Memorial Day Weekend Redfish On Topwater Baits

Next to sea trout, catching redfish on topwater baits is one of my favorite activities and this evening turned out to be one of my better fishing excursions.

I got home late from work and didn't hit the wildlife refuge until around 6:30 pm.

The air temperature was in the high 80s and there was almost no breeze blowing when I entered East Gator Creek road.

As I was tying on a new Skitterwalk topwater bait that I bought at Bass Pro in Savannah, a Fish and Wildlife officer drove up for a license check.

We chatted about the fishing and when some of the roads would be opening, if ever, before he continued down the road.

I started casting the new Skitterwalk into the shallows over the weeds and was eventually rewarded with a hit from a large sea trout.  The fish missed the bait and didn't come back for a return hit so I continued fishing the area casting into likely looking spots.

It took about twenty casts and two more misses before I hooked up with and landed a nice ladyfish.

I took a pic and returned the fish to the shallows before moving up the road towards Peacocks Pocket road.

I spotted a slot redfish in the shallow marsh canal and started pitching a Zman jerkbait to the fish when a "fisherlady" I see in this area on a regular basis drove up and started chatting about the fishing possibilities.

Beatrice told me she was catching some nice sea trout and redfish in the area on various baits and I shared some of my reports before she moved on to her spot.

The fish were not in the shallow ditches this evening.  They appeared to be in the shallow grassy ponds chasing baitfish around, so I decided to target a large pond that I knew harbored some nice reds.

This pond usually produces some nice sea trout and reds but only early in the morning and later on towards dusk.

I "jump fished" my way to the spot and had a couple of nice hits on the way but no fish landed.

When I got to the area I intended to fish, I started fishing a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon but after many fruitless casts, I put the rod up and changed over to the Zman jerkbait.

I briefly hooked a small sea trout but it spit out the bait.  I continued fishing the jerk bait without any luck until the evening topwater action started.

It was like a light switch that just turned on.   The fish started busting baitfish in the weedy shallows and they weren't small fish!

I changed rods and started casting the new Skitterwalk bait as far out into the pond as I could.

I had two misses before remembering that I neglected to smear up the bait with some Pro-Cure.

The Pro-Cure made the difference.

I made two more casts around a big fish that was busting bait around a small grassy island.  On the third cast, the fish inhaled the Skitterwalk and started peeling line off my spinning reel.

On the first run the redfish almost spooled me but I increased the drag enough to pump back line.

The second run wasn't as long but the fish showed no sign of giving up.  It continued making shorter and shorter runs until I was beginning to think I could land it.

After 20 minutes or so I crawled down the bank with my Boca Grip and finally lipped the fish to the bank.

 

The stocky fish measured just over 30" and was in great shape.  By it's girth it was obvious it had been feeding on mullet.

I took a few quick pics before reviving the fish and letting it go to fight another day.

 

It was getting late and I decided to head for home.

On the way out I spotted Beatrice.  She told me she had just caught a 25" black drum on a "rancid" shrimp in the shallows around Catfish Creek Loop.

I told her about the red I caught and headed for home and some dinner.

Hopefully this Memorial Day weekend will prove to be as fruitful as this evening's trip was.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Hunt For Reds In October

The Hunt for Reds in October fishing contest ended today, which is why I waited until later in the afternoon to fish the marsh.

My wife was doing her thing today and didn't want to go fishing with me, so I packed up a few rods and headed for the "swamp" to get in a little redfish fishing.

When I entered Peacocks Pocket road the air temperature was 83 degrees and there was a mild wind blowing over the Indian River.

I decided to fish the marsh canal today in an effort to pick up a cruising red, so I opted for fishing gold spoons and my favorite Chug Bug.

I started fishing with a gold Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon and quickly picked up a couple of slot sea trout and a ladyfish.

I switched over to a weedless silver spoon that I had on my other rod and quickly picked up another ladyfish that was in the 20" range.

As the wind started to die down, I "jump fished" the marsh canal with a baby bass pattern STORM Rattlin Chug Bug.

I picked up a couple of small sea trout on the Chug Bug and bumped into a reader of this website, Craig Bates.

He was also fishing the canal using a black and silver Chug Bug.

I stopped to shoot the breeze with him a bit and discovered that he lives in the Orlando area and is a bass fisherman.

He showed me a pic of an over slot sized redfish that he caught in the Indian River some time ago, north of one of the islands. I asked him to send me an email with the pic and told him I would post it on the site.

I moved on and started blind casting an area where I picked up redfish a few weeks ago and after several casts to the opposite bank I was rewarded with a slot sized redfish that hit the Chug Bug right on the bank.

The fish made a fast run and turned directly into a bush at the bank where it got hung up. I gave the fish some slack but it just sloshed around until it finally shook the hooks loose.

Since this was my last baby bass pattern Chug Bug,, I took off my shoes and waded out to untangle the lure from the brush hoping that an alligator didn't think I was for dinner.

I retied my Chug Bug and drove past where Craig was fishing and stopped at another spot where I briefly hooked up with another red.

The fish wasn't hooked well and the Chug Bug pulled out at the beginning of the run. From the size of the wake it pushed, it looked like a nice oversize red.

Undaunted, I continued down Peacocks Pocket road and stopped at another spot where my wife had caught her 36" redfish a couple of years ago.

A few casts with the Chug Bug produced another slot size sea trout and a ladyfish, but no redfish.

Meanwhile, Craig passed me and parked at a spot where I knew some big reds frequently cruise out from a small marsh pond into the deeper canal.

As I was packing it in for the evening, I drove up to where he was fishing and saw he had a nice slot size redfish.

I asked him if I could take his pic and he agreed so here are the results for the evening.

 

He said he had to "horse" the red past a gator that was eyeballing the fish as he was landing it.

I gave him my pliers to get the hooks out of the redfish just as my wife called to see when I was coming home.

I probably could have picked up a red at another section that I fish regularly, but I was getting bitten by no see-ums so I decided to hit the road and head for home.

October is one of the better months for catching redfish in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and my wife and I will probably be out again next week to try our luck.

The "Hunt for Reds in October" was over for this year's contestants, but not for me.

Till next time, Tight Lines!