Labor Day Weekend Fishing Report For The Refuge

I hoped that the Labor Day fishing report for the refuge would be more promising than it is but that's why everyone calls it fishing and not catching.

Friday evening and Saturday afternoon fishing in and around Peacocks Pocket road in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge produced nothing but ladyfish and sea trout.

I saw several redfish but they were extremely spooky and refused every artificial bait I threw at them.

Friday evening in the refuge was nothing more than a scouting trip for the Labor Day weekend.

On Friday evening, my wife and I (along with Elmo our wonder dog) drove through Peacocks Pocket road from the easternmost entrance.

The air temperature was in the high 80s and there was almost no wind over the water.

There were very few vehicles on the unimproved road, which was probably due to the fact that it had not been mowed for at least a month.  The grass remains high alongside both edges of the road which makes for difficult casting.

When you do catch a fish, landing it becomes a major challenge in most areas.

My wife fished with jumbo fresh dead shrimp on Friday evening in several locations with no result.

I tried casting top water Chug Bugs and paddletail baits to a couple redfish but only picked up a couple small sea trout and a ladyfish in an hour and a half fishing.

Saturday afternoon, Karen didn't fee well so I went solo.  I decided to try the super shallows around Gator Creek road and play with the ladyfish until close to dusk when I planned to target reds.

 

 

The air temperature was again in the low 80s and there was almost no breeze.

I used a baby bass pattern Chug Bug for most of the time I fished the area and picked up a couple slot sea trout (below) along with at least a half dozen ladyfish.

A fast retrieve seemed to excite the ladyfish into striking even though they miss the plug half the time, but they are great fun to catch.

As the sun set on Saturday evening, I spotted a school of black drum in the area but they refused my paddle tail bait offering.

I saw only one redfish that was busting baitfish in a small pond near the second turn off to Catfish Creek Loop road and wound up concentrating too much time trying to get it to bite instead of moving on to fish some other areas.

As dusk closed in, the mosquitoes and green headed horse flies became unbearable even with bug spray, so I gave it up and headed for home.

So far this Labor Day weekend was turning out to be a bust for redfish.

At least I didn't get skunked!

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Indian River Fish Kill

An Indian River fish kill is rare but this afternoon there were tons of pogies floating in the shallows throughout Peacocks Pocket.

Despite the hot weather, I decided to take a run around Peacocks Pocket and do some "jump fishing" for sea trout and reds.

As usual, I got a late start. I entered the Pocket road by first driving around Catfish Creek.

As I got to the first culvert, the smell of decaying fish was almost overpowering.

The temperature was in the high 80s and as you can see by the short video below, dead pogies were everywhere.

Some of the live pogies were being chased by predators, probably jacks but I never hooked up with anything to confirm my suspicions.

I stopped at the first set of culverts and fished with paddletail baits but never got a hit.

After about 20 minutes of fishing, the friendly game warden below pulled up to check on my license, which I no longer need.

I asked her about all the dead fish but she didn't have any idea why the fish were dying.

As I fished both sides of the road, I noticed that the fish kill was concentrated in the Indian River lagoon side and not the salt marsh.

I picked up a couple of small sea trout and missed a nice red, but other than that, nothing was happening.

There were several people wading hip deep in the river but they didn't seem to be catching much either.

After about an hour of fishing, I decided to give it up for the day and try again hopefully tomorrow.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

Playalinda Beach Was A Bust

Playalinda Beach was a bust today as far as fishing was concerned but the surfers and sun goddesses had a great time.

I didn't get a chance to get out today until about 3:30 pm and since my wife didn't want to burn in the sun with me, I decided to hit Playalinda Beach to see what was hitting.

I stopped at several of the lower lots but there were too many surfers and beach goers to do any serious fishing.

 

I finally settled on parking lot #9 to start fishing.  There were beach goers but also a few fishermen who seemed to know what they were doing.

 

I brought along a bag of fresh dead bait shrimp that I picked up at the local bait shop and tied on a pompano rig with a 6 oz. pyramid sinker.

The tide was coming in and although there was not a heavy wind, the waves were heavy enough to make feeling a bite a problem.

Today I brought along two matched surf rods with Okuma bait runner reels.  One was loaded with 30# Power Pro and the other with 60# and a Krocodile spoon, just in case blues were in the surf.

To make a long story short, Playalinda Beach was a bust this afternoon.

The fish were biting well, especially around 6:00 pm but I couldn't hook anything on my three hook pompano rig.

It took about two hours to run completely out of bait.

I didn't feel too bad about it because the guys all around me were having the same problem.

There were a few croaker and small whiting being caught and except for a guy who landed a juvenile black drum, no one was catching anything of any size.

I thought about changing the khale hooks out on my pompano rig to small circle hooks but I didn't feel like walking back to the truck and leaving my gear alone on the beach.  So, I continued feeding the fish until the bait ran out.

I finally packed up my gear and headed home via Peacocks Pocket road.

I didn't feel like coming home skunked so I decided to see if I could lure up a few sea trout.

I used a Fire Tiger paddle tail bait and at my third stop picked up the small trout below.

I got a passerby to take the pic and put the fish back.

I made a quick run of the Pocket road and picked up two more small sea trout before calling it a day.

Although Playalinda Beach was a bust, Peacocks Pocket always seems to come through.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

March Indian River Lagoon Redfish

Saturday afternoon on the Indian River Lagoon was just breathtaking. The weather was in the 70s and the fish were biting.

My wife and I decided to load up the truck and hit the marsh canals in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in hopes of getting a redfish or two.

I also took a ton of pictures of the wildlife that was out in droves.



The roseatte spoonbills, purple ibis, white pelicans, and numerous duck and heron species were all over the swamp shallows competing for food and squatting rights.

The gators were also out sunning themselves; and I counted over 20, in only a 6 mile stretch.

We started fishing by looking for active fish feeding in the shallows, and almost immediately rolled up on a large redfish busting the bank after some baitfish.

I pulled ahead of the fish, stopped the truck and started casting but the fish was not interested in my offering. A small Johnson gold spoon.

I continued with the spoon until I finally lost confidence, so I tied on a new "Mann's" soft bodied lure that resembles and swims like the original Heddon Soinc lures.

After a few casts to likely looking spots and several misses, I finally picked up a keeper trout that I released to fight another day. See pic.



My wife kept our wonder dog Elmo in the car, being somewhat paranoid of the gators getting their chops around him. Some we saw could devour a human with very little effort.

Karen was fishing a dead shrimp under a Cajun Thunder bobber setup, and was catching some pretty nice sized catfish. We moved several times and finally came to one of her favorite "hot spots" where we decided to fish until it was time to leave.

She hadn't caught a decent redfish in a while, so I left her to her spot and continued with my lures hoping to catch a larger trout or passing redfish.

After about 20 minutes I heard her yelling and knew she finally hooked up with a red, so I grabbed my camera and captured the results below for all to comment on.

The fish was over the slot limit so we returned it to grow even larger and catch it another day.

On the way out of the refuge, we decided to explore a road right at Peacock Pocket, that I've never seen open to traffic. The cable barrier was down, so we proceeded with caution and found the neatest wildlife drive ever. The only problem was that it went nowhere.

After venturing in over 5 miles, the scenic trail finally came to a dead end near the entrance to Gator Creek. The swamp trail was kind of eerie, and there was absolutely no one else around except for the birds, buzzards, and gators.

I turned the truck around and retraced our steps back to the "Pocket" with new knowledge under our belt.

Personally, I'm glad that the road is normally closed to traffic. There was no litter anywhere, like in the openly traveled sections, and the beauty of the swamp will remain pristine, at least for now.

Till next time.
Tight Lines!

Indian River Fishing - Fishing The Mud Bottom Shallows

February is a good month for Indian River Fishing, especially when fishing the the mud bottom shallows on the northeast portion of the river.

This weekend was the first really warm weekend in a long time that my wife, my wonder dog Elmo, and I got to enjoy fishing both the lagoons without taking a chance of contracting a case of pneumonia.

The fish are cruising the shallows over mud bottom areas around the Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge, and they are very spooky.

If you care to wade these areas and are careful about not making too much commotion; you can pick up slot sized redfish in singles and small schools using fresh cut bait, live shrimp, and slow moving soft baits.

I watched one wade fishermen catch a nice sized black drum on a white CAL bait wading north of Peacock Pocket, and just south of Catfish Creek. A couple other fishermen, not so interested in getting their feet wet, picked up slot redfish in the same area.

I was targeting sea trout for a friend of mine who wanted the fish and didn't fare so well. I picked up a couple of undersized fish on a natural colored Creme paddle tail bait, along with on legal fish of about 17" that I didn't bother keeping.

The trout weren't biting in their normal haunts for this time of year, which I believe is partially due to the recent cold snap fish kill. Last year, I was picking up good numbers of sea trout and even a couple of snook during this time period.

I predict when the water warms up a bit, the fish will move back into their old hunting grounds.

Towards evening I started targeting redfish that were cruising the mud bottom shallows. I tried gold spoons, a new Rapala "twitch" bait, and the usual array of soft bodied baits. I missed one slot redfish on a DOA CAL white paddletail swimbait and spooked two others because of badly placed casts.

On the way out of our fishing area, we found the road closed at the causeway bridge and had to get home via the long route over Haulover canal. Thank the Lord that the new bridge construction and fishing pier construction seems to be going full speed ahead. It seems like the every other week they can't get the turnstyle bridge to close and they have to redirect traffic.

Well, we hope to get out Sunday providing the bridge is open. Perhaps I'll have a better report.

In the meantime, enjoy the pics.

By the way, I have absolutely no idea why the house was being pushed down the ICW. If anyone knows about this please post a comment, I'd love to know.

Meanwhile, Tight Lines To All!