Late Afternoon Sea Trout Action

After yesterday's scouting trip around the refuge, I decided to try and get in some sea trout action in the refuge.

I changed the water in the tropical fish tanks and took care of some business before deciding to get out and wet a line.

It was around 6:30 pm when I loaded up a few rods into the truck and head out to the nearest water.

The causeway was loaded with people celebrating Memorial Day and fishing along the banks.

I was going to try and fish Peacocks Pocket by the kayak launch but decided to try East Gator
Creek instead.  It was closer and would give me more time on the water.

The first culvert looked "fishy" but it was extremely shallow so I tied on a gold  1/8th oz. Johnson Silver Minnow, smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula and made of casts around the mangrove roots.

I had a hit but missed the fish so I moved on to another spot up the road.

The second area looked uninteresting but I stopped anyway and started casting the gold spoon across the shallow grass flats.  The water was tannin stained but clear and I spotted a couple big black drum along the deeper trough just at the bank.

After several casts I again missed a fish before finally connecting with a slot size sea trout.

I took a pic, released the fish , and continued casting.

I walked up the road blind casting across the shallow grass and managed to hook up with three more sea trout about the same size as the first one.

I released all the fish and moved up to another area where I landed a nice juvenile tarpon last year.

Unfortunately, no tarpon today.  I switched to a topwater Chug Bug and started casting into the flat waters hoping for a larger sea trout.

I had a couple of followups but no hookups except for a very large gator that kept following my Chug Bug, so I switched rods and started casting the spoon again across the shallow grass.

As I was about to give up for the day, I hooked into another sea trout a little smaller than the others I was catching up the road.

I took a quick pic, released the fish, and decided to head for the house and get some dinner,.

I took a pic of the sunset and hit the road.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Sea Trout Action In The Marsh

Today I planned on getting in some early sea trout action today but it just wasn't in the cards.

Karen and I planned on getting out to the lagoon early but the lawn mower didn't budge when I tried to start it.

I just finished edging the walks and the damn mower died.

Since I planned on getting another mower this year anyway,  today turned out to be the day to do it.

Karen and I drove down to Lowes to pick up another mower so I could take care of the yard and  by the time we looked around to compare brands and prices the morning's fishing trip was moved to late afternoon.

I just finished up mowing the lawn when a thunderstorm moved into the area.  It started coming down as I was blowing off the driveways and I finally gave it up when the lightning started getting close.

By this time it was around 5:00 pm and Karen didn't care to go fishing in the rain.

I wanted to get some sea trout action in so I loaded up four outfits and headed for an area where I spotted an oversize redfish yesterday.

As I drive into Peacocks Pocket road, I stopped at a culvert and started tossing a Bagley swim bait.

I landed and released a ladyfish before moving on down the road.

I alternated tossing the swim bait, a gold hammered spoon and a Chug Bug to several fish I saw cruising the marsh canal and only picket up a slot sea trout.

I moved down to the pond where I spotted the redfish yesterday and wasted about 45 minutes trying to get it to bite.

The fish was in the same general area and bumped the hammered spoon once after I smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Super Gel scent.

It was getting toward dusk and I could hear lightning so I decided to move up to an area that I knew had some sea trout.

My first cast into the submerged grass with the spoon rewarded me with a fat slot sea trout.

I landed and released the fish and after several more casts in the same area picked up two more fish.

The water near dusk got as calm as glass so I switched over to the Chug Bug to see if I could stir up some more sea trout action.

I landed two more "chunky" sea trout and missed three short strikers before the mosquitoes started getting my attention.


 
Karen called to see if a gator got me and I decided to head for home and call it a day.

As I was leaving the refuge, I spotted five more groups of fishermen in various areas dunking finger mullet for reds.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some more sea trout action in the marsh.

Till then, Tight Lines.

Fishing Peacocks Pocket for some Sea Trout Action

Fishing Peacocks Pocket for some Sea Trout action was on the agenda for me this weekend but as luck would have it, I didn't get much quality fishing time in.

After arriving home from work on Friday, my wife asked me if I wanted to take Elmo and Odie fishing.

Even though it was late and I was beat from driving 4 1/2 hours, I readily agreed to go on a "scouting" trip to the "Pocket" to see what was going on.

We loaded up the truck with five spinning outfits, the two dogs and some frozen shrimp for Karen to use for bait and headed for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Even though it was late, the air temperature was still in the 80s and the slight breeze that was blowing across the Indian River was enough to make fishing quite enjoyable.

The birds seemed to enjoy the weather as much as Karen and I did.

We stopped at a few spots on the southern end of Peacocks Pocket road to fish with very little to show for our efforts.

Karen tossed a Cajun Thunder rig with a jumbo frozen shrimp to the opposite bank at the first stop and missed a nice redfish. 

She wasn't paying attention to her rod and by the time she saw the float zipping down the marsh canal the red dropped the bait.

That turned out to be the only fish of the afternoon.

I was using a gold Johnson Sprite and a Chug Bug.  I got a couple of short strikes on the Chug Bug and missed a nice slot sea trout on the spoon.

We drove around the road and saw a lot of vehicles but few fishermen. 

A couple of guys were wading the Indian River and a couple of others were drowning finger mullet on both sides of the road, apparently with no success.

We decided to head for home and try for some sea trout action Saturday .

Till then, Tight Lines.