Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing Report for 3-14-2015

Got this Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing report from one of our avid kayak fishermen last week and just got around to posting it.

I haven't been able to get out as much as I'd like to lately for a number of reasons, but I plan on making up for lost time in a week or two.

Meanwhile, Craig Bates sent me this report along with the pic below.

Eat your heart out guys!

Hi John,

            We haven’t been out for a few weeks so we didn’t have much to report until yesterday. We went back to Ducks Roost to see if the fish were still there with the recent warming weather.

            The owner at the bait shop by the bridge said he hadn’t heard much but fish were still biting. We picked up a couple dozen shrimp to improve our karma.

            We left Orlando after 8 so we didn’t get on the water until about 10:00. Pretty late start considering the temps and the blue bird sky.

            When we got to the launch 3 yakkers were loading up to try the intercoastal as they had been out since the butt crack of dawn and struck out.

           

We launched and rowed down to Ducks Roost. 4 yakkers and a skiff were up in there. My thinking was to fish water that hadn’t been run over yet as we got a late start.

            We have a small spot that seems to always have a trout or two on it we wanted to get to.

A second skiff was coming around the corner so we hustled over to secure the spot.

           

The wind was coming in at the wrong angle so I just paddled and pointed Mary in

the right direction to make a few casts to the sweet spot.

            Sure enough on her second cast she dropped her Gander Pearl White 5” Swim Minnow on the trouts nose in about 12” of water.

            She did an excellent job of playing the fish as it tried to tangle her on everything possible. The hook was well placed and we got this monster into the net.

           

I have to say I have yet to catch a 28” gator. Mary now has 2 of them.

            She caught the one we showed you in Peackocks Pocket and now this monster.

Girl Friend has some serious skills! Yes sir, that is some trout envy on my part!

            She caught another nice slot trout on the shrimp. Me? Nothing! The temperature was becoming uncomfortable so we paddled back.

           

We didn’t get any reds this trip so we are thinking they have moved out of the basin with the warmer temperatures.

            Weather permitting we may go up to Patillo next weekend and try our luck.

            Hope you had a good weekend too.

            Keep Yer Tip Up!

Craig Bates

I was planning to take my boat out this weekend and as luck would have it my 1500 Silverado Hybrid went on the fritz.  

The computer went out on the truck on I-95 at the St. Augustine exit and I lost the brakes along with the power steering.    I managed to baby the truck back to Titusville, but that put the kebosh on my fishing for this weekend until it gets repaired.

Maybe next week I'll get a shot at one of those gator sea trout that are hitting right now on the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Tarpon In The Marsh

As summer fishing conditions come upon us here in east central Florida, tarpon become the target of many Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishermen.

Early this afternoon after working around the house, my wife wanted to hit Subway for a couple of subs so we loaded Elmo and Odie into the truck along with a rod (just in case) and headed out to chow down with some late lunch.

We decided to make a quick run around Peacocks Pocket road and eat or subs on the way.

The air temperature was in the low 90s and there was a mild wind blowing over the river. 

About half way down the road it was evident that not many people were out fishing.  We didn't see the usual parade of Refuge visitors checking out the gators and waterfowl.

I stopped at a couple of places and got a couple of hits from sea trout but didn't land any fish.

As we pulled up past an area we call "Bobcat Bay", Ron, a fellow fisherman friend of mine, was putting out a couple of rods rigged with mud minnows.  I asked him how he was doing, and he told me he had caught something he never expected to catch in a pond up the road from where he was now fishing.

He proceeded to show me a fish scale the size of a quarter which was obviously from a tarpon.

He described the tarpon as being around four feet long, which was corroborated by the size of the fish scale he showed me.

As  we parted ways and left the refuge I told Karen we needed to go out later and catch some fish.

Around 4:30 pm I started packing up my rods and headed out to the refuge.

The air temperature dropped a bit but was still in the mid 80s and the wind had died down to a  mild breeze.

I spotted a couple of guys fishing in the middle of the Indian River.  One guy was wading and the other was in the boat. The guy wading caught something but I couldn't make out what it was.

 


I was fishing primarily with a white Creme Paddle Tail SwimBait and a gold
Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon.

I was getting hits in several spots with both baits and managed to catch four slot sized sea trout before the wind totally died down.

 
I had a couple of hits from redfish that I missed before finally hooking up with an oversize red on the gold Johnson Sprite spoon. 

The fish made a nice run up the marsh canal and then headed for the pond that it swam out from.  As it made a run around a grass island, it got caught up in an underwater stickup and broke free.

As it started getting dark I switched over to a blue back Chug Bug and missed two more sea trout before I hooked up with what was to be the last trout of the day.

The "super moon" was out and the bite was coming to a halt.  The mosquitoes were out in force as were the gnats, so I decided to give it up for the day.

Today, the sea trout and redfish bite was pretty decent until it started to get dark.

I didn't see any tarpon in the area I was fishing however, that could be because they prefer and are most active during the hottest time of the day.

All in all it was a productive fishing trip.  Five sea trout and a hookup with an oversize redfish in justy a few hours.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Fishing The Windy Days

Fishing the windy days is never easy, especially around a lot of brush and tight cover.

My usual fishing excursions to the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River have been cut short because of prior work commitments and the windy weather.  I don't like to continuously battle the wind to catch fish.

After coming home from work Friday evening, I drove around Peacocks Pocket road just to see if anyone was catching fish.

There were a few people driving around the road but mostly tourists enjoying the waterfowl.  I only saw two other fishermen, one in a kayak, and all they were catching was catfish.

 

Late Saturday afternoon I decided to give the bank fishing a try even though the wind was blowing quite a bit.

When I crossed the causeway bridge over the Indian River Lagoon at about 5:00 pm and saw the wind-board surfers skimming across the north side of the river, I knew it would be a tough afternoon fishing.

I had three rods with me tipped with a bass patterned Chug Bug, a Storm wildeye live sardine paddle tail bait and a "Gabbies" crab imitation.  I brought along a cast net but decided against using live bait today, mainly because I didn't care to waste time catching bait.

As it turned out, I probably should have cast for some finger mullet.

I tried several of my "honey holes" in the marsh side of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with only limited success.  I saw several sea trout and one cruising redfish but had no hits that I could feel.

I edged up to an area I call "snook point" and started fishing the paddle tail bait around some agitated finger mullet and finally hooked up to a small undersized sea trout.

I let let the fish go and tried for about half an hour to get something to hit my lures.

After the first sea trout hit, nothing was interested in that bait so I started casting the Chug Bug into the area.

When fishing the windy days you quickly realize how hard it is to make a lifelike presentation to the fish.  The topwater bait produced only one follow up and no hits, probably because it was skittering all over the surface.

Finally as it started towards dusk, the wind died down enough to make a half decent lure presentation.

I tossed the topwater bait to three cruising reds in the marsh canal but they had lockjaw.

Finally I decided to call it a day and head for some dinner.  The wind and rain had finally taken it's toll.

As I drove out of the refuge, I didn't bother to stop to fish some reds I saw cruising up the canal.  I figured they were pretty well spooked by now from all the people driving down the road.

On the way I spotted these guys out in the river fishing live bait.  It had been raining off and on during the afternoon, so these guys had to be "die hard" fishermen.

I took a few pics of some of the wildlife and a pretty rainbow over the space center and decided to finally call it a day.

As I passed the kayak launch I spotted a wild boar that I almost hit in the road.  As it was running down the trail I managed to get this quick shot off.  This pig was huge and was probably close to 300 pounds.

Hope you guys who are fishing the same area are doing better than I am.

Going to the gun show tomorrow so I probably will not be fishing, especially if it's windy.

Till next time, Tight Lines.