Stormy Fishing

Stormy fishing in August is not unique to Central Florida fishing and this weekend was no exception.

Although I always suggest fishing the early hours prior to dawn during the summer months, I usually can't get out on the water until late in the evenings as was the case this weekend.

After I got home from work Friday evening there were thunderstorms throughout the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and I was only able to get in an hour or so fishing time in before sunset.  In fact on Friday evening, I was the only person fishing in the entire refuge.

Along with some bug spray, four spinning rods loaded tipped with a gold Johnson Sprite spoon, a Chug Bug, a soft bodied plastic jerk bait and a Nemire Red Ripper Spoon were loaded into the back of the truck and I was off to the "swamp".

There was a steady rain falling when I left the house along with some thunder off on the horizon and the air temperature was a "cool" 72 degrees.  A strong breeze made casting difficult.

When I pulled into the refuge, the wind had died down and it became very calm, so I headed for a small pond where I spotted some sea trout and redfish last weekend.

The Chug Bug I started fishing with produced a couple of short strikes so I switched to a silver Johnsons Sprite and started catching some very small ladyfish. 

After catching the fourth ladyfish on the spoon, I changed rods and switched to the Chug Bug pattern I was using last weekend.

I started blind casting to the banks around the grassy islands and picked up a couple of sea trout before moving on.

Both fish were caught at the grassy islands as the retrieve was over the drop off.

I kept getting hits from small ladyfish on the Chug Bug, so I moved up to another larger pond where I spotted some really big redfish last week.

It started raining and for a short time it was stormy fishing again so I switched to a 1/4 oz. gold Johnson's Sprite spoon that I could control more easily in the wind.

After several casts around another grassy island, I hooked and lost a slot sized redfish.  The fish made a long run and broke off my gold spoon when it got hung around some brush at the bank.

I was using a 15# fluorocarbon shock leader on green 20# Power Pro line and the leader parted at the knot.

After losing the red and making several unfruitful blind casts into the same area without any hits, I moved on up the unimproved road and started fishing the marsh canal with the jerk bait with no success.

The grass is almost chest high along both sides of the road in most areas, making fishing difficult. 

You can't see the entire marsh canal unless you drive dangerously close to the edge and when you do hook a fish, the chances of landing it are diminished because of all the brush.

Anyway, I eventually hooked a nice sea trout but couldn't get down the bank to land the fish, so I shook it off.

The gnats and mosquitoes were getting to me and it was getting dark so when my wife called, I told her I was heading home for dinner.

As I was driving out of the refuge and scratching my mosquito bites, I took some pics of the sunset.

Hopefully, Saturday will be more productive.

Till then, Tight Lines.