Topwater Fishing In The Salt Marsh

Got home from work late this afternoon and headed for the wildlife refuge to get in some late topwater fishing in the salt marsh for sea trout.

Although my wife thinks the area is "fished out", I still catch a lot of decent size trout and reds from the ponds and shallows of the Indian River.

Peacocks Pocket road was almost free of vehicle traffic when I got there and except for two other cars, I was the only person fishing the refuge.

The air temperature was in the low 80s and there was little to no wind blowing to cool things off.

Since time was a factor, I headed for a couple of ponds that I like to fish instead of fan casting the "ditches" like I usually do.

I started fishing a frog pattern Chug Bug at the first stop and promptly hooked and released three
nice sized ladyfish.

I love catching these "miniature Tarpon" on light tackle and topwater baits. 

They usually smash the hell out of the lures and then jump all over the place before giving up the fight.  

Like their bigger Tarpon cousins, you miss more than you catch.

Anyway, after the third ladyfish I was about to move on when I a nice fat 23" sea trout nailed the Chug Bug.

After a brief fight I hauled the fish up the bank and took this quick pic before releasing it.

I moved up the road and made a couple of casts to a redfish I spotted swimming up the marsh canal but the fish apparently had jockjaw.

My next spot was at a larger pond where several nice fish were hitting bait on the surface.

I spotted a couple of nice redfish and several sea trout in this spot so I started pitching the Chug Bug around the bait pods to see if I could stir up some action.

I was about to give it up and move on to another spot when I hooked up with another sea trout

about the same size as the one I caught earlier.

The fish put up a nice fight and almost broke off in the brush but I finally landed it, took it's pic and released it to grow up into a "gator".

Unfortunately that was to be the last fish of the evening.  It was getting dark and the bugs were getting nasty so I decided to head for home.

As I got into my truck the oriental gentleman I saw last week drove up and asked me about the fishing.

He said he was on vacation, fished all day and only caught one oversize redfish on a plastic jerk bait which he had to put back.

I told him what I caught and we parted ways.

Karen and I plan on driving down to Pompano Beach tomorrow to pick up some Koi food for our fish so I probably won't get out until Sunday, if then.

Till next time,  Tight Lines.

Going For The Gold

Going for the gold spoon this time of the year is just the ticket for redfish in the shallows of the salt marsh.

This morning after my wife waited for two and a half hours to vote, we took Elmo and Odie for a ride into the "swamp" to see if anyone was catching any fish.

We were surprised at the number of people who were fishing and sight seeing around Peacocks Pocket road and for good reason.

The roseate spoonbills were in the area and the alligators were out in force.  I counted 16 gators sunning on the banks or partially submerged and who knows how many were not visible.

  

  
We didn't have any fishing rods with us so I just took some pics of the wildlife.

    
Although we counted at least half a dozen fishermen in various areas, none seemed to be catching any fish.

There were three boaters close to shore on the Indian River side fishing the shallows, but they also didn't seem to be catching anything.

 
The weather was in the high 70s and there was barely a hint of a wind on the water.

We drove all the way through Peacocks Pocket road and went home to do some work around the house.  We planned on fishing later on in the afternoon.

Around 4:30 pm I decided to go back to the area and see if I could catch some redfish or sea trout.

Karen didn't feel like fishing so I packed up four spinning rods and headed for the "swamp".

When I got to the area the temperature had dropped to a pleasant 72 degrees and there was no wind.  The water was absolutely flat on the marsh side of the road and almost flat on the river side.

I started fishing with a paddle tail bait and missed a couple of small sea trout at my first two stops.

I decided to target redfish so I chose the rod tipped with a gold Johnson's spoon and started blind casting into the submerged grassy areas that I thought would hold fish.

For the next hour and a half I managed to hook up and land three redfish and five sea trout.

The reds measured in at 26", 29" and 31".  I missed two reds that hit the spoon but shook off the treble hook at the bank.

 

All the sea trout were under the slot except for one which just hit the 15" mark.

 

All the fish were released to fight another day, hopefully again with me and my wife.

The fish were all caught in the marsh areas at several of my favorite locations which shall remain nameless.

The 31" red was caught just off an area that my wife calls "snook point" in shallow water that was only about a foot deep.

When it nailed the gold Johnson's spoon, it headed back into the grass where I almost lost it.  It took some patience and steady pressure on the fish to pull it out of the submerged grass and eventually grip it onto the bank.

I was using a 7 1/2 foot graphite rod, 10# Cajun Red line and about 6 feet of 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader.  The Johnson's gold spoon was rigged with a small barrel swivel and split ring to enhance it's action.

Going for the gold spoon is something I do during the winter months. 

I have always been partial to using a Bagley's gold hammered spoon but the company no longer makes them.  The last one I had is in the mouth of a big redfish somewhere in the "swamp".

The last redfish I landed was the smallest and hit just off a grassy point in shallow water.

As I was fighting the fish, my wife called me and asked me to pick up a pizza on the way home.

Holding the phone with one hand while fighting the red with the other hand was tricky, but I still managed to land the fish.and take the pizza order.

As the gnats and mosquitoes started going for my jugular,  I decided to call it a day and head for Little Caesars Pizza.

I've learned from experience that going for the gold spoon during the winter months is a sure way to catch a red or a big sea trout in this area.

Till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

Indian River Salt Marsh Fishing

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing picks up for shoreline fishermen as the weather begins to cool down during the fall and winter months.

This evening after a 6 1/2 hour drive, I had just enough energy left to head out to one of my favorite spots on the northern Indian River Lagoon.

My wife had her "ditty bag" packed along with a small cooler full of dead finger mullet and large frozen shrimp for bait.

I loaded my rods into the truck along with Elmo our famous "wonder dog" and proceeded out to our spot.

On the way into the marsh area, we saw some swirls along the bank that looked to be redfish chasing some bait fish.

I pulled off the side of the unimproved trail and started pitching a gold Johnson spoon that I use to locate redfish and sea trout, while my wife pitched out a dead shrimp to something that was chasing bait in the salt marsh area several yards up the trail from where I was fishing.

About 30 casts later with no hits for either of us, we picked up our stuff and moved to the spot I was originally going to fish before darkness set in.

When I pulled up to the spot, the water was almost dead calm on the river side and the culvert was open pushing water and bait fish into the marsh area.

There were fish swirls on both sides of the road. Some were obviously catfish with a few redfish mixed in with them.

I cut a finger mullet in half and pitched it just outside of the current on the salt marsh side of the road with my Okuma bait runner setup and started casting with my spoon to the swirls on the other side of the road.

My wife stayed with her green Cajun Thunder dead shrimp and bobber rig.

I missed a small redfish on the spoon and my wife immediately caught a small catfish. I unhooked the cat and before I could continue with my fishing, she caught a good sized croaker.

I took a couple of pics of the croaker and started fishing with a top water plug. Even though the water was dead calm, you can sometimes pick up nice trout and occasionally redfish with long casts and slow retrieves.

After several casts with some halfhearted hits by small sea trout and a ladyfish that jumped all over the place before shaking off; I decided to give up the lures and concentrate on bait fishing.

I caught a cat on the cut mullet bait and recast to a different area. About the time I finished my cast, Karen hooked into what she thought was a small redfish.

After a short battle, it turned out to be a nice eating size black drum of about 25" or so.

The fish inhaled the dead shrimp Karen was using, so I cut the line as close to the hook as I could and let the fish go to grow up a bit more.

Occasionally, especially this time of the year, I'll eat black drum.

They have a taste similar to redfish and the same texture, when they are caught during cooler water periods.

But today was the black drum's lucky day.

The mosquitoes were eating us alive, Elmo was whimpering because of the mosquitoes and I didn't rally feel like cleaning fish after driving 6 1/2 hours.

So we called it a day and headed home.

My wife out fished me again!

Till next time, Tight Lines!