Sharks In The Surf

Friday afternoon was a great day for a scouting trip, so when I finished working on the interior of our newly erected shed, I packed up a few rods and headed to the beach to see what happening.

I had been receiving mixed reports of bull whiting, pompano, and shark being caught at Playalinda Beach so that was my first stop, via Bio Lab road.

Bio Lab road was relatively void of bank fishermen but there was a lot of scenic traffic.

The temperature was in the 80s and there was a mild breeze blowing across the Mosquito Lagoon.  

The water in the shallows was dirty but looked clear at the dropoffs, but in the southernmost portion of the lagoon, brown algae was abundant.

The warm air temperatures had a plethora of alligators sunning along the banks in many areas.   I counted a baker's dozen as I drove along Bio Lab road to the beach and stopped to take a few pics.

As Bio Lab turned into two lanes, I decided to pull into an area where I caught some snook earlier in the month.

The water on the lagoon side of the culverts was dirty, but the tanin stained water on the right side of the unimproved road was clear.

This time of the year the baitfish are not yet in the lagoon system and crustaceans are the forage of choice for sea trout, drum, and snook, so I pulled out a D.O.A. Shrimp smeared with some Pro-Cure gel and started working it slowly along several areas on both sides of the culvert.

After a dozen or so casts without a single hit, I moved across the barrier to fish that area.  

My second cast to the mangrove roots produced a nice hit but no hookup and as I reeled in the shrimp bait I spied a 10 foot plus gator on the bank that I missed as I walked up to the area.

I took his pic and decided to head back to the car and hit the beach.

As I drove down the road to the beach, the amount of vehicle traffic was impressive for a Friday afternoon. 

The first parking lot was closed due to repairs, but from lot #2 to #10, every lot had parked cars.

It was almost 5:00 pm when I stopped at lot #8 to talk to an angler that was loading his gear up to leave.   

He didn't do too well with pompano but he cleaned up on some nice size whiting.  He was fishing along the closer troughs using sand fleas and small pieces of shrimp for bait.

I noticed he was using a short rod which is probably why he didn't score any pompano.  They are running out past the last sand bars and require long casts.

At Lot #9 another angler in a balloon tire equipped beach cart was loading up to leave.  He and his wife said they caught a bunch of bull whiting on shrimp and sand fleas but no pompano.

Another fisherman who was just leaving as I pulled in said the only thing he caught was a large Lemon Shark he estimated to weigh in at about 80 pounds.

He said the fish had him running up and down the beach screaming drag quite a while before he could finally land it.

I took some pics of the calm seas before moving up to lot #9 where only one fisherman said he caught a couple of  keeper pompano.

It was around 5:30 pm when I stopped to take a shot of the Space X pad before heading out of the area to get something for dinner.

Didn't too much good fishing this afternoon, but it really wasn't a fishing trip.

Might get out tomorrow,

Tight Lines.

Scouting Trip In The Refuge

I often recommend Playalinda Beach to my readers for it's surf fishing opportunities and relative isolation, particularly during the fall and winter months, but the other day when I took Elmo and Odie for a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the Canaveral National Seashore was a mass of humanity.

Not a good place for surf fishermen.

It was early afternoon when we left the house and I didn't really expect to catch any fish, but when I decided to take the "boys" for a ride around thee refuge, I took two rods along; just in case.  One had a Chug Bug and the other was tipped with a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon; my baits of choice.

We made the usual run into East Gator Creek road, past the entrance to Peacocks Pocket road, (which is still closed for repairs) and around Catfish Creek Loop road.

There were a lot of visitors in the refuge and a few fishermen, but most of the people fishing were not catching anything except catfish, stingrays, and a few small sea trout. 

I pitched the Chug Bug around a couple of places where I spotted topwater activity but only picked up a few ladyfish.

 I spotted a juvenile tarpon about 4 feet long rolling in the shallows of Catfish Creek, but it had lockjaw.

We left the area and went past the entrance to Black Point Drive towards Bio Lab road.

I wanted to check out the water conditions at the small boat launch so I drove into the area to see only one boat trailer parked there.

A small flats boat was coming in so I waited to ask the guys what they were catching.  The one guy said they caught a bunch of sea trout up to 25" and saw a few scattered redfish along the potholes.  They didn't spot any large schools of redfish and the water wasn't conducive to sight fishing.  The Mosquito Lagoon was crystal clear but it was windy and choppy.

As I turned around to leave the area, I decided to make a run down Bio Lab road.

At the entrance, to the right of the sign, I noticed that several people were crabbing in the shallows and were apparently doing pretty good.  The one couple had a cooler half full of decent size crabs.

I stopped at three places to pitch the Chug Bug towards some topwater action that I spotted and picked up a couple of ladyfish which I released.

 I switched to the spoon at the last spot and caught four nice size ladyfish around two feed long.  I harvested two of them that were bleeding from gill damage to use for cut bait and released the rest of them to fight another day.

All the way down Bio Lab road, we saw only two fishermen wading the shallows in the lagoon, and closer to Playalinda Beach road, there were a couple more people crabbing.

I briefly thought about driving down to check out the beach, but there was an unusual amount of vehicle traffic heading to the beach, so I headed towards the entrance at the guard shack.  Apparently the July 4th holiday had a lot of people taking off for the week.

As I passed the guard shack I could not believe the amount of traffic entering the Seashore.  There was a line of cars from the shack at the entrance, all the way back to the traffic light at the entrance.

I took a couple of pics and made a mental note to never surf fish on a weekend or holiday.

We left the area and since it was now late in the afternoon, I decided to make another quick run into East Gator Creek. 

I saw a lot of topwater activity and started pitching the Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.  I caught two more small ladyfish, missed a sea trout about 25" long twice before it quit eating, and spotted another tarpon about 3 feet long in the creek around the culvert that would not bite before leaving for the house.

All in all it was a productive scouting trip.  I may take out the kayak tomorrow if the wind isn't too bad.

Tight Lines.

A Rainy Day At Playalinda Beach

It was a rainy day at Playalinda Beach this afternoon but I just had to try some surf fishing.

From the reports I was getting from the locals and guides in the area, the surf fishing this year is top notch.

I loaded up a couple of 9 foot surf rods and stopped down at Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle to get some bait and an up to date fishing report.

The owner said `that the guys in the surf were catching whiting, bluefish, pompano and some Spanish mackerel, so I picked up a bag of fresh dead shrimp and another of cut mullet to dunk in the surf.

The weather was balmy, it was raining sporadically but the air temperature was in the low 70s.

I normally fish lots #9 thru #11 but I decided to stop at #4 to see what was happening.

The workers from the State who were attending to the walkway told me that the fish weren't biting today.  They said the seaweed was making the fishing a real pain and nobody was catching anything.

I filed the information and took a couple of pics of the beach to see what was going on.

The beach at lot #4 was almost deserted.  There was a family trying to get some sun through the clouds and a group of kids playing farther down the beach but nobody was fishing.

After looking at how the waves were breaking I decided to move on down beach and check out the other areas.

I stopped at lot #8 just as it started raining again.  Since it wasn't coming down very hard I decided to "rough it" and set up a rod or two.

There were two areas with an abundance of shells on the beach that looked "fishy" so I decided to start there.

The tide was coming in and the wind was at my back.  This created a rough surf and true to what the workers told me, there was some seaweed in the surf.

I baited up a homemade tandem rig with shrimp on the small circle hooks and clipped on a 3 oz. pyramid sinker.

Today I was after some whiting for dinner.  I've had enough turkey for this holiday season.

A long cast to the second trough hooked me up with a small whiting on the first cast.

The fish wasn't big but good enough for dinner so I flipped it into the cooler and put on two more shrimp.  Actually, I was peeling a shrimp and putting half on each of the two hook rig.

My second cast into the same area produced another whiting a little bigger than the first fish.

It started raining again and some nasty looking clouds were coming in fast but I thought it would pass by so I continued fishing the same trough.

I caught a total of six more whiting and a small bluefish in the area before the rain finally drove me to the car.  I didn't bring any rain gear along and it was starting to get chilly.

It was around 4:00 pm when I finally left lot #8 with my dinner.

All the time I was fishing the area, I only saw one couple walking down the beach and they weren't interested in fishing.

That is what I love about Playalinda Beach.  It is almost desolate during the week, and especially during the winter.

Although it was a rainy day at Playalinda Beach, it turned out to be a productive day fishing.

Maybe next time I'll pick up a pompano or two.

Tight Lines.

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