Topwater Ladyfish

This afternoon was perfect for topwater ladyfish in the wildlife refuge.

I left the house with a couple of spinning rods and since it was late, decided to head right over to East Gator Creek.  It was around 6:00 pm when I drove into the wet dirt road at the second entrance.

I planned to fish the culverts if they were open and hit the shallow flats if they were not.

At the first culvert, the water was moving a bit so I pulled over to fish a Creme Paddletail bait.

After several casts, I finally had a brief hookup with a ladyfish that got off after a couple of quick jumps.

About that time, I noticed a very large gator along the bank next to the water level gauge, so I grabbed my cell phone and took a few pics of the reptile.

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I made a few more casts with the paddletail bait but when I started casting the Chug Bug I had on my other rod, the gator started paying too much attention to the bait, so I decided to look for another spot.

I drove into East Gator Creek road and stopped at a couple of areas where I could cast a lure.

On my second stop, I hooked into a large ladyfish of about 25 inches or so.  The fish hit the Chug Bug after the second or third gurgle and put up a great fight.   

Because of the heavy mangroves along the bank, landing the fish was touch and go.  The fish swam into the brush two times but I managed to lead it out into open water where it eventually tired out enough for me to pull it onto the bank.

I took a couple of pics of the fish before releasing it to fight another day.

I smeared ;up the bait with some Pro-Cure Inshore Formula Gel and continued casting it across toward the other bank and slowly retrieving it.  

The water surface was almost glassy and a slow stop and go retrieve seemed to be the ticket today.

After a few casts I hooked into another small ladyfish that I immediately released.

Several casts later, and another mid size ladyfish hooked itself into an arc.  I retrieved the fish without much of a fight and after taking this pic released it.

I caught a couple more ladyfish at this spot before moving to another area.   

Another gator was getting way too interested in my topwater Chug Bug so I decided to move to a spot where I caught tarpon in the past.     

It was getting dark and as I was pulling the bait along the mangrove lined bank, a large fish that I believe was a sea trout smacked the Chug Bug when it was completely motionless.

I was wearing Crocs and like a damn fool stepped into an ant mound.  The trout hit as I was shaking off the ants from my feet.

Anyway, I was in pain from the numerous ant bites so I decided to pick up and head to the house.

Tomorrow is another day.

Till then,

Tight Lines.