Fishing The Culverts

Because of all the heavy rains we've been having, fishing the culverts seemed like a viable plan this afternoon so after I finished setting up my wife's computer and the rain stopped, I headed for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to wet a line.

It was about 6:30 pm when I left the house and I was on the water fishing a topwater plug by 7:00 pm.

The water on the Indian River was slightly choppy and in the marsh, it was almost like glass in most areas.

I started fishing a chartreuse and silver Chug Bug at the first trio of culverts past the Peacocks Pocket kayak launch where I spotted some sea trout hitting mullet on the surface.  I had a couple of follow ups but no fish so I moved on to fish the marsh ponds.

I switched between a frog patterned Chug Bug and the chartreuse and silver patterned one and had several misses and follow ups but no hookups.

Finally I decided to fish a DOA CAL pink and chartreuse shadtail bait that I smeared up with Pro-Cure Inshore formula.

Almost immediately I started getting hits from sea trout around the open culverts on the Indian River side of the road.

All the trout were mostly slot sized with a couple undersize fish in the mix.

I hooked and released three sea trout and missed about the same amount before I decided to head home.

The bugs were getting to me.

As I slowly drove north on Peacocks Pocket road I spotted a push of water made by a school of either redfish or black drum, so I drove past the school and quickly flipped out the plastic paddletail bait in front of the school.

The fish were tight lipped and didn't pick up the bait so I got back in the truck and pulled the same maneuver again with the same results, only this time a fish bumped the bait and let it go.

Undaunted, I smeared the plastic bait in the Pro-Cure
and this time let the bait sit in front of the school until the lead fish passed by.  Then I twitched it just enough to give it some life.

This time a fat redfish picked up the bait and headed up the marsh canal.

The fish made three nice bulldog runs before I managed to get the Boca Grip and land the fish.

I was hoping the fish would be in the slot so I could harvest it for dinner but it measured 29".

I quickly took some pics and released the red back to the marsh canal.

As it swam away, I made a mental note to pick up a helmet cam.  The fight in the narrow marsh canal would have made a great YouTube vid.
  When they are open, fishing the culverts can be extremely productive, so on the way out I just had to try one more cast to end the day.  A nice spotted sea trout hit the paddletail on the first cast but somehow managed not to get hooked.

I took some pics of the awesome sunset and headed home to partake of a ham that was ready for dinner.

 

Till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

Nice Dinner For Two

Fishing the culverts in the in early spring is almost a sure way of getting a nice dinner for two on the table.

Trout and red fish tend to school near the culverts, especially when they are open and running heavily, thus giving shore anglers a good opportunity for jump fishing in the preserve areas.

The pic to the left is a typical catch for a short, late afternoon jump fishing trip on the Indian River.