Winter Sea Trout Fishing

Winter Sea Trout fishing in our lagoon systems is second to none for large Gator Sea Trout when conditions line up.

Although I have not been able to take advantage of the fishing in our "neck of the woods", many of our readers have sent in pics of their fall and winter catches, some of which are below.

All the fish above were caught in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River lagoon systems during the winter months, on artificial and live baits.

The trick to catching large sea trout and bull redfish is stealth approaches, persistence, and in many cases, some blind luck.

Craig and Mary caught their fish on weedless Jerk Baits, and I picked mine up on a topwater Chug Bug, all during the winter months.

Next week I hope to get out on the water again and do what I love to do most, wet a line.

Tight Lines.

Gators In The Ditches

The gators in the ditches this afternoon were gator sea trout, not the alligators you would expect to see in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

After mowing the lawn and doing some chores around the house, I decided to take a quick trip around the wildlife refuge to see if the bank fishermen were catching anything worth noting.

I packed up three spinning rods and headed towards Peacocks Pocket Road.

It was about 6:30 pm when I left the house and it had just finished raining.  The air temperature was in the high 80s and there was a slight breeze blowing over the river.

The usual memorial day crowd was out in force.  People were picnicking, fishing, boating and generally having a good time on both sides of the causeway.

I passed a couple of bird watchers and as I entered Peacocks Pocket road and as I slowly drove past Catfish Creek,  I didn't have any expectations of catching a memorable fish.   

The water was still low despite the off and on again rain we had during this past week.  The deepest part of the marsh area was the marsh canal and some of the larger ponds.

As I scouted the area I saw a bank fisherman on the Indian River side of the road with a couple of rods trying for redfish.  Just opposite him I spotted something busting baitfish in the canal so I pulled over and tied on a well used Chug Bug.  I smeared it up with some Pro-Cure scent and started fan casting down the marsh canal.

About ten yards past where the bank fisherman was doing his thing, I got a hit from a very large sea trout.  The fish tried twice to hit the lure before moving off down the canal.

I made several casts in the area and was about to give up when another large sea trout nailed the Chug Bug.

The fish was solidly hooked and as I played the fish away from numerous stickups along the bank, a guy in a red SUV stopped and called me a "show off"; I guess for catching the sea trout.

I shinnied down the bank, landed the fish and crawled back onto the road.  I showed the guy the trout as I walked to the truck for pliers to unhook the fish.  I took a couple of pics on my cell phone before putting the gator trout back into the canal, much to the dismay of my one man audience.

The sea trout (above) measured in at 27" and definitely made my day.

I continued fishing the ditches of the marsh canal and had another dozen or so hits from marauding sea trout on the Chug Bug.  The problem was that the fish were not getting hooked.

I had one sea trout hit knock the bait out of the water and hit it three more times before I got the bait back to the bank.   You would expect one of the treble hooks to land into some meat but the fish never got hooked.

I landed three more fish in the 20" slot category before calling it a day.

As I drove out of the refuge a small school of redfish swam up the marsh canal.  I tried casting several baits ahead of the fish but they were not in their feeding mode.

As it got dark, it was like someone turned off a switch.  The gators in the ditches suddenly stopped foraging on the mullet.  All the way out of the refuge I never saw another sea trout bust on baitfish.

I've got work to do tomorrow but hopefully Monday, I'll get a chance to wet another line.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Dog Days Of May???

I've always been aware of the Dog Days of August, but the Dog Days of May were apparently upon us this evening.

After my Doctor's appointment, I was told not to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for another couple of weeks. That pretty much kills any serious fishing, not to mention work that I'm accustomed to doing.

Anyway, I asked Karen if she wanted to take a quick spin around Peacocks Pocket road to see what the fishing conditions were like and she agreed to go if we took Odie and Elmo along.

I realized that with the dogs I wasn't going to get much fishing done so I agreed. I loaded up three spinning rods and we proceeded to drive down to the Indian River.

We went into the easternmost entrance and headed towards Peacocks Pocket kayak launch.  When we drove up to the area, the water was totally flat and there were sporadic ripples of finger mullet on the surface but no sign of sea trout or redfish activity.

I let the dogs out to do their duty while a made several casts with a Chug Bug to no avail.  If there were any fish in the vicinity, they were not hitting top water baits.

We moved along the road and as we passed several bank fishermen, I asked each if they were catching or fishing.  To a man (and woman) they said nothing was hitting.

I drove slowly down the road watching for signs of fish activity and spotted several large redfish tailing in the deeper ponds but they were all too far away to get a cast to them.

We saw three large fish swirling in the marsh canal that were probably gator sea trout but they were spooky and would not hit my Chug Bug.

The air temperature was 90 degrees and there was no wind blowing at all.  The water on both sides of the road was flat and extremely shallow for this time of year.

The Indian River water levels are low and the water was dotted with sea grass out to about 100 yards from the shore.  The pics below depicts the average conditions.

 

The marsh water levels were also extremely low as you can see from these pics.

  

Areas that held fish a couple of months ago are now either high and dry or close to it.  Weeds abound and make casting an artificial bait a chore.  The fish seem to be concentrated in the marsh canals and the deeper ponds.  They are also extremely spooky and savvy to what most fishermen are throwing at them.  

As we continued to slowly drive through Peacocks Pocket road, Karen and I spotted several small sea trout chasing baitfish and a couple of potential Gator Sea Trout that pushed a ton of water and disappeared down the canal.

The areas I caught sea trout and redfish at last week were apparently void of fish today.  The culverts were closed and there was no water running into or out of the marsh areas.

Hopefully over the Memorial Day weekend, I'll be able to spend some quality time trying to fool one of the big ones I spotted Thursday evening.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing Report for 3-14-2015

Got this Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Fishing report from one of our avid kayak fishermen last week and just got around to posting it.

I haven't been able to get out as much as I'd like to lately for a number of reasons, but I plan on making up for lost time in a week or two.

Meanwhile, Craig Bates sent me this report along with the pic below.

Eat your heart out guys!

Hi John,

            We haven’t been out for a few weeks so we didn’t have much to report until yesterday. We went back to Ducks Roost to see if the fish were still there with the recent warming weather.

            The owner at the bait shop by the bridge said he hadn’t heard much but fish were still biting. We picked up a couple dozen shrimp to improve our karma.

            We left Orlando after 8 so we didn’t get on the water until about 10:00. Pretty late start considering the temps and the blue bird sky.

            When we got to the launch 3 yakkers were loading up to try the intercoastal as they had been out since the butt crack of dawn and struck out.

           

We launched and rowed down to Ducks Roost. 4 yakkers and a skiff were up in there. My thinking was to fish water that hadn’t been run over yet as we got a late start.

            We have a small spot that seems to always have a trout or two on it we wanted to get to.

A second skiff was coming around the corner so we hustled over to secure the spot.

           

The wind was coming in at the wrong angle so I just paddled and pointed Mary in

the right direction to make a few casts to the sweet spot.

            Sure enough on her second cast she dropped her Gander Pearl White 5” Swim Minnow on the trouts nose in about 12” of water.

            She did an excellent job of playing the fish as it tried to tangle her on everything possible. The hook was well placed and we got this monster into the net.

           

I have to say I have yet to catch a 28” gator. Mary now has 2 of them.

            She caught the one we showed you in Peackocks Pocket and now this monster.

Girl Friend has some serious skills! Yes sir, that is some trout envy on my part!

            She caught another nice slot trout on the shrimp. Me? Nothing! The temperature was becoming uncomfortable so we paddled back.

           

We didn’t get any reds this trip so we are thinking they have moved out of the basin with the warmer temperatures.

            Weather permitting we may go up to Patillo next weekend and try our luck.

            Hope you had a good weekend too.

            Keep Yer Tip Up!

Craig Bates

I was planning to take my boat out this weekend and as luck would have it my 1500 Silverado Hybrid went on the fritz.  

The computer went out on the truck on I-95 at the St. Augustine exit and I lost the brakes along with the power steering.    I managed to baby the truck back to Titusville, but that put the kebosh on my fishing for this weekend until it gets repaired.

Maybe next week I'll get a shot at one of those gator sea trout that are hitting right now on the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Chug Bugs For Gator Sea Trout

It's hard to beat Chug Bugs for gator sea trout and this evening was no exception.

When I got home from work this evening I heard that a cold front was moving into the area so I loaded up a few rods and headed to Peacocks Pocket road to cast a few top water plugs around the area.

Unless something changes this year, the managers of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge usually close Peacocks Pocket road to the public from November 1 until mid April; so I decided to get in my "last shot" at catching some fish before the closure.

When I crossed the causeway bridge I could see that top water fishing was going to be a challenge.  There was a steady wind blowing across the water which would make a decent presentation difficult to impossible.

I headed straight for a couple of ponds that I wanted to fish before it got dark.

At the first pond I started throwing an XPS top water bait around some promising areas.  I had a couple of followups and nailed one nice ladyfish that I kept for future use as redfish bait.

Another fisherman pulled up behind me where I had parked and started putting on waders.  He told me he was going to fish a deep "trough" on the Indian River side of the road with paddletail baits.

He said he usually does quite well with reds and sea trout that use the deeper trough as a sort of deep water highway.

I left him to his fishing and moved up to another smaller pond where I nailed another 2 foot ladyfish on a Chug Bug.  The wind was blowing too hard to fish the "walk the dog" bait properly and the Chug Bug was a better option.

I missed a couple of small sea trout in the same pond before I decided to make one last stop at another area Karen and I fish on a regular basis.

As I rounded the bend on a larger pond I decided to fish the leeward side of a small grassy island.

The water was calmer and it just looked "fishy" so I started tossing the Pro-Cure coated Chug Bug into the grass.

My second cast plopped down into the middle of the grass and a huge fish erupted on the Chug Bug.

The fish inhaled the bait and started peeling off drag into the middle of the pond.  I was silently cussing myself for not putting on my sports camera.  It was a great fight.

The fish headed towards the brushy shore twice but I eased up the pressure and it turned to swim back into the open pond.

I thought I had an oversize redfish on until I got the fish to the bank.  As I reached down to "lip" the fish, I saw that it was a big gator trout.

I pulled it to the bank and quickly got the camera and tape measure.  The fish measured in at 32" using the pinched tail method.

I got the pliers out and unhooked the fish, took a few pics and quickly released it to fight another day.

The fish took off like a shot and I'm sure it won't eat another Chug Bug for at least a few days, if ever.

I moved up to another stretch and missed another fish that I believe was a red.  The fish hit the Chug Bug completely out of the water but didn't hook itself.

I never ceases to amaze me how a fish can nail a bait with two treble hooks and still not hook itself.

Anyway, it was getting dark and the air temperature was dropping quickly.

I packed up my rods, tried to call my wife and headed for home.

I hope the refuge is open tomorrow but if not, I'm sure I'll find some place to wet a line.  On thing is for sure, you can't beat Chug Bugs for gator sea trout or anything else for that matter.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Karen's Gator Trout In The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

This afternoon Karen and I decided to leave the dogs at home and for a change, go fishing alone.

We loaded up some rods and the "bait" I caught yesterday, and headed for East Gator Creek road to see if I could pick up another ladyfish for cut bait.

The plan was to fish for reds this afternoon but we wound up catching a gator sea trout instead.

When we left the house the air temperature was 82 degrees and there was  a mild breeze blowing just enough to put a slight ripple on the water.

When we hit East Gator Creek road, I started fan casting the culverts with a Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

I hooked and lost three large ladyfish before leaving the area.  If the rest of the day turned out like it started, we were in for a disappointing afternoon of fishing.

Good Luck Rainbow

As we left the area and drove into Peacocks Pocket road, a nice rainbow picked up our spirits.

Karen said it was good luck, and apparently it was.

Our first stop was at a large pond where we spotted a big school of redfish pushing a wake in the marsh canal.

There were finger mullet in the area and fish chasing them, but except for a couple of follow ups and one hit, we didn't catch any fish there.

Nosy Gator

I spent most of my time avoiding a nosy alligator that kept chasing my Chug Bug. 

The next spot we fished was at a pond were I usually at least hook up with sea trout and redfish.

I cut ladyfish steaks, smeared them up with Pro-Cure to enhance the "flavor", and set out two rods along a drop off at the edge of the shallow pond.

Karen sat with the cut baits while I proceeded to fan cast the banks of the marsh canal alongside the road.

I was using the Tennessee and Silver/Black Back Chug Bug patterns today on two separate rods.

I had several follow ups from small to medium size sea trout and finally nailed this slot size sea trout to the left.

I released the fish and continued up the marsh canal when I heard Karen yelling that she had caught a redfish.

I got the camera and was ready to take a video of Karen landing the redfish, but when I got close enough to the water to see the fish, it turned out to be a large gator sea trout.

 

The fish took the ladyfish steak and was heading for the middle of the pond when Karen picked up the rod and started fighting the fish back to the bank.

 

She said the sea trout made a couple of long runs that took drag before she could finally get it close enough to the bank where I could "lip" the fish.  The trout was over 30" long and felt like it weighed in at closer to nine pounds.

We took this short video and some of the pics above before releasing the trout to fight another day.

I revived the fish and as it swam down the marsh canal, I told Karen that we needed to catch a redfish to make the day.

After cutting two new baits and setting out the rods, I decided to pay more attention, so I sat down with Karen to watch the baits.

The wind was blowing harder and we had a brief rainfall that made topwater fishing more difficult, so I didn't mind baitfishing for a change.

After only fifteen minutes or so Karen had another hit from a redfish.  The fish peeled off line from her Okuma baitrunner but when she tightened up on the line, she didn't set the hook and the fish spit out the bait.

I took off her 5/0 Owner hook and switched to a 6/0 VMC circle hook and told her to just tighten up on the line the next time she got a bite.

I had a circle hook on a ladyfish head on my rod and I should have listened to my own advice.  A big redfish took the fish head and headed from the shallow grassy pond into the marsh canal towards the Peacocks Pocket boat launch.

I took the reel out of free spoon and when I felt the line go taught, I tightened up on the line.  
As soon as the fish felt the resistance, it hit the surface with a splash and spit out the fish head.

After getting garbage from Karen about losing the fish and not listening to my own advice, I baited up again and continued fishing.

Meanwhile, Karen's bait was picked up by a redfish and was peeling off line from her reel.  She asked me to set the hook so I picked up the rod, let the fish run until it stopped and started again, and slowly tightened up on the line. 

This time the fish was on (or so I thought) so I gave the rod to Karen and told her to keep the line tight while I got the camera from the truck.

When I came back with the camera, Karen told me that the fish came off.   It was probably my fault but alas, it was not ment to be.

Anyway, it was starting to get dark and the wind was blowing harder so when Karen asked if we should leave, I was ready to head for the house.

On the way out of the refuge, I took some pics of the sunset that I hope you all enjoy.

There are some nice gator trout in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge if you know how to fish for them and get lucky enough to land one.  

Tomorrow after getting some work done around the house, Karen and I plan to take Elmo and Odie along with us for another short trip.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Gator Sea Trout Are Hitting In the Indian River

The Gator Sea Trout are hitting in the Indian River flats.

After a couple of weeks of being ill, I finally got a chance to wet a line Saturday afternoon.

I wanted to hit the beach to sample the pompano and whiting fishing but the possibility of hooking up with a gator sea trout got the better of me, so I decided to fish the refuge instead.

I stopped at the local bait shop and picked up a half dozen live mullet and a dozen live shrimp, just in case.  The owner said the pompano and whiting were "on fire" along the beaches and that there were still some bluefish in the surf.

He said that the reds and sea trout in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge were also biting well in the ditches and along the river side of the road. 

This is the time of the year when the mullet invade the lagoon systems and with them come gator sea trout, snook and redfish. 

I started out fishing lures around Peacocks Pocket road with limited success.  I picked up a couple of dancing ladyfish on a gold hammered spoon and missed a redfish in the shallows that was a brief hookup.

The finger mullet are just starting to come into the river system and the ditches in the marsh. 

Fishing live mullet or top water plugs is the preferred tactic this time of the year but since I got out late this afternoon, I wasn't expecting much action.  I was just happy to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather in the refuge.

I stopped at one small pond where I often hook up with reds and pitched out a live finger mullet.  The mullet was hooked thru the lips and I pinched a "lake shot" about 18" above the snelled 5/0 Owner hook.

The mullet was in the water about 30 seconds before a redfish picket up the bait and started up the marsh canal.  I gave the fish a moment to run, set the hook and missed the fish. 

From the size of the wake, it looked like a nice fish but I never did get a good look at it.

Undaunted, I moved on up the road and hit another spot I like to fish.

I pitched a gold hammered redfish spoon several times into the shallow flats and hooked up with two ladyfish in that spot before moving on.

As I was putting the rod into the truck, a couple slowly passed me and asked if I had any luck.  He was eager to show me his sea trout in the back of the truck so I took a look.  I should have taken a pic for this post but I didn't think of it at the time, anyway,  he had what I would call a Gator Sea Trout of about 30" in a five gallon bucket.

The guy said he caught the fish near culverts at Peacocks Pocket on a live finger mullet.

As he drove off, I decided to change tactics and start fishing finger mullet and topwater plugs.

I tied on a chartreuse and black Zara Spook Jr. and started tossing the bait around after putting out a live finger mullet on the second rod.

The tactic didn't pan out.  At the next few spots I stopped at, the finger mullet got "mouthed" but never eaten.

It was either small sea trout or a redfish that wasn't very hungry, and that doesn't happen much.

Around 5:30 pm I started getting hits on the Zara Spook but the fish were hitting short.  I smeared Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater gel on the plug to keep the fish interested and hooked up with a couple of small under size sea tout and one huge sea trout that missed the plug three times before swimming away.

The fish blew the the plug out of the water as I was "walking" it off a shallow flat into deeper water.  I let the plug sit still for a millisecond before jerking it and the fish hit and missed again.  As I was retrieving the lure for another cast it hit and missed the third time.

I probably wasn't holding my mouth right, anyway that was the end of my fishing for the afternoon.

On my last stop, I put out three rods with cut finger mullet and fresh dead shrimp and parked my butt to watch the sunset.

A small school of black drum pushed a nice wake off of the flat I was fishing and one of them took a wack at the fresh dead shrimp, but again the fish didn't get hooked. 

I set the rod back out with another fresh dead shrimp and after a while dragged in a large blue crab which I released.

The sunset was beautiful as usual as I took these pics and headed for home.

Tomorrow is another day.

Tight Lines.

Gator Sea Trout In October

Catching a gator sea trout wasn't on the agenda this evening, redfish was the target species.

Karen wanted to catch a redfish in honor of a mutual friend of ours who recently passed so, we planned to go fishing as soon as I got home from work this evening.

I didn't get to the house until quite late, but we still had about an hour or so of fishing time before sunset.

Because of the time factor, I decided to stop and pick up some finger mullet at Mosquito Lagoon bait and tackle instead of wasting time trying to net some bait.

We left Odie and Elmo at home and headed for a spot where we hoped there were some reds feeding.

When we got to our spot off of Peacocks Pocket road, I quickly set out several rods with live finger mullet.

There was a brisk wind blowing this evening and it was in the low 70s as we settled down to watch our rods.

I didn't bother tossing any artificial baits this evening, instead I decided to give live bait fishing a shot.

I quickly learned that having too many rods out at one time can be a waste of time. 

I had a hit on one rod and by the time I got to reel in the fish, it spit out the mullet and was gone.

The same thing happened twice more before I finally decided to put up two of the rods.  I could watch two rods without worrying about missing another fish.

Karen thought she had a hit but it turned out to be a false alarm.

This evening, except for one lone fisherman who was leaving the refuge with a kayak in the back of his truck, Karen and I were all alone in the refuge.

The angler with the kayak stopped to ask me if there were any fish in the marsh, so I referred him to this site.

About five minutes after he drove off,  I had just finished tossing a fresh finger mullet into the entrance of one of the marsh ponds and got a savage hit from what turned out to be a gator sea trout.

The fish briefly chased the freelined mullet and finally inhaled the bait.  I didn't have to set the hook this time around, the fish took off up the marsh canal as soon as it realized it was hooked and made several nice runs.

After a surprisingly good fight I landed what we I call an almost gator sea trout in central Flroida..

The fat female measured in at a little over 27" and was beautifully colored.

Normally I don't keep the fish I catch, but this one was headed to the dinner table in honor of Larry.

After unhooking the trout, I re-baited the rod with a fresh mullet and as I was setting out the rod, another fish hit the other rod that I had out.

But the time I got to the rod, the hooked fish was tangled in the brush along the bank. I could feel the fish but as I was trying to gently lead it out of the branches, it broke off and swam away.

From it's size, it looked like the redfish we were looking for, but I couldn't be sure.

As the sun began to set, it started getting really chilly. Karen was getting cold and the mosquitoes were getting nasty, so we decided to pack it in for the evening.

The temperature was in the low 60s as we loaded the last of our tackle into the truck and turned on the heater.

Catching gator sea trout in October isn't uncommon in our area, in fact it's one of the best times to go fishing.

Very few people are in the area and the fish are usually hungry!

Till next time, Tight Lines!