Windy Scouting Trip In The Refuge

After a week without wetting a line, my wife and I decided to take Odie for a scouting trip in the refuge.

The weather was great.  Air temps at around 72 degrees, sunny skies, and enough wind to make topwater bait fishing out of the question.

We drove around Bio Lab Road, Peacocks Pocket Road, Patillo Creek Road and finally around Haulover Canal wetting a line in a couple of areas without any success.

 Bio Lab road was one way only to Playalinda Beach road but since my last trip, the powers that be have taken down the signs and allowed two way traffic throughout.

Along Bio Lab, we saw several people fishing, but nobody seemed to be catching anything.  The water in the Mosquito Lagoon is very low and almost crystal clear throughout the southernmost section.

We drove into an area close to the beach road that holds juvenile tarpon and snook during the summer months, but after many casts around the area with a Storm Creme Spoiler Shad bait and a Chug Bug, it was apparent that the fish were not in the area.

Karen and I spotted a group of 8 manatees that were cruising the area and a gator that up along the bank that was extremely lethargic.

Karen thought that it was sick but it could have just been waiting for dinner.

The three groups who were fishing that area said they never even had a nibble, so I didn't feel too bad about being skunked.

We moved to Patillo Creek Road and found several groups of fishermen covering all the best bank fishing spots.  The people I spoke with also said that the bite was non existent.

From there we drove over to Peacocks Pocket Road to see if the refuge managers had opened it up.  A couple of years ago, they said the road would be open in the spring of 2023.  We're still waiting.,...

Anyway, several vehicles were parked around the shallow water boat launch and a few people were fishing the banks without any success.  The water around the boat launch was crystal clear, but after scanning the water for a while for signs of fish or baitfish activity, I didn't even bother to wet a line at any of the spots I used to fish but decided instead to head home

Despite the skunk, out scouting trip in the refuge was worth the price of the gas we burned.  The weather was beautiful and like just about everybody we spoke with; Me, Odie, Karen were glad to get out of the house and enjoy the day.

Till next time,

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.