlife.  The little fishing I had an opportunity to try produced only one hit by what I believe was a small snook.

The fish hit a small Creme paddletail bait that I was tossing around the culverts as I was trying to "match the hatch" to the small glass minnows milling around the outlets.

We spotted several fishermen along Bio Lab wading the flats and dunking baits along the bank, but except for an Osprey that picked up a small redfish, nobody seemed to be catching anything except a bit of sunburn.

As we got closer to Playalinda Beach road, I had to stop for a couple of snakes in the road apparently trying to mate.  I took a short vid of one of them before moving on to the culverts I aimed to fish.

When we got to the culvert, the first thing I noticed were the manatees.  The second thing that caught my attention was a couple of very large alligators that were in the area.  

One was almost on the bank at the culvert checking out a snowy egret that was catching his meal of glass minnows.  I took a video of the scene along with the manatees.

There were 7 or 8 that I spotted in the area with several coming right up to the culvert.  

I tossed a few lures around but since I had the dogs with me, I didn't spend much time fishing.  They had to stay in the truck in the A/C because of the gators.

After a while, I decided to hit the beach to see if anyone was fishing. 

I stopped at a couple of lots and although there were a lot of beach goers getting tans, nobody was fishing.  The tide was out and you could see lots of seaweed edging the high tide margins, which could have been the explanation.

After taking a few pics at both lots, I decided to head home with the boys.

On the way out I spotted a huge soft shelled turtle along the road that apparently didn't like his pic taken. 

 I did it anyway.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Juvenile Tarpon Fishing

This afternoon seemed like a good time to do some juvenile tarpon fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The air temperature was in the low 90s and there was enough of a breeze to make fishing in the heat enjoyable.

I decided on riding down Bio Lab road and was genuinely surprised to find nobody fishing along the banks or in the lagoon.

The water looked clearer about 100 yards from the shoreline but in general the water closer to shore was devoid of sea grasses.

I stopped to pitch a paddletail bait on two occasions with no luck and wound up fishing the mangrove roots in the southernmost portion of the lagoon near Pelican Island.

A lone fisherman had launched his canoe and was fishing the area so I started pitching a Creme paddletail bait around several shallow areas where fish were busting glass minnows along the bank.

I hooked and shook off a large garfish that chewed up my bait so much I had to replace it.

After tying on a new lure, I moved to a shallow pond that had a lot of activity.

Immediately I started hooking up with  juvenile tarpon.  The fish were in the two to four foot category and were hitting my bait right on the bank.

I was using light 8 pound test fluorocarbon line and since I wasn't planning to keep any fish, I played them to the bank where I shook them off if they didn't already toss my bait.  

Most of the fish tossed my soft plastic lure back to me after the second or third jump but I managed to take a selfie of this one before returning it.

I spent almost two hours hooking and fighting juvenile tarpon in the area before a large manatee invaded the area and killed the bite.

 

Click on the pic to see the video

I decided to walk the unimproved road that runs along the lagoon and spent a lot  of time fan casting the areas I could access.  

I got one hit that I missed and spooked two nice size redfish that were right tight on the bank.  

After I had enough exercise, I turned around and headed to the air conditioning of my truck.

On the way out towards Playalinda beach road, I decided to hit a few parking lots to see if anybody was surf fishing.

The tide was out and at every lot I stopped at, sun worshippers were on the sand getting baked but I didn't see one surf angler.

Hope to get out again tomorrow to wet a line when I finish up around the hours.

Tight Lines.

Bio Lab Snook

I was planning to hit the beach this morning, but around 9:00 am, a Space X launch rumbled the house so I thought that it would be closed.

After mowing the lawn this morning and taking care of some chores, my wife asked me if I wanted to grab some fast food and take the boys for a ride in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge if it was open.

I was hungry and readily agreed; so we packed up Elmo and Odie and headed to Arby's for some grub.

With a bag of food in hand we headed for the closest spot where we could eat, which was Gator Creek.  

Gator creek was cordoned off, apparently because of work they were doing on the culverts, but East Gator Creek was open.  

We took the turn and were stopped briefly by a couple of guys who were pulling out their Gheenoe.  

When I asked if they had caught anything, the guy said they were fly fishing and caught no fish.  They told me that they spotted several black drum and a lone redfish but all the fish had lockjaw.

I wished them well and suggested that next time they should try the other side of the road where there were some nice sea trout, tarpon, and reds.

After we left them, we pulled over to enjoy our sandwiches and decided to head over to Bio Lab Road.

As we pulled into Bio Lab Road, I was surprised at how flat the water was on the Mosquito Lagoon and how many bank fishermen were along the road.

Karen said that it was probably because of the Christmas Holiday and I agreed.

We saw one little girl reeling in a small puppy drum and talked to several other bank fishermen who were using shrimp for bait that caught at least a couple of keeper drum.

I decided to head to the flats at Whale Tail to see if anyone was in that area.

We got to an area where I caught some snook a few weeks ago and although there were a couple of guys fishing with live bait in the area, decided to toss a topwater bait.  They weren't catching anything and warned us about a large alligator that was along the bank.

Karen immediately went after Odie and Elmo and put them in the truck to make sure they didn't become dinner for the gator.

I chose a rod that had a Badonk A Donk on and started casting along the mangrove roots.

On my first cast  I missed a fish that hit the bait as I was pulling it out of the water for another cast.

Several casts later I had a nice hit from a slot size snook and after a decent fight took a pic and released the fish.

I continued fishing and after 5 or 6 more casts into another area, got another hookup with a smaller snook that I also released.  

Karen took the pic below of the fish before I returned it.

I caught and released two more snook before a guy in a Kayak came into the area and put down the bite.

He was casting what looked like a white swimbait but he didn't seem to be having any luck.  Anyway, the fish stopped hitting my topwater bait so I took a couple of pics of the area before packing it in.

We left Bio Lab Road and exited via Playalinda Beach road to head back home.

Karen was getting tired and I was ready to call it a day.

Might get out tomorrow to hit the beach or try for some more snook.

Till next time,

Tight Lines. 

Labor Day Scouting Trip

This afternoon's fishing excursion was actually a Labor Day scouting trip.

Karen and I didn't have anything planned today and since she wanted to spend some time with her horse,  I decided to pack up some rods and head out to see what was happening in our area.

When I finally decided to leave the house, it was around 5:30 pm and the air temperature was 93 degrees.  The weather was perfect for sunbathing or laying around the pool but not very conducive to fishing.

I decided to head over to Playalinda Beach to see if anybody was doing any good surf fishing.  I expected the parking lots to be crowded and most of them were, but compared to other area beaches, Playalinda was not as packed as I expected.

  
Unfortunately because the tide was out, not many people were actually surf fishing and the ones that were did not seem to be catching much.

I stopped at four parking lots and took some pics at each of them before driving through Eddy Creek.

Other than a couple of kayakers out in the Mosquito Lagoon, no one was fishing from the pier or wade fishing the area.

I again took some pics and decided to make a quick run down Bio Lab Road.

Bio Lab Road can be accessed from the beach road, so I took a right and drove parallel to the abundant grass flats adjacent to the Whale Tail.

I was really surprised to see that nobody was fishing the grass flats.  Unbelieveably, I did not see one single flats boat in the Mosquito Lagoon this afternoon.

As I drove down Bio Lab road, I stopped several times to toss a Chug Bug and a ZMann paddle tail bait into some areas I hoped held Snook.  Since today was opening day, I was hoping for a Snook.

Unfortunately, I caught a lot of Ladyfish (which were a blast) but no Snook. 

The shorline of the Mosquito Lagoon along Bio Lab road was packed with grass in most areas which
made wading out  a real pain.

  

I tossed the topwater Chug Bug around in a couple of areas and picked up a couple of trout, but I never saw a redfish or a Snook.

Since I was in the vicinity, I decided to drive past Haulover Canal and check out the Patillo Creek area.

As I crossed the Haulover Bridge I slowed down and took a couple of quick pics of the canal and again was surprised that no boats were anchored at the eastern mouth of the canal entrance.

Usually the deep hole is covered up with black drum fishermen dunking live blue crab.

I entered Patillo Creek road and drove around the area and saw only one fisherman in a kayak at the turnaround.

I stopped to cast the Chug Bug, a paddle tail bait and a gold spoon but except for another small Ladyfish on the Chug Bug, had no takers on any of the other baits.

It was getting late so I decided to take a quick run around Peacocks Pocket Road from the eastern entrance.  The water on the river and in the marsh area was virtually flat, and very little wind was blowing. 

I stopped at several spots to cast lures into likely looking areas and landed three sea trout on the Chug Bug, all about the size as the one below.

 

All the time I was traveling through Peacocks Pocket road, I never saw a redfish.  Since it was late in the afternoon, I suspect it was because of Labor Day traffic earlier in the day, assuming there was any.

Anyway, when my wife called I was more than ready to call it a day.

Before I left the area I took some more pics of the sun going down.

Rather than load up this post with a bunch of photos, ,I compiled this video of my Labor Day scouting trip.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Fishing In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge can be extremely productive if you know what you're doing and have a little bit of luck on your side.

Jason Cooper, a fellow angler that I happened to run into this weekend in the refuge sent me some pics of his catches that he recently made so I thought I'd post them for your enjoyment.

This one was caught on 9/14/2013 in the north end of the Indian River on a large finger mullet.

The sea trout below was caught along Peacocks Pocket road on the marsh side last week.

This red was caught on a chunk of ladyfish last Friday.

The two reds below were caught off Bio Lab road in the Mosquito Lagoon on live mullet. 

This is one area I love to wade fish with top water plugs and weedless gold spoons.

The grass flats off Bio Lab road are pretty much under fished and are loaded with sea trout, redfish,  jacks, black drum and big sheepshead.  

 

And finally another Peacocks Pocket redfish caught on live bait in one of the  areas that I often fish.

Fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge can be an extremely "iffy" proposition, but if you have the patience and a little bit of luck,  you too can catch fish like these.

By the way, Jason and I both practice "catch and release".  Almost all of the fish pictured were oversize and all were released to fight another day.

Fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge can be productive throughout the entire year.

Thanks Jason and till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

Thunderstorm Sea Trout Action

Late Saturday afternoon seemed to be a good time to take advantage of some thunderstorm sea trout fishing.

Thunderstorms in the late afternoon seem to be the norm lately, and today was no different.

After I finished up with the chores around the house, I asked Karen if she wanted to take Elmo and Odie fishing with me.

It was still raining off and on and she didn't feel like getting muddy so I packed up some spinning rods and headed off to the "swamp" for some late afternoon sea trout fishing.

I was originally planning to take my Maverick flats boat out to the Mosquito Lagoon and fish the shallow flats around Pelican Island and the Whale Tail area but it was too late in the day to fool around with hooking up the trailer.

It was around 7:00 pm when I finally left the house and the rain was just beginning to let up.  The air temperature dropped just below the 80 degree mark and there was virtually no wind over the Indian River.

I decided to fish the area where I picked up a nice 31" gator trout that didn't get away last weekend so I passed up several other areas where I spotted some activity and headed directly to the general spot.

The grass along side of Peacocks Pocket road is chest high which makes for some tough fishing.  

When you hook a fish, the odds of landing it go way down because of the brush and the damn horse flies are blood thirsty.

If you do manage to evade these bloodsuckers, you still have the gnats, "no seeums", and the mosquitoes to contend with.

For some reason they all seem to be impervious to mosquito repellant.

Anyway, all the negatives create some positives.  I was virtually the only fisherman in the area.

I started out fishing a Johnson weeldess silver spoon on an 8# medium action spinning rig and promptly hooked up with a couple of ladyfish and a small sea trout.

I decided to change over to a larger size Johnson Sprite gold spoon smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

Several blind casts into the glass like water rewarded me with a follow up from what looked like a slot size redfish.  The fish veered off at the last minute and never gave me a second chance.

It was getting darker and the surface activity started to ramp up so I decided to try a Silver and Lime Green Chug Bug.

I smeared on some Pro-Cure and started casting around some weedy islands and hooked a couple of beautifully colored slot size sea trout.

 
Both fish gave me a decent fight before I managed to land and release them.

As dusk neared and I was bringing in my Chug Bug, another huge gator sea trout blasted the lure just as it was chugging over a drop off.

The fish missed the first time it hit and got foul hooked in it's side a split second later as it swirled back onto  the bait.

As I was trying to find a spot to land the fish away from the heavy brush that lined the bank, the big sea trout straightened out the treble hook and got off. 

I knew the gator trout I caught last week wasn't the only big one in the area.

I lost several sea trout in this same general spot that looked to be the same size or larger, and today's hookup only substantiated my theory.

The fish come into the "swamp" area via open culverts, become somewhat land locked and with all the forage in the area,  they quickly grow to trophy size.

Anyway, I made several more blind casts just at dusk and missed another smaller fish that hit short before I decided I had enough of the bugs.

I took a couple of pics of the sunset and headed for home.

As I left the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge I had to stop briefly to let an 8 foot gator cross the road and again to watch a bobcat prance across the road as I was leaving Peacocks Pocket.

Hope to get out again tomorrow..

 Till then, Tight Lines.

Skunked!

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing is starting to pick up again if you get out early enough to take advantage of the bite.

As the weather starts to warm up and the bait fish start to invade the lagoons, the top water action for sea trout especially starts to get really good.

Unfortunately, this weekend I didn't get the opportunity to take advantage of the topwater action.  I had to spend some time working around the house fixing things and redoing our Koi pond.

Friday evening, after the long drive home from work, my wife and I took our two "best friends" for a quick scouting trip around Peacocks Pocket road. 

Elmo and Odie were in the truck even before we had a chance to load up the rods and bait.

There were a few fishermen dunking cut baits and live finger mullet hoping for a redfish catch, but none of the people we spoke with were catching anything.

Karen wanted to try one of her "secret" spots, so we spent time dunking baits along with everyone else for an hour or so.

On the way to her spot we saw several cars pulled over to the side of the road.  At first we thought the people were watching an alligator but instead they were all watching a huge wild boar in the swamp.

I managed to get this shot as it moved away from the crowd.

She was using her Cajun Thunder Oval Float with a jumbo frozen shrimp and I was tossing around some lures.

The wind was up just enough to make topwater fishing a problem so I spent most of my time tossing a gold gold Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon and a Bagley paddle tail bait.

I got a couple of hits on the spoon but never got a hookup, and the paddle tail bait turned out to be a complete waste of time.

Karen missed the first fish that was probably a red, and finally hooked up with a large stingray in the marsh canal.

 

The red hit the Cajun Thunder rig and started down the marsh canal like a freight train but as soon as the fish felt resistance, it dropped the bait.  Karen wasn't paying attention but at least she didn't get skunked.

I on the other hand, got skunked!

On Saturday I had good intentions to wet a line but I would up repairing some wood work around the house.  By the time I was finished, fishing was the last thing on my mind.

Sunday was a clone of Saturday.  No fishing.

Made a mental note to take the Maverick flats boat next weekend to fish Tiger Shoals on the Mosquito Lagoon.  

A friend of mine who fishes the area a lot said the reds that were in the area were hitting well.

Live shrimp and cut baits seem to be the best baits right now.

Till next time, Tight lines.

Wading The Indian River

Wading the Indian River is one of the best ways to catch fish almost any time of the year and this afternoon was no exception.

I didn't bother fishing today until I mowed the lawn and took care of some things around the house,  By then, it was almost 4:00 pm but I decided to take a ride around Catfish Creek loop to see if anything was happening anyway.

I packed up a few rods and netted four or five mud minnows before heading to Catfish Creek.

I stopped at a small pond before the turn and picked up a small sea trout on a gold hammered spoon but no redfish, so I drove on to the road closure where I found Byron bank fishing.

I didn't want to infringe on his area so after asking him how he was doing, I moved down the road.

Byron was fishing shrimp and hadn't had any bites all the time he was in the area.

A few yards down the road was another regular who I briefly spoke with and he said he also didn't have any luck.  He was fishing shrimp and live finger mullet.

Opposite where he was fishing, I noticed four fishermen wading in the river blind casting artificial lures and wondered if they were having any better luck than the guys fishing the bank.

I moved on down the road and stopped to fish a swirl I spotted in the marsh.  After several casts with the spoon without a hook up, I put my rod back into the truck and started to move again.

As I was starting the truck I saw the guys who were wading the river walking down the road with their catch followed by two cars.

I asked them their names and what they used to catch the fish on.

Nick and Andrew said they caught the fish on 1/4 oz. and 1/2 oz. gold Johnson Sprite spoons.

I asked them if they minded me taking their pics and posting them on this site and they readily agreed.

Here are some of the pics of their catch that I took.

 

I moved on down Catfish Creek loop and pitched out a couple of mud minnows on my casting rods and started casting my gold Johnson Sprite.

Fishing from the bank severely limits your opportunities even with live bait, but I didn't  feel like getting wet, especially heading towards dusk with the temperature dropping .

As I was fishing another pair of fishermen donned in waders stopped to fish and asked me if I had any luck.

I briefly exchanged information about the other waders and they promptly started fishing the shallows in the Indian River.

Another couple of guys were in a canoe doing the same but they didn't seem to be having any luck.

It was heading towards 5:00 pm and since nothing was happening, I decided to pack it in and head for home.

Wading the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon shallows is an extremely productive way to fish, even from a flats boat.

I have seen a lot of fishermen  putting down their Power Pole and wading an area for sea trout or reds, especially during the summer.

Wading and fishing from a low profile platform gives you the ability to see the fish before they see you and spook.

The pictures of Nick and Andrew's fish caught today wading the Indian River are "proof of the pudding".  Way to go guys!

Till next time,  Tight Lines.

Sea Trout Fishing In June

Sea trout fishing in June can still be rewarding if you remember to fish early and late.

On both the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon the fish bite will begin to subside as summer temperatures take over.

My wife and I didn't bother getting out Saturday until later in the afternoon.

We decided to start fishing the Catfish Creek area to see if the fishing pressure was affecting the areas that we sometimes frequent.

We packed up Elmo and seven rods all tipped with different types of artificial baits.

Karen decided to start using artificial baits since her recent good fortune the past couple of days but still brought along some frozen shrimp, "just in case".

The air temperature was in the low 90s when we left the house and there was a slight wind over the Indian River, but as we entered Gator Creek road, the temperature dropped into the mid 80s.

We scouted several areas and fished a couple of culverts with only limited success.

Karen had a couple of hits using a Fire Tiger  Berkley PowerBait Swim Shad Swimbaits - 4'' - 5 8 oz. - 3 pack - Bunker - Softbait and I briefly hooked two sea trout and missed at least three others using a Fire Tiger pattern Creme Lures Spoiler Shad Swimbaits - Killer Shad - 2" - Softbait around the same culvert.

We made our way around Catfish Creek loop and as the sun was setting, had the area virtually to ourselves.

We saw only two other vehicles all the time we fished the area.

As the wind died down, fishing became more difficult.  The fish were spooky and would follow the baits without striking.

I missed a couple of trout in the salt marsh shallows and spooked a nice sized redfish in the same area.

Karen missed a couple of trout before hooking up with this one that hit right on the bank.


The fish was in the slot but we were just fishing for fun so Karen released it after having it's picture taken.

The sunset was gorgeous and the full moon left the area well lit up.  If it wasn't for the mosquitoes that were treating us as if we were a smorgasbord, I would have loved to take the boat out and do some night fishing.



Anyway, we spotted several more redfish chasing mullet in the shallows but they weren't having anything to do with our lures or the frozen shrimp that Karen was using.

She had one nice fish eat a shrimp on the river side, but missed a hookup.

After a while we both got fed up with the mosquitoes and decided to call it a day.

As I said, sea trout fishing in June can be rewarding if you fish early and late and this evening was typical.  The fish never really started feeding aggressively until the sun began to drop to the horizon.

 

I'll never get tired of fishing this area, even when I don't catch a fish.

Till next time, Tight Lines!