Sea Trout Are In The Ditches

The sea trout are in the ditches in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

My wife has been sick for the past week and I haven't been feeling much better so I broke down and visited the local walk in clinic and discovered that I had a severe upper respiratory infection.

After getting the antibiotics scrip filled, I took one and decided to hit Peacocks Pocket road to see if anyone was catching fish.

There were several vehicles in the area bird watching with only two people actually fishing and they were not catching fish.

I brought along a couple of rods that I hastily tossed into the back of the truck and started blind casting to likely looking spots in the marsh canal.

The Berkley power bait produced a couple of light taps but no hookups so I decided to tie on an old gold diamond spoon to see if I could dredge up a redfish.

I was feeling pretty crappy and I didn't plan on fishing long, especially since the wind was blowing steadily and the air temperature was beginning to give me a chill.

I tossed the gold spoon into a couple of areas and got a quick hookup with what I thought was a redfish.

The fish made two nice runs and then started sloshing around like the big sea trout that it was.

When I got the fish close enough to identify it, I played it carefully to a sparsely brushed area of the bank, grabbed it by the gills and landed the fish up the steep bank.

A couple in a small coupe stopped by to ask me what I was using and if there were any fish on "that side of the road".

I explained to them that fish are in very skinny water this time of the year almost anywhere and they are hungry.

I decided to take the sea trout home for dinner so I dispatched the fish, put it in the back of the truck and headed home.

On the way out of the refuge, I took these pics of what the "bird watchers" were looking at.  There were several more gators that I didn't bother photographing and tons of other birds in the area that I'm blessed to see on a regular basis so I didn't bother putting them up here. 

I particularly like the spoonbills and pelicans.

 

 

 

 

On the way home, I stopped by the local Exxon station to gas up and a fellow angler walked over to chat with me about the fishing conditions.

I showed him the sea trout in the back of the truck that I was keeping for dinner and we talked briefly about where he was fishing and what he was using.

I don't remember his name, but he told me he came here from the west coast of Florida to visit his family.

I suggested some flats for him to fish for a bull redfish with cut baits and we parted ways.

When I got home and started filleting the fish, it measured 23 inches long.  Not a real "gator trout" but fun to catch and good eating.

Till next time when I hope to be feeling better, Tight Lines.

Sea Trout Are In The Ditches

The sea trout are in the ditches this time of the year and if you adhere to some basic cold weather fishing tactics, you can have a ball catching instead of just fishing.

Fishing Peacocks Pocket road today was definitely on the agenda and even though this morning looked like it was going to be a rainy day, it turned out to be gorgeous.

When I finally loaded up the truck with some spinning rods, it was around 1:30 pm and the air temperature was 70 degrees.

Turning into Gator Creek road was like entering the on ramp to I-95.  There were a ton of people driving around Peacocks Pocket road watching and photographing the abundant variety of birds and waterfowl that bless us this time of the year.

I briefly stopped to fish the first pond and drew a blank, so I slowly drove up the road to see if I could spot any redfish movement.

I decided to try some blind casting in areas where I caught fish last year in February, so I tied on a white Creme paddle tail swimbait and smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater formula.

It only took a few casts before I hooked up with a nice fat sea trout that just made the slot.

After taking it's picture and releasing the fish, I continued to fish the stretch to see if I could stir up some more action.

Ron Granger, a fishing bud drove up and we briefly talked about the fishing.

He said didn't score any redfish using the mud minnows he had with him and when he asked me, I told him about the sea trout I was catching in the ditches of the salt marsh.

A "traffic jam" cut our conversation short, so I move on and continued fishing the stretch.

I knew for certain that the sea trout were in the ditches when I hooked up with the third fish. 

A guy from Maine stopped to ask me what I was catching as I was unhooking the fish and when I released it, he looked genuinely shocked.

I drove up to a small pond and switched baits to a Berkley paddletail that looked more like the baitfish that are in the ditches.

It took only two casts to hook up with another sea trout that finally hit the 18" mark.

This spot had a school of agitated baitfish milling around so I decided to try something different, just for the hell of it.

I tied on a yellow with black polka dots Mepps type spinner that I used in fresh water to catch bass with.

The first cast past the baitfish got me hooked up with a slot sea trout, but the fish got off after a couple of head shakes.

I shot another cast in the same area and promptly got another hookup with another sea trout that also got off after a couple of shakes.

It was obvious that the small treble hook wasn't working too good with sea trout so, I took off the small treble hook and replaced it with a larger one that I pulled off an old plug.

I thought for sure that I had the remedy to losing any more sea trout but after making several casts into the same general area, I never got another bite.

I decided to try fishing with a gold spoon to see if I might rile up a redfish so I changed rods and started tossing around a Johnson Sprite.

I was ready to give up on the spoon when I finally hooked up with a small ladyfish. I took a quick pic

and released the fish to grow up.

During the next couple of hours I landed and released 10 more sea trout on swimbaits, hooked and lost at least 5 more sea trout, and spooked two nice redfish.

All the fish were in the ditches of the salt marsh.

My back was hurting from bending over so I decided to quit fishing and take some pics of the waterfowl that everyone else was photographing in the area.

Here is a short compilation of today's picture taking session.  All the pics were taken with my old Nikon CoolPix 8700 and my Samsung WB150F.


When I finally left Peacocks Pocket road at 6:00 pm the air temperature was a "chilly" 60 degrees with no wind.

I called my wife to let her know I was on the way home but as I got to the bridge the police had the closed it off from vehicle traffic.

The officer told me there was some sort of foot race going on over the bridge and that I could wait until 7:00 pm or take the long route over Haulover Canal to get home.

I opted for the latter and after making the long 20 mile plus trip, finally got home before the bridge was open.

As I crossed Haulover Canal, I noted that there were several boats anchored at the Mosquito Lagoon entrance to the canal fishing for black drum or redfish.

Although the day would have been even more perfect if I could have landed a redfish, I was happy that the sea trout are in the ditches and that I was able to catch a few today.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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