The Fishing Piers Are Open

On the way back from wetting a line in Gator Creek, I drove underneath the A. Max Brewer bridge and was happy to see that the fishing piers were finally open.

I stopped just long enough to take a couple of pics of the area to post here.

I was glad to see that they poured asphalt next to the sea wall on the south side of the bridge.  That area always managed to wash out with the weather, hopefully the upgrade will last a bit longer.

The fishing this afternoon wasn't great but I didn't get skunked.

When I left the house around 3:20 pm the air temperature was in the mid 70s and there was a moderate wind blowing across the water from the South.

The rods I had in my truck all had either topwater Chug Bugs, XPS Slim Dogs, or Creme paddletail baits.

I had a bucket of live shrimp on the porch that Karen and I picked up the other day, but I decided to leave them until tomorrow.

It was late and I didn't particularly want to fool around with live bait this afternoon.

I alternately tossed a baby bass pattern Chug Bug and an XPS Slim Dog around the shallow flats for awhile with no followups.  The water in the area was crystal clear and I spotted only one trout in that area.

I moved on towards the entrance to Catfish Creek Loop, knowing that it was still closed, and hoped to fish the shallow pond on the way.

Unfortunately there were two groups of anglers fishing with live baits in the area.

As I drove up to the barriers, two more groups of anglers were loading up a shallow boat into their vehicle so I turned around and started to head out.

On the way out, I spotted a fish break the surface so I stopped to give it a shot.

The second cast got a half hearted strike and two casts later I picked up a very small sea trout.

At least I didn't get skunked!

I released the fish without even bothering to take a pic of the undersize fish and decided to head home.

I got a shot of the Indian River on the way out along with the pics of the fishing piers above.

Till next time

Tight Lines.

Sport Shrimping

Sport shrimping along the space coast is catching on and with the newly built fishing piers on the Indian River, has become increasingly popular with visitors and local area residents.

Here in central Florida sport shrimping is almost exclusively done using circular, long handled dip nets from boats, docks, fishing piers and bridges over underwater lighting arrays such as the ones below.



I had planned on fishing Saturday but the wind was blowing beyond my limits and my truck developed a transmission problem so I opted to stay home.

By 8:00 p.m. I had cabin fever so I took the other truck down to the fishing pier to see if any shrimpers were crazy enough to venture out in the cold.

When I got to the pavilion, I was genuinely surprised to see a band playing Jamaican music and find the lower fishing pier crowed with shrimpers and fishermen.

I took my camera, zipped up my hoodie and started walking the fishing piers to see who was catching anything.

No one seemed to be catching any fish and the shrimpers weren't doing much better.

One guy I talked with caught just a few shrimp in an hour and thought he was doing good.  I didn't have the heart to tell him he needed to go home.

I walked up to the upper pier where the shrimpers weren't doing much better.

The wind was blowing like crazy making the shrimp hard to detect and the temperature was dropping quickly.  The weather report was for 40 degrees tonight with the potential for freezing.

I saw some fish fry on the surface being chased by some decent sized sea trout but not many shrimp.   No one seemed interested in catching the slot sized trout.

I took some pics and a short video of basically nothing and decided that cabin fever in the house was preferable to pneumonia.


Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and do some fishing while I still have some vacation left.

My wife and I planned to hit the keys and do some fishing for a few days in Islamorada  but the damn truck transmission problem put the kibosh on those plans.

Till next time, hope your sport shrimping nets get filled with jumbos!

Tight Lines.