Peacociks Pocket Snook

Although the season is now closed, Peacocks Pocket Snook fishing is still available on a catch and release basis.

Luis Rivera was kind enough to send me this pic of a linesider he caught in Peacocks Pocket, so I decided to post it along with his email.

"Hello there, just wanted to share this photo with you. I recently started reading your blog and have founded very helpful, I went to Peacocks today and after reading your post from last Sunday I decided to throw a Johnson spoon, I was throwing a "sprite" at first but I was getting a lot of weeds on it so I decided to switch to a "weedless" and just cast a bit move on and cast a bit and so forth, eventually I found a nice deep pocket and casted for a bit and then Boom I got hit by this nice Snook. so, thanks again for posting and hopefuly someday I can hook up with you so you can teach me how to "really" fish the area."

The gold spoon is one of my favorite "go to" baits for big sea trout, redfish and snook.

If you know how to work one correctly, they can draw strikes from fish when live baits and other types of artificial lures get turned down and as you can see, Luis apparently knows how to work one well.

With any kind of luck I'll be able to get out this afternoon.

Till then, Tight Lines.

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road seemed like a good idea this afternoon when I finally decided to get in some much needed fishing time.

Since there was only about an hour of daylight left before the sunset, I only packed one rod before leaving the house, and that one happened to be tipped with a Johnsons Sprite gold spoon.

The weather this afternoon was chilly but perfect for fishing.  The air temperature was in the 60s and there was almost no wind blowing across the water.

The sunlight was not hampered by any cloud cover and there were a lot of other visitors in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge taking pictures of the wildlife and trying to catch fish.

I pulled up to the wire rope barrier that crossed the unimproved road to Peacocks Pocket and parked my truck.

I put on my Frog Togs "hoodie" and pocketed a couple of spare lures just in case the gold spoon I was using got broken off or hung on an underwater stickup.

The first culvert at the barrier was open and since there was a strong flow of water, I decided to try a couple of casts.

On my third cast a small redfish nailed the spoon but did not get hooked.  I saw the brief flash of bronze color as the fish hit the lure and the wake as it left the shallow area.

Undaunted, I continued fan casting and after a few more casts hooked up with this sea trout.

 The fish grabbed the gold spoon about three feet away from the culvert and took off like a shot.

After landing the fish and taking a pic it was released to fight another day.

The commotion apparently put down the fish so I started walking up the road and making random casts into the marsh canal.

In the short time available to me, I managed to release two more sea trout about the same size as the first one I landed and missed another larger redfish that for some reason did not get hooked.

Walking Peacocks Pocket Road proved to be great mental therapy.  There was nobody around except for a couple of alligators, some "puddle ducks" and a Kingfisher that kept raising hell with me for some unknown reason.

As the sunset arrived, I took a few pics of the beautiful scenery and started walking back to the truck
. 

As I drove out of the refuge, I decided to stop by the fishing piers to see how well the sport shrimpers were doing.

As I drove into a parking spot the band was playing and there were a lot of people on both fishing piers.  Some were fishing, others were shrimping and many people were just walking around like myself, looking.

I didn't spend much time talking to everybody but the no one seemed to be bragging about a full bucket.   A couple of the guys said the shrimp were big (meaning jumbos) but there weren't many of them. 

After surveying several buckets and walking around for awhile, I wholeheartedly agreed with them.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Going For The Gold

Going for the gold spoon this time of the year is just the ticket for redfish in the shallows of the salt marsh.

This morning after my wife waited for two and a half hours to vote, we took Elmo and Odie for a ride into the "swamp" to see if anyone was catching any fish.

We were surprised at the number of people who were fishing and sight seeing around Peacocks Pocket road and for good reason.

The roseate spoonbills were in the area and the alligators were out in force.  I counted 16 gators sunning on the banks or partially submerged and who knows how many were not visible.

  

  
We didn't have any fishing rods with us so I just took some pics of the wildlife.

    
Although we counted at least half a dozen fishermen in various areas, none seemed to be catching any fish.

There were three boaters close to shore on the Indian River side fishing the shallows, but they also didn't seem to be catching anything.

 
The weather was in the high 70s and there was barely a hint of a wind on the water.

We drove all the way through Peacocks Pocket road and went home to do some work around the house.  We planned on fishing later on in the afternoon.

Around 4:30 pm I decided to go back to the area and see if I could catch some redfish or sea trout.

Karen didn't feel like fishing so I packed up four spinning rods and headed for the "swamp".

When I got to the area the temperature had dropped to a pleasant 72 degrees and there was no wind.  The water was absolutely flat on the marsh side of the road and almost flat on the river side.

I started fishing with a paddle tail bait and missed a couple of small sea trout at my first two stops.

I decided to target redfish so I chose the rod tipped with a gold Johnson's spoon and started blind casting into the submerged grassy areas that I thought would hold fish.

For the next hour and a half I managed to hook up and land three redfish and five sea trout.

The reds measured in at 26", 29" and 31".  I missed two reds that hit the spoon but shook off the treble hook at the bank.

 

All the sea trout were under the slot except for one which just hit the 15" mark.

 

All the fish were released to fight another day, hopefully again with me and my wife.

The fish were all caught in the marsh areas at several of my favorite locations which shall remain nameless.

The 31" red was caught just off an area that my wife calls "snook point" in shallow water that was only about a foot deep.

When it nailed the gold Johnson's spoon, it headed back into the grass where I almost lost it.  It took some patience and steady pressure on the fish to pull it out of the submerged grass and eventually grip it onto the bank.

I was using a 7 1/2 foot graphite rod, 10# Cajun Red line and about 6 feet of 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader.  The Johnson's gold spoon was rigged with a small barrel swivel and split ring to enhance it's action.

Going for the gold spoon is something I do during the winter months. 

I have always been partial to using a Bagley's gold hammered spoon but the company no longer makes them.  The last one I had is in the mouth of a big redfish somewhere in the "swamp".

The last redfish I landed was the smallest and hit just off a grassy point in shallow water.

As I was fighting the fish, my wife called me and asked me to pick up a pizza on the way home.

Holding the phone with one hand while fighting the red with the other hand was tricky, but I still managed to land the fish.and take the pizza order.

As the gnats and mosquitoes started going for my jugular,  I decided to call it a day and head for Little Caesars Pizza.

I've learned from experience that going for the gold spoon during the winter months is a sure way to catch a red or a big sea trout in this area.

Till next time, Tight Lines to you all.

Gold Spoons Really Rock!

Gold spoons really rock, especially when you fish them before a rainstorm.

After driving 400 miles to make my late afternoon doctor's appointment, I didn't get a chance to wet a line this afternoon until about 5:00 pm.

My wife Karen opted to stay home because of the weather so I loaded three spinning rods into the truck and headed for the nearest potential hotspot. 

As I left the house it started sprinkling and before I got to Peacocks Pocket Road in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, it totally stopped.

The temperature was a pleasant 70 degrees and there was relatively little wind.  Since there was no one around the shallow water kayak launch, I decided to start fishing in the shall bay around the corner from it on the Indian River side of the road.

Nothing beats a gold spoon to locate fish if you know how to fish them right.

With a gold spoon, you can cover a lot of water very quickly and once you find them, you can switch to soft baits or whatever rocks your boat.

After about a dozen casts I finally hooked up to a slot size sea trout which I quickly released.

I continued fan casting the same area and around 6:00 pm, I hooked into this 26" male sea trout.

The fish put up a very bullish fight and at first I thought I had hooked into a redfish. 

I was fishing for meat this afternoon so I decided to keep one fish for dinner and this was it.

I hooked two more smaller trout in the area before it started to rain so I decided to move up the road to another favorite spot that my wife and I named "bobcat bay".

There were two fishermen wading the shallows and one of them was fighting a redfish that he brought to shore and quickly released.  I took a couple of quick picks of the action that didn't really turn out that well, but here they are despite being out of focus.

 

I made a few casts to a cruising redfish on the marsh side of the road but it wasn't eating so I moved up to another area where my wife caught redfish a few weeks ago.

Here I met Sean Mclaughlin with his fishing equipment neatly packed on the back of his bike.

I asked him how he was doing and he said "You're John, you're the reason I'm out here".

He obviously was a reader of this website and I was genuinely surprised anyone would recognize me.

He told me that he was from Orlando and that he hadn't been out to this area in a while. 

Although he wasn't catching any fish, he said the guy in the pickup just up the road from him had missed a nice "bull" redfish on the Indian River side. 

Sean said he was down on the shrimping pier the other evening and caught some nice sea trout but this afternoon he wasn't doing anything.

I gave him some advice along with a couple of the lures that I use in the area and decided to head for home to clean my fish.

I made a couple of halfhearted casts to the area where Jeff, the guy in the pickup truck, said he missed the big redfish but if there was anything in the area, it wasn't interested in my gold spoon.

Sean was packing it in and said he was heading back to Orlando before the lightning got too close. 

I took a few shots of the storm as I was leaving Peacocks Pocket road and was glad I didn't have to make the drive to Orlando that Sean was in for.

One thing is sure, gold spoons really rock if you're after big fish and need to cover large areas of water in a hurry.

In only an hour and a half I managed to land three fish and miss three others.

I just love refuge fishing!

Till next time, Tight Lines.