Tarpon Fishing Along The Vistas

Went to East Gator Creek road to do some topwater sea trout fishing and wound up Tarpon fishing along the Vistas in the Canaveral National Seashore.

It was around 2:00 pm this afternoon when I decided to hit the wildlife refuge and wet a line.

It was raining when I left the house but clear when I drove into East Gator Creek road to fish the first set of culverts.

I hooked into a couple of medium size ladyfish on a Chug Bug and landed one before moving to another spot where losing my lure wasn't as easy an option.

I was targeting sea trout today but I have to report that the only fish that was remotely interested in any of my lures in that area was an under size "dink" trout that I shook off at the bank.

I decided to drive down to see if the shallow flats off of Bio Lab road were fishable.

There was a moderate wind over the lagoon and the waves made topwater bait fishing not an option.

As I drove into Bio Lab, I spotted some juvenile tarpon at the first set of culverts, so I pulled over and started casting a Chug Bug around the area.

Almost immediately, I had a boil on my bait but after many casts I only had one small tarpon hit the plug without getting a hookup.

I switched over to a Johnson Silver Minnow with the same result.  One dumb fish bumped the spoon but I couldn't get  a hookup.

As I was fishing (and not catching) a couple of guys drove up and asked if I would be bothered I they fished the area.

I had no objections and watched them as they fished the other side of the road picking up a couple of ladyfish and missing a couple of juvenile tarpon on a small Mirrolure bait.

There was a large gator in the spot they were fishing that was becoming a problem and was waiting for a handout.

I introduced myself and learned that they had been catching juvenile tarpon all morning on a variety of artificial baits.

Bryce Jones (left) and his friend Caden Laney were kind enough to provide pics of their catch.

They fish the area almost every weekend and apparently have a good handle on tarpon fishing in the area.

Bryce gave me a couple of 2" Tsunami paddletail swimbaits that he said they had been catching tarpon on earlier, but my tackle was too heavy to present the baits properly,.

Anyway, I gave up fishing the area and headed down Bio Lab road to scout out some other areas.

I stopped at a couple of spots and had a ladyfish hit my gold spoon but nothing else seemed to be working for me today.

Finally, I got to Playalinda Beach road and stopped at the first Vista to see if any tarpon were in the area.  As I pulled in I was immediately confronted by flashing blue lights to pull over.

After I presented my lifetime Pass to the officer, we swapped a couple of stories and learned that the whiting bite on the beach was on fire and even some Pompano were being caught on small shrimp and fishbites.

I was taking some pics of the launch site when Bryce and Caden drove up to talk.

I followed them to where they had caught several nice size juvenile tarpon earlier this morning.

We pulled over to the area and sure enough, there were some fish in the area.

I started off casting a Chug Bug, then switched to several other baits (and losing a couple) while Bryce picked up another tarpon on his Mirrolure.   (Click on pic below)

Caden walked up a ditch and missed a couple of fish with his bait.  Finally, as Bryce and Caden left the area, I switched rods and pulled out an XPS topwater bait with a black back and silver sides.

It took three casts before a tarpon swirled on the lure.  This happened three more times but the fish never got hooked.  I'm not sure if the bait was too large but at least I was finally getting some action.

I fished the spot for another 15 minutes or so before giving it up for the day.

Oh, by the way, Bryce shot me this pic of one of Cayden's fish that he caught this morning.

  

Nice Poon..

I'll be going out of town again next week but I hope to hit the area tomorrow a little earlier with some smaller baits.

Regardless, I had a good time today losing lures and meeting some new fishing buddies.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Shiloh Road Tarpon Fishing

This afternoon I decided to get out and do some Shiloh Road tarpon fishing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Last year around this time of the year there were loads of juvenile tarpon in the northernmost feeder creeks to the Indian River, so I brought along an 8 Wt fly rod with some Deceivers and a couple of poppers, and three spinning rods with topwater and plastic swim baits.

The air temperature was 91 degrees F. when I crossed the bridge to make my way into north Shiloh Road and there was a breeze on the water which made fly fishing somewhat difficult.

It was around 4:00 pm  when I got to the culverts and although there was some activity, I didn't spot any tarpon rolling on the surface.

I strung up my fly rod and started blind casting on both sides of the culvert.  After about a half hour with only one take (which I missed) I decided to see what was going on behind the barrier at the next set of culverts.

A couple trucks passed me while I was dunking my Deceiver, and I was interested in what, if anything they were catching.

I parked at the barrier and made a few half hearted castes with my spinning rod to see if I could entice a sea trout, but nothing was taking my bait.

I started walking up the road to where two guys were fishing and stopped to chat.

I introduced myself to Rick Mellott and his friend who were dunking ladyfish and live mullet for redfish.

We talked a bit about the redfish fishing in the area and about several other spots that we knew some catches were being made.

While we were talking, Rick and his friend caught a couple catfish but no reds.

Rick said that the best time for reds in this area was in the early mornings.  Usually things go south around 9:00 or 10:00 am during the summer months.

We swapped phone numbers and after a while I decided to fish the creek down the road.

I pulled up to the area and the water was like glass.  I watched for fish and saw one large wake but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I spent the next hour or so tossing a Chug Bug, an XPS Slim Dog, a small SkitterWalk, and finally a paddletail bait that I had along with me, all smeared up with some Pro-Cure Inshore Formula..

I had two followups on the Chug Bug, and a nice hit that I missed on the paddletail bait.

The gnats were getting to me, so I moved on down the road to fish the culverts as dusk was approaching.

That magic half hour or so just before dark paid off.  I managed to hook and release 4 spotted sea trout on the small size SkitterWalk; and I briefly hooked into a tarpon about 3 feet long.  

I hooked the tarpon on a large paddletail bait but after the second jump, it tossed the bait back at me.

When dusk hit, the fish stopped biting.  But the bugs didn't.

I packed up my rods and headed home for dinner (which turned out to be a Pizza).

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Patillo Creek Tarpon Fishing

Late yesterday afternoon I had originally planned on doing some Patillo Creek Tarpon fishing, but decided instead to fish closer to home around Peacocks Pocket road.

As it turned out, I would have probably done better fishing the Patillo Creek area.

Last Sunday evening while I was fishing Peacocks Pocket Road, Craig Bates told me about the fish he and Mary were catching on their vacation as well as that day in the Pocket area.  He sent me an email along with some pics of fish he caught in that area this past Monday which I thought I'd share with you below.

"When we saw you Sunday night on our way out, we told you about hooking some tarpon in the river side of the access road.

At home Monday morning I was thinking on being slapped to the curb by that handsome 3 footer.
A couple cups of coffee later I was loading up and heading back over for a chance at redemption. Maybe a little OCD?

Last summer we saw lots of baby Tarpon in Patillo Creek so I drove in there first. Sure enough, fish were rolling all over in the finger.

I launched the canoe and quickly observed 3 manitee’s munching mangrove branches hanging in the water. I took several pictures and backed away.

My forest green canoe must have looked like the next meal as 2 of the manitees came over to me and were nudging me and floating right next the canoe.

They have some stinky breath! One of them was so close I could have touched him.

I counted 10 manitee’s in the canal I wanted to fish. I had to be carefull where I cast to. Tarpon were rolling and splashing everywhere but would not take an artificial.

I tried small minnow plugs, swim baits, jerk baits and suspending baits. A slot sized Redfish picked up the Yozuri3D suspending plug. But those tarpon were not feeding.

Rumbling of impending showers told me it was time to relocate so I loaded up the canoe and drove over to Peackocks Pocket.

It started raining and blowing pretty hard as I drove around towards where I wanted to look for Tarpon. 
 
I waited out the storm as the radar showed it wouldn’t last long.

I pulled up to where I saw them the previous day. Sure enough there they were, rolling within a cast from the beach.

It was still sprinkling lightly as I geared up. Tied on a new 25# leader with a 3/0 screw lock hook and a Kietech 4” Easy Shiner.  I like the Kietech Silver Flash Minnow and Bluegill Flash colors. Both are Squid scented. Trout, Reds, Snook like them too.
 
A nice one rolled right in front of me. Led him by 10 feet, cranked twice and BANG! The fish instantly went into the air about 5 feet.

On the 4th jump the fish tossed the hook. One cast! Incredible!

I let the area cool down for about 15 minutes and the fish started to come back in. I checked my hook and saw that the hook was bent open and my leader was chaffed.

Tied on a new hook and another bait. I made some random casts but tried to wait for a fish to roll and cast in the direction he appeared to be headed.

This worked pretty well. You gotta love it when you cast to specific fish and hook them up.

I landed 2 nice fish and jumped off a couple more. Even jumped one on a top water prop bait.
The floating grass was really heavy so the weedless swim bait was much better.

I’m including a shot of one of the Tarpon I was landing when some friendly fisher folks drove up.
The other is a nice snook caught Sunday while fishing the same spot for Tarpon with the swim bait.

I think you wrote a story a while back where you fished the marsh right after a storm blew through.
It’s amazing how crazy the fish get. Yesterday some really nice fish were hammering the mullet in the river for about an hour after the storm.

Hope you get back soon."

The pics below were included with his email.

 

Patillo Creek and several other areas around Peacocks Pocket road have always been good spots for river Tarpon and Snook, and this year is no exception.

Tight Lines.