Skunked!

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River fishing is starting to pick up again if you get out early enough to take advantage of the bite.

As the weather starts to warm up and the bait fish start to invade the lagoons, the top water action for sea trout especially starts to get really good.

Unfortunately, this weekend I didn't get the opportunity to take advantage of the topwater action.  I had to spend some time working around the house fixing things and redoing our Koi pond.

Friday evening, after the long drive home from work, my wife and I took our two "best friends" for a quick scouting trip around Peacocks Pocket road. 

Elmo and Odie were in the truck even before we had a chance to load up the rods and bait.

There were a few fishermen dunking cut baits and live finger mullet hoping for a redfish catch, but none of the people we spoke with were catching anything.

Karen wanted to try one of her "secret" spots, so we spent time dunking baits along with everyone else for an hour or so.

On the way to her spot we saw several cars pulled over to the side of the road.  At first we thought the people were watching an alligator but instead they were all watching a huge wild boar in the swamp.

I managed to get this shot as it moved away from the crowd.

She was using her Cajun Thunder Oval Float with a jumbo frozen shrimp and I was tossing around some lures.

The wind was up just enough to make topwater fishing a problem so I spent most of my time tossing a gold gold Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon and a Bagley paddle tail bait.

I got a couple of hits on the spoon but never got a hookup, and the paddle tail bait turned out to be a complete waste of time.

Karen missed the first fish that was probably a red, and finally hooked up with a large stingray in the marsh canal.

 

The red hit the Cajun Thunder rig and started down the marsh canal like a freight train but as soon as the fish felt resistance, it dropped the bait.  Karen wasn't paying attention but at least she didn't get skunked.

I on the other hand, got skunked!

On Saturday I had good intentions to wet a line but I would up repairing some wood work around the house.  By the time I was finished, fishing was the last thing on my mind.

Sunday was a clone of Saturday.  No fishing.

Made a mental note to take the Maverick flats boat next weekend to fish Tiger Shoals on the Mosquito Lagoon.  

A friend of mine who fishes the area a lot said the reds that were in the area were hitting well.

Live shrimp and cut baits seem to be the best baits right now.

Till next time, Tight lines.

December 29, 2011 Fishing Report

The fishing for Dec 29th could according to the Almanac should have been pretty good, unfortunately the Almanac isn't gospel.

Today the air temperatures were in the low 60s and there was absolutely no wind on the Indian River.

The water in the marsh areas was dead flat which made for challenging conditions.

 The few people that were fishing around Catfish Creek loop were not catching anything, neither were the fishermen around Peacocks Pocket road.

My wife didn't want to go fishing with me this afternoon so I took Elmo our "wonder dog" along to give him some fresh air.

There was very little traffic this afternoon on the unimproved road and the people who were out were taking pictures of the wildlife.

To make a long story short, I fished several areas around Peacocks Pocket road with my favorite Bagley gold spoon, a "gold sardine" colored Heddon Saltwater Super Zara Spook Jr. -Black Shiner top water plug, a Creme Lures Spoiler Shad Swimbaits  and even dead shrimp without getting even a half hearted tug.

I spent the most time fishing "Bobcat Bay" where I missed two oversize redfish yesterday, but today they were either not in the area or they just weren't interested.

A FWC came by as I was getting ready to call it a day and we chatted a bit about the fishing.

 

Cody introduced himself and after a while continued down the road.

I took my time driving very slowly looking for signs of fish but the water was so calm that nothing except finger mullet were moving around.

As I drove up to the kayak launch, I stopped to talk to a fisherman that I occasionally see kayaking the area.

He reported that he caught some sea trout around the shallow flats near the creek to the Space Center and a couple of small reds on live shrimp under a cork.

He mentioned that the resident population of Black Drum were all over the place but that they were hard to target because of their erratic swimming patterns.

He spotted a lot of tailing redfish but they just weren't biting today. It could be the cold front or the lack of wind but whatever the reason, today's fishing report was dismal.

He mentioned that the fishing in the northern Indian River lagoon flats east of Scotsmoor wasn't that great right now and that there were a flock of fishing guides poling the Tiger Shoals area in the Mosquito Lagoon. This is a dead giveaway to where the big schools are located.

Tiger Shoals and the Whale Tail area in the southern Mosquito Lagoon are always good for redfish and sea trout.

I thanked him for the fishing report and headed for the house.

The temperature was 58 degrees as I left Peacocks Pocket road.

Tomorrow's another day, Tight Lines!

Shakedown Cruise And Fishing The Mosquito Lagoon Flats

My wife and I finally took out the Maverick out for a "shakedown cruise"; mainly because the barriers are up in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for the Endeavor space shuttle launch.

We decided to put in at the new boat launch at the Titusville Marina and head through Haulover Canal to fish the Tiger Shoals flats.

Before even getting to the ICW channel, I noticed that the gas tank was showing almost empty. Since I wasn't sure about the gauge, I decided to top off the tank at the marina.

I gassed up and almost had a heart attack. The 30 gallons of gas cost me over $140.00 at the dock. Talk about sticker shock!

Anyway, we headed up the ICW through the canal with no problems except for the trim tabs. They were not working at all, so I chalked it up as a blown fuse until I could better troubleshoot the problem.

We got to the Mosquito Lagoon and fished the flats across from the entrance to Haulover. We got a few hits from trout, but no fish. A school of dolphin was feeding nearby so we headed north to the shoals.

The fishing here could have been better but we did manage to stir up and spook a couple of schools of redfish. The fish were wary and I couldn't get within casting range so we pulled up to a spot near a drop off and put down the Power Pole.

The flats are loaded with mullet schools right now and we could see big sea trout occasionally busting up on a school.

I tried fishing a top water skitterwalk but the weeds made a good presentation almost impossible, so I moved on to fishing various colored jerk baits.

For some reason I kept missing the sea trout. I must have had at least two dozen strikes but I never actually landed a fish.

I find it hard to believe that the fish were undersize with so many big ones hitting the mullet on the surface, so I'll just chalk it up to lack of practice on my part.

My wife wanted to fish shrimp under a cork and she also kept missing trout.

She finally caught a few nice sized catfish but I got skunked on this trip. Hard to believe with all the fish out there.

Since this was a shakedown cruise we decided to head back early. It was getting much more windy and I wasn't sure how much fuel I actually had in my tank.

On the ride back through Haulover Canal, I marked several nice schools of fish on my Lowrance LMS 350A. They were running 9 to 12 feet deep with some big singles (probably big redfish or drum) just off the bottom.

As we headed back to the Titusville Marina ramp, we crossed over a wake made by a nice sport fisherman and the instrument gauge warning signal went off.

I immediately shut off the motor and checked the oil and temperature to see what the problem was.

I couldn't find anything wrong so I cranked up the Yamaha 150 and continued on.

The motor ran fine at low to mid speeds but started sputtering at high r.p.m. and the warning signal kept sounding periodically all the way back to the launch.

The motor definitely was not overheating and the oil reservoir was 3/4 full, so I loaded the boat on the trailer and took it to Mosquito Lagoon Outfitters to see what the problem is all about.

Evidently we're not the only ones with boat problems. They have at least a two week backlog.

Well what the hell. I left the boat and asked him to give me a call when he figures out what happened.

For a shakedown cruise, I guess the trip was a success. I identified three things wrong with the boat. A bad gas tank sensor, trim tab problem and a possible oil mix or thermostat problem with the engine.

The new bridge over the Indian River at Titusville will be closed two hours before and two hours after the Endeavor launch on Monday.

I guess I'll go back to bank fishing for a while.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Sea Robin or Flying Gurnard?

Bruce R. brought up the subject of Sea Robins, so I thought I'd add a little bit more to my reply to his comment.



Flying Gurnards are distributed from Hawaii and Japan southward to central Polynesia,westward through Micronesia and Melanesia, through the East Indies, and across the Indian Ocean to the coast of Africa.

They all have elongated, nearly round bodies that taper to the tail with large bony "armored" heads. The body of the fish is covered with tough scales that are rather prickly, and they all have two large hook-like spurs near the gills with enormous fan-like pectoral fins.

The two pelvic fins that are far forward under the body, are used as "legs" to walk on the ocean bottom.

They are carnivorous bottom dwellers eating inverts, crustaceans, and other smaller fishes.

My wife and I used to sell small specimens in our tropical fish shop that we used to own in Titusville, Fl.

They were extremely popular, easy to keep if you maintained a large tank, and are definitely one of the more interesting marine fish.

I heard that the redfish in the Tiger Shoals area in the Mosquito Lagoon are kicking up a storm, so I hope to take out the boat and pick up a few. The clinker islands from markers 25 to 27 and eastward will be the main target for the day.

Till next time, Tight Lines!