Tough Fishing On Bio Lab

Since it was raining and I hadn't had a chance to wet a line in awhile, I decided to scout out some areas and possibly snag a sea trout or two.

I got some gas and headed out to Shiloh Road off of US 1.

When I got to the first culvert, I noticed a KSC officer with binoculars checking something out so I continued to the barrier at the shallow kayak launch.,

Other than a lot of water birds in the area, I saw no sign of fish activity.  

Undaunted, I pulled on my Frog Toggs and started tossing a topwater Chug Bug around the shallow marsh.    It took me about 20 casts or so before I was convinced that no fish were in the area and moved on.

On the way out, the KSC vehicle was gone so I pulled out another rod with a Creme Spoiler Shad and tossed it around both sides of the road, again with no results.

The rain slacked up a bit so I headed to Patillo Creek Road to check it out.

There were two fishermen in kayaks fishing the mangrove shoreline and two other groups of fishermen dunking shrimp for black drum.  None of the bank fishermen had any luck and after tossing a Johnson Sprite, the Creme Shad, and an XPS topwater around several areas without a single follow up or hit; I decided to move on to greener pastures.

I drove up to the north barrier and fished the small pond and cove on both sides of the road with several lures and again, no luck.  

Another guy who was walking back to his car with a bucket of live shrimp told me he was also getting skunked.

I left Patillo and drove around the north bank of Haulover Canal to see how those guys were doing. 

There were plenty of people fishing from boats and from the bank but nobody seemed to be catching anything.  The rain had stopped and everybody seemed to be having a good time just enjoying the day.

I stopped along the bank to take a pic of some buzzards competing with a Blue Heron and tossed around a gold Johnson Sprite spoon for about a half an hour, but never got a hit.

I decided to give Bio Lab road a shot just for the hell of it before heading home so I pulled into the first culvert and spotted a medium size tarpon floating along the bank at the culvert.  

I took a couple of pics of the decaying fish and a buzzard trying to figure out how to get a meal from the fish before pushing on.

There were a few anglers fishing the banks on the Mosquito Lagoon side of the road for black drum and reds, but the two guys I spoke with said the bite today was dismal.  I agreed, wished them luck and kept on the road to a spot I usually am able to pick up a few snook.

As I was driving down the narrow unimproved one way road, I almost got run over by an EMS vehicle and a couple of KSC (Kennedy Space Center) patrol cars.  

I pulled over and took a video of the action wondering what was going on as three more KFC vehicles rushed down the road.

As I pulled into the spot I wanted to fish, two more KSC vehicles drove past me before I had a chance to park.

A couple who were crabbing at the culvert where I planned to fish were leaving so I asked them if they caught anything.  The guy said the fishing was horrible and the crabs weren't cooperating either.  

He also told me that the KSC officer who he spoke with said a boat had capsized and if I heard a whistle to call 911 and report where it was coming from.

I never heard a whistle and after tossing several artificial baits around several areas, never got a hit.

At this point I finally decided that I was skunked, so I packed all the rods into the back of the truck and headed home to get something to eat.

The launch scheduled for this morning was rescheduled for tomorrow at 10:00 am so I may give it another shot after the launch, if it goes up.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Patillo Creek Culvert Tarpon

It was a gloomy rainy Saturday afternoon, so I decided to wet a line at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

When I drove over the A. Max Brewer Bridge to the refuge and got to the first entrance, I was surprised to see that the roads to Gator Creek and Catfish Creek Loop were cordoned off.

I remembered that there was a SpaceX launch tomorrow, so I decided to drive over to Haulover Canal and check out some other spots.

When I got to the Haulover Bridge, there was a crowd of anglers on both sides of the canal and several boats anchored at both entrances to the canal fishing for oversize reds.

Since I hadn't been to Patillo Creek in a while, I decided to try it out.

I stopped briefly at the first set of culverts when I spotted something hitting on the surface and tossed around a small white Creme paddletail bait for a while.   

After several casts, I had a gar follow the bait and finally got a hookup with a juvenile tarpon of about 14" long.   

I shook off the fish at the bank and continued up to the next set of culverts in hopes of something larger.

When I got to the culverts, the water was really flowing strong and I saw a lot of activity on the surface.  

Tarpon of various sizes were everywhere so I parked the truck and took a couple of rods down to the culvert to fish.

The wind was blowing and there was a misty rain that continued throughout the time I was fishing.  I pulled on my Frogg Toggs and started casting a black backed Badonk-A-Donk smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

On the first cast a large tarpon of about 4 feet or more smashed the topwater bait and tailwalked for a couple of jumps before sending the bait back to me.

I was surprised that fish of that size was in the area so I set my camera on video and set it up on a nail in a board to record any future action.

I started casting the Badonk-A-Donk  around the culvert discharge and had two more hits with a brief hookup before the bite died down.

I switched to the white Creme Spoiler swim bait and started getting more hits.  

After a couple of brief hookups and a lot of "bumps" I switched lures to see if I could get into some larger fish.  

The juvenile tarpon were between 18 and 24 inches or so in length, but after losing a half dozen or so fish, I was getting frustrated.   I just couldn't land a tarpon today for some reason.

Anyway, I kept changing baits and getting hits but no hookups until the rain finally ceased.  When the ran stopped, so did the tarpon bite.

The only lure that was getting any hits was a MirrOlure Heavy Dine sinking bait that I picked up at Bass Pro in Mobile, Al.  I smeared up some Pro-Cure which seemed to help, but I still couldn't manage to land a fish.

I made enough fruitless casts so that my wrist was getting tired so I decided to move to another spot to see if anybody else was catching fish.

Around the bend, I bumped into Al Bookhard and his wife who were fishing the canal for black drum.  

When I asked about his catch, he bent my ear about catching nothing but catfish.  He said that he had caught a limit of black drum when the water was colder, but not much today.

I swapped numbers with him and since I was chilled and tired, headed to the hacienda for some grub.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Patillo Creek Tarpon

Patillo Creek is an area I like to fish when Peacocks Pocket Road is closed for the season and since the "Pocket Road" was closed this evening for repairs, Patillo Creek is where I headed.

I didn't get home from work this afternoon until around 6:30 pm, so I didn't have much time to fish.

I intended to hit Peacocks Pocket road but when I saw that the barriers were up, I headed towards the Boy Scouts camping area to try out that area.

Except for one other truck, the camping area was uninhabited. I drove through some deep puddles to a turn around and started pitching a Chug Bug and a newly purchased Strike King "Sexy Dawg" topwater bait.

I got to practice my "walk to dog" technique but only wasted a lot of time at the spot.  There was no topwater action in the area that I could see, so I packed up the rods and headed over to Patillo Creek Road.

When I drove up to the culverts at Patillo Creek road, I immediately noticed that they were open and dumping water into the large marsh pond.  A perfect scenario for "catching" instead of just fishing.

I turned on the sports cam to hopefully pickup some of the action, if there was any, and recorded the videos below.

I fished the area thoroughly with topwater baits, a ZMann jerk bait and a Johnsons Sprite gold spoon with some success.

Juvenile Tarpon

When I started casting topwater baits, it was apparent that the fish were chasing baitfish just under the surface.

I missed several fish on a topwater Chug Bug and on the ZMann jerkbait before finally connecting with a small Tarpon.

There were several other juvenile Tarpon in the area, along with several nice redfish and small sea trout.

I was targeting the Tarpon with the Chug Bug and missed three fish that hit the bait but didn't get hooked, so I changed over to the jerkbait smeared up with Pro-Cure.

Finally the small Tarpon above gobbled up the bait and danced around the shallow pond before I could land it and unceremoniously release the fish.

Although the fish was only the size of a slot redfish, it put up a decent fight.  Too bad it wasn't one of the big ones in the area.

I continued fishing with the jerkbait and missed a couple more fish before changing back to the Chug Bug.

Juvenile Snook

As I was casting to another rolling Tarpon, I got a hit from what I thought was a small sea trout.

I quickly noticed that it was a very small Snook.  In fact it had to be the smallest Snook I ever caught in this area.

Anyway, I took a couple of pics before putting the fish back to grow up.

A thunderstorm was coming in fast and the fish were getting more and more active, but when a lightning strike hit too close to me I decided it was time to head for home.

By the time I settled into the truck, the rain was coming down in buckets with no sigh of letting up.

I was hoping it would stop, but no such luck.

I drove up to the dead end turnaround at the end of Patillo Creek and left the area towards home.

When I got to the house, it was dark and still raining but I considered the outing a success.

I managed to get several hits from Tarpon and a redfish; caught a Tarpon, a Snook and a small sea trout and all in all had a good time.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Peacocks Pocket Road Closure

There was an unexpected Peacocks Pocket Road closure this afternoon that kind of bummed me out.

When I got home from work late this afternoon, I immediately packed some rods into the truck and headed to the river to get in some fishing. 

Unfortunately, Peacocks Pocket Road was closed for repairs.

I know those of you who fish the area are well aware of the deep potholes that pock mark the road and evidently the powers that be have decided to do some repairs. 

Personally, I like the potholes.  They serve as "speed bumps" that slow down some of the idiots that run through the area. 

In any event, the Peacocks Pocket Road closure along with the severe thunderstorm activity put a monkey wrench in my fishing plans.

Although it was raining "cats and dogs" I decided to try some other spots before it got too dark. 

I briefly stopped by the Boy Scouts camping grounds but I didn't get a chance to fish the area.  A large gator was in a puddle in the middle of the unimproved road and it would not move. 

I decided to let the gator have the puddle.  I turned around and headed for Patillo Creek Road.
 
As I headed out of the camping grounds, I spotted a couple of wild turkeys in the field that started coming towards my truck but then turned and headed the other direction.

The rain again started to come down in buckets, this time much harder than when I first left the house. 

By the time I slowly drove to the dead end of Patillo Creek, the storm caused the air temperature to drop into the low 70s.  Despite the bad weather, I decided to stop and wet a line.  

This area has always been relatively unproductive for me but since it was raining, I decided to toss a Chug Bug around the mangrove shoreline to see if I could stir up a sea trout or a Snook.

As I was casting the Chug Bug, I spotted several small Tarpon rolling on the surface at the junction of the creek and the shallow pond adjacent to it.  The fish were all about 3 to 4 feet in length and would have been a  lot of fun if I could have gotten a hookup.

I made numerous casts to the fish but none of the Tarpon showed any interest in the lure, so I moved down to fish another area where I sometimes see some nice sea trout.

The rain continued to come down harder and the lightning forced me to stay in the truck until it slowed down enough to fish.

My Frog Toggs saved the day with the rain, but was no defense to a lightning strike.

When it slowed down again I started casting across the canal to the opposite bank and after the fourth or fifth cast, a nice sea trout busted on the Chug Bug but didn't get hooked.

Several casts in the same area didn't get me another hit so when the rain started up again, I decided to head for the house.

I like fishing the fronts during rainstorms, but today I just wasn't in the mood to get hit by lightning.

Hopefully, I'll get another chance to fish tomorrow.

Till then, Tight Lines.