March Gator Trout Fishing

The Gator Trout fishing in our area is always good but during March and April, it becomes exceptional.

Although I haven't been able to get in as much time on the water as I would like, I try to wet a line every chance I get.   So, this afternoon I took Elmo and Odie for a ride around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to check out what the locals were catching.

As I entered East Gator Creek Road, the water level at the first culvert was almost zero.

 

The water in the marsh areas has been drawn down to mud in most areas, but management has apparently been raising the water levels.

Some areas that were mud flats on Monday of this week, now had over a foot of water.   I spotted a couple of redfish in one area of Catfish Creek that had absolutely no water on Monday.

For the most part, almost everyone I talked to today was catching stingrays, catfish, and some some small sea trout.   One guy caught a slot red in one of the ponds on a cut mullet, and another lady who fishes the refuge on a regular basis caught a nice 25 inch sea trout on a chunk of finger mullet in another pond.

I drove slowly around Catfish Creek Loop road with Elmo and Odie checking out the water for signs of fish activity.

We saw a lot of waterfowl looking for dinner like the Egret below, and I spotted two redfish in the marsh area where there was not water a couple of days ago.

I left the house with a spinning rod tipped with a DOA Bait Buster, so started pitching the bait to likely looking areas. 

At the third or fourth stop, I spotted a fish in the shallows chasing something and pushing some water so I pitched the Bait Buster ahead of the fish and started a slow retrieve.  The fish turned on the bait but didn't take it so I shot another cast a couple of yards farther up and repeated the slow retrieve.

As I jerked the bait, the fish busted on the bait and after a couple of "sloshy" runs, I picked up the fish below.

I unhooked the sea trout which was what I would call and "almost gator" and released the fish to fight another day.

 

On the way out of the refuge, I spotted one other fish pushing water in the shallows that I pitched the DOA to, but it wasn't interested in the bait.  So, after a few half hearted casts, I finally decided to call it a day and bring my "boys" home.

It would be nice if Peacocks Pocket Road was open for vehicle traffic, but until they get funding, who knows when???

I was going to take my kayak out for a trial run but I still haven't got around to buying a paddle.

I guarantee that the next time I get into town, I will have all the paraphernalia necessary to sneak up on some of the gator trout that inhabit this area.

Till next time, Tight Lines. 

Peacocks Pocket Road Closure

The numerous emails I received about the extended Peacocks Pocket Road closure prompted me to contact the management of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to find out why it was not opened as scheduled.

The reports I initially received from a couple of my readers stated that the road was closed due to the damage it received from hurricane Matthew last year and that they would not re-open Pocket Road until it was deemed to be "safe" again.

After unsuccessfully trying to contact someone in authority, I decided that walking Peacocks Pocket road for myself was the only way to accurately report how bad the damage really was.

I finally got around to walking the portion from the shallow water boat launch to the large pond where I stopped a couple of weeks before and found no significant damage to the road itself, however, I finally contacted Tom Penn, the assistant to Layne Hamilton (the Refuge Manager) and eventually to Layne herself about the dike road closures.

After a long conversation, she explained to me that although Pocket Road looks passable when walking the road, there are several areas where the road has been undermined and suffered erosion serious enough to cause a safety problem with vehicle traffic.

They are operating on a continuing resolution from congress from last years budget which was cut, and are expecting additional budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year.  In short, they have a serious funding problem.

When I asked about the closures of Bio Lab Road, Shiloh Road, etc.; I was told that funding was the main problem.

It takes money to keep the dike roads open for vehicle traffic, clear of litter, etc. and over the years, the Refuge has suffered from  budget cuts. 

When I first moved into this area my wife and I loved fishing Long Pond road, Shiloh Road, Pump House Road, Bio Lab Road, and several un-named roads around Haulover Canal.   Unfortunately, all of these roads have now been closed to vehicle traffic for fishermen.

With her permission, I am posting the email she sent me below concerning the problems they are having at at the Refuge with funding.

"John,
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me last week about  Peacock Pocket road closure.  Hope you've had a chance to do some fishing since I talked to you.

I thought you might be interested in a little background information on the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). 

The Refuge is one of over 560 national wildlife refuges in the country.  National Wildlife Refuges are part of the National Wildlife Refuge System which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).  The FWS is an agency within the U.S. Department of Interior.

Merritt Island NWR (~140,000 acres) is the headquarters for a 3-refuge complex consisting of Lake Woodruff NWR (21,574 acres, DeLeon Springs, FL) and St. Johns NWR (~6,300 acres, west of Titusville).  Lake Woodruff and Merritt Island NWRs are open to the public.  St. Johns NWR is closed to public entry.

Merritt Island NWR hosts over a million visitors each year.  The refuge is renowned for its fishing, waterfowl hunting and abundant wildlife.

Based on the draft 2016 Banking on Nature Report, Merritt Island NWR visitors contribute $76 million annually to the economy of local area (Brevard, Orange and Volusia counties).

Since 2005, the Merritt Island NWR Complex has lost 17.5 of 44 full-time permanent positions. 

We currently have 26 full-time permanent, one 1/2 time permanent position, and 4 temporary positions on the Complex. 

One third of the permanent staff (8.5) are in the Complex's wildland fire program (which is a zone program covering all FWS lands in the eastern Florida peninsula). 

The remaining staff work in visitor services (2), law enforcement (2), maintenance-facilities (2), maintenance-heavy equipment operation (2), biology (3), management (4), natural resource planning (1: regional responsibilities) and administration (2).

The National Wildlife Refuge System has experienced between -1% and -8.7% budget cuts over the past 6 years (since 2011).  We are currently preparing for budget reductions between -10% to -20% for the next two fiscal years (FY2017 and FY2018). 

Our fiscal year starts on October 1.  We are in FY2017 and are operating under a stop-gap Continuing Resolution (CR) budget until April 28, 2017.  Another CR or an appropriation bill will need to passed by Congress and signed by the President to prevent a government shut-down after that date. 

In reference to your concerns regarding the continued closure of Peacock Pocket Road, Merritt Island NWR suffered $28.5 million in damage from Hurricane Matthew on 10/7/2016. 

Approximately 45 of 140 miles of Refuge levees sustained damage that ranged from complete loss to minor washouts, impacting several of the refuge's public roads that are located on levees. 

Biolab Road lost approximately 5 miles of road bed.  Peacock Pocket Road suffered erosion and undercutting. Both of these public roads are closed indefinitely to vehicles, but are open to walking and biking. 

East Peacock Pocket Rd (to the boat ramp), Gator Creek and Catfish Creek loop are open to vehicles. 

Currently there is no funding to repair the hurricane damage. 

We are trying to "patch" Peacock Pocket and Biolab roads with material we will try to salvage from the washouts and any excess limerock or similar material we can find on the refuge.  We are also partnering with Brevard Career Source to obtain trained workers and equipment (at no cost to the refuge) to assist with the repair work on the levees related to Hurricane Matthew damage.

My primary concern is public safety and these roads will not be re-opened unless they are safe for public vehicles.

During our phone call, you asked me to outline the Federal budget process.  I'll do my best to simplify a complex process.  In case you need more information, I attached a detailed description of the federal budget process.

President - proposes budget

Congress (House and Senate) - develops own budget plan or "budget resolution"

Congress (House and Senate)- following adoption of a budget resolution, congress considers individual appropriation budgets for agencies.  They must take into account statutory deficit reduction legislation.

Congress (House and Senate) - must pass an appropriations bill and the President must sign it before the start of the fiscal year on October 1 or affected agencies and discretionary programs must shut down.  If an appropriations bill is not enacted, Congress must pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) and the President must sign it to provide stop-gap funding to the agencies.

Department of Interior (DOI) receives appropriations after the President signs the bill.  Funds are then distributed by the DOI to individual agencies according to funding levels outlined in the Congressional appropriations bill.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service distributes appropriations based on appropriations bill:

    National Wildlife Refuge System - funding is allocated, based on Congressional appropriations, to the following programs*:
        Wildlife and Habitat Management
        Refuge Visitor Services
        Refuge Law Enforcement
        Conservation Planning
        Refuge Operations
        Refuge Maintenance

(*Funding for wildfire suppression and prescribed burning operations on National Wildlife Refuges are distributed through the Department of Interior's Office of Wildland Fire.)

On March 23, from 4-7 pm, we will be hosting an open house at the refuge visitor center to inform the public about plans to replace the existing visitor center. Tom and I will be there and you are welcome to attend. Hopefully we can find some time to talk.

Please contact me if you have any questions.  I understand your concerns regarding the road closures and appreciate your input and comments.  I truly hope we can get the roads open soon! "

Layne L. Hamilton
Refuge Manager

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 2683
Titusville, FL 32781

321-861-2278
321-403-9213 (cell)
321-861-1276 (fax)

layne_hamilton@fws.gov 

For those of you who care about the road closures as much as my wife and I do, I suggest making a call or sending an email or a letter to your representative about the road closures and lack of funding for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Florida's 8th District Congressman is Bill Posey -  CLICK HERE
email

Florida's 6th District Congressman is Ron Desantis -  CLICK HERE
email

Other public officials.

Politicians love their cushy jobs and when enough of us raise our voices to our representatives, they usually pay attention.

Till something opens up again, Tight Lines.

Peacocks Pocket Road Closure

The Peacocks Pocket road closure was a total surprise for me this past weekend.

When I got back to town, the first thing Karen and I did was to take our two "best friends" for a scouting trip to see how the locals were doing with the redfish and sea trout.

When we got to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and saw that the barriers were up, I was not a happy camper.  We drove down towards Peacocks Pocket kayak launch hoping that the gate was open, but it too was chained and closed.

Since the weather was great, we decided to see if any of the other areas in the refuge were open to fishing and vehicle traffic.  We drove towards L Pond Road and as usual it too was chained, so we took a ride towards Haulover Canal and managed to check out most of the unimproved roads leading to the Indian River around Dummit Cove.

We found a couple of people fishing at the Boy Scout camping area but they weren't having any luck.

I pretty much resigned myself to a fishless afternoon, so Karen and I decided to head over to Bairs Cove boat launch.

When we got there, we were happy to see that a large group of sea manatees were in the cove playing around.  I stopped the truck and took a video of their antics before moving on to check out some other potential fishing areas.

We crossed Haulover Canal bridge and checked out the fishermen who were bank fishing on the side opposite the boat launch.  The three guys I spoke with were catching sting rays, catfish, and one had a redfish on which he lost at the bank.

I wished them all good luck and headed towards Patillo Creek and Shiloh Road to see if anybody was fishing that area.

We only saw three fishermen fishing and wading the flats south of the deeper canal and I didn't bother them to find out if they were fishing or catching.  Instead, we let the dogs out to do their "duty" while I cast a topwater XPS walk the dog bait to see if I could stir up a sea trout or two.

After thirty casts or so, I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to catch any fish this afternoon.

We drove up to Shiloh Road where again, another barrier was blocking vehicle traffic.

I took several pictures of the areas we scouted out and headed to the hacienda for dinner.

When I got home, I called the Fish and Wildlife people to see why the roads were blocked off to vehicle traffic.

The third lady I spoke with told me that Peacocks Pocket Road would be closed until May 15th. because of road repairs.   She said it could be opened earlier but that it was doubtful.

I asked her about the possibility of Shiloh Road and L. Pond Road being opened, and was told that both roads were closed indefinitely.  The funding was not available to repair the unimproved roads and is not likely to be available anytime in the near future.

She told me that both roads could be fished by hiking or biking, but vehicles were prohibited.

I politely thanked her for the information and hung up wondering what is being done with the revenues from our license fees.  With the national debt heading towards 20 trillion dollars and government waste in the billions, I wonder why nobody in our government can't scrape up enough money to fix a couple of great fishing access roads.

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.