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.

The 2014 Winter Shrimping Season Is Officially ON

From Titusville to Oak Hill, Florida, the 2014 winter shrimping season is in full swing.

The sounds of five gallon buckets echo throughout the night on both of Titusville's  fishing piers as sport shrimpers of all kinds try to load them up with jumbo "crickets" as they are called by the locals .

So far this April, Volusia County has been on fire with reliable harvests and predictable action night after night from the Lopez area of Oak Hill to as far North as the New Smyrna Beach pier.

The Oak Hill area, noted for their small size shrimp, has been providing sport shrimpers of late with some impressively sized shrimp that have  not been seen in years.

The shrimp are averaging from 4-3/4" to over 5" and most of the boats are making full pulls (30lbs/5 gallons) .  Volusa County shrimpers in general have been harvesting a minimum of 1 to 2 gallons of shrimp on any given night under the lights.  This video shows how easy it is to get a cooler full when you hit the tide right.

Although Oak Hill shrimp occasionally reach impressive sizes during late February through March, usually in April the size of the shrimp harvested gets considerably smaller.

You'll still be able to cull out some large shrimp, but the majority will be 4" or smaller; much less than the preferred size.

If you're shrimping in Volusia County, plan to hit Oak Hill.   Edgewater has not

been as productive as Oak Hill and if you hit the back end of the tide, you can still get a shot at some of the big 8" shrimp in Oak Hill before the "smallies" take over.

From February to date, Brevard County shrimping remains moody.

Titusville shrimpers from Haulover Canal, to the railroad bridge, to the fishing piers on the Indian River are having a more difficult time filling their buckets.

It has been reliably either very hot or totally cold since the first of April.

The shrimp in Brevard County seem to run when they feel like it and some of the die hard shrimpers on the rails dip all night only to harvest a half bucket.

The difference between a good and bad night shrimping during the shrimp run seems to boil down on how well you set up your underwater light field.

The old timers who shrimp on a regular basis know that a badly laid out light field makes for a bad night on the pier.   They also seem to know when to go shrimping and when to stay at home.

Knowing when to go obviously gives you an advantage.   If the winds are blowing in over 10 knots, don't bother loading up your shrimping gear.

Timing is everything, and March and April are magical in Brevard County.

The cold fronts for the most part are a distant memory and the pleasant evenings make the two fishing piers a gathering place for sport shrimpers, night fishermen and party-goers alike.

Although the shrimp in Brevard County are by far much larger than anywhere else in Florida, you have to put in your time on the rails and plug in to local shrimping information to make it worthwhile when you schedule a trip to our area.

Brevard remains King of the slobs (jumbos), and when the stars are lined up perfectly, Titusville pier shrimpers can load up their buckets with mediums and jumbos of over 5".

April is also the best month to load up on blue crab and shrimp at Haulover Canal.

I've been told that as Volusia County shrimping starts to wind down, North Brevard will be the best seat in the house.

It appears it's time to get out and enjoy the 2014 winter shrimping season.