Thunderstorm Sea Trout Fishing

Didn't get any fishing in this weekend because of a problem with my truck but I did manage to nail a few sea trout this evening just before the thunderstorm started to roll in.

Friday afternoon on the way back from Jacksonville, Fl. I lost the steering and brakes in my Silverado.

They went out around the St. Augustine exit and I managed to baby the truck back to Titusville on a wing and a prayer or two.

Hopefully it will be repaired tomorrow but in the meanwhile I had to use my wife's vehicle to get out of the house and wet a line on the Indian River.

I loaded up three spinning rods late this evening and drove into East Gator Creek to see if there was any topwater action going on.

After several dozen unfruitful casts with a Chug Bug, I decided to move into the Catfish Creek area and give it a try.,

There was a lot of vehicle traffic this evening, but few fishermen out on the water.

When the air temperature started dropping and the wind started picking up I decided to fish a culvert on the Indian River that is usually productive close to dusk, and this evening was no exception.

I tossed the Chug Bug several times and had two followups and one short strike so I decided to switch over to a gold Johnsons Sprite.

The spoon did the trick.  After only a few casts around some milling finger mullet, I nailed an undersize sea trout which I quickly released.

Several more casts yielded two more fish that were a bit larger but still under the 15" minimum.

As the storm moved in and it started getting dark, I spotted a couple of nice swirls so I tossed the spoon past them and got a hookup with a nice redfish.  The fish hit the spoon on the drop, swam about ten yards and the hook pulled out.

Undaunted, I continued fan casting the spoon and missed two more trout before getting another hit from a redfish.

The fish nailed the spoon about ten feet from the bank and pulled drag off the reel, but again the hook pulled out.

It was almost dark and the wind was getting stronger so I decided to call it a day and head for home.

In about an hour of fishing I managed to land three sea trout, missed at least three more and miss two nice redfish.

I've got to remember to let them eat the spoon when they hit instead of trying to immediately set the hook.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

Thunderstorm Sea Trout Action

Late Saturday afternoon seemed to be a good time to take advantage of some thunderstorm sea trout fishing.

Thunderstorms in the late afternoon seem to be the norm lately, and today was no different.

After I finished up with the chores around the house, I asked Karen if she wanted to take Elmo and Odie fishing with me.

It was still raining off and on and she didn't feel like getting muddy so I packed up some spinning rods and headed off to the "swamp" for some late afternoon sea trout fishing.

I was originally planning to take my Maverick flats boat out to the Mosquito Lagoon and fish the shallow flats around Pelican Island and the Whale Tail area but it was too late in the day to fool around with hooking up the trailer.

It was around 7:00 pm when I finally left the house and the rain was just beginning to let up.  The air temperature dropped just below the 80 degree mark and there was virtually no wind over the Indian River.

I decided to fish the area where I picked up a nice 31" gator trout that didn't get away last weekend so I passed up several other areas where I spotted some activity and headed directly to the general spot.

The grass along side of Peacocks Pocket road is chest high which makes for some tough fishing.  

When you hook a fish, the odds of landing it go way down because of the brush and the damn horse flies are blood thirsty.

If you do manage to evade these bloodsuckers, you still have the gnats, "no seeums", and the mosquitoes to contend with.

For some reason they all seem to be impervious to mosquito repellant.

Anyway, all the negatives create some positives.  I was virtually the only fisherman in the area.

I started out fishing a Johnson weeldess silver spoon on an 8# medium action spinning rig and promptly hooked up with a couple of ladyfish and a small sea trout.

I decided to change over to a larger size Johnson Sprite gold spoon smeared up with some Pro-Cure.

Several blind casts into the glass like water rewarded me with a follow up from what looked like a slot size redfish.  The fish veered off at the last minute and never gave me a second chance.

It was getting darker and the surface activity started to ramp up so I decided to try a Silver and Lime Green Chug Bug.

I smeared on some Pro-Cure and started casting around some weedy islands and hooked a couple of beautifully colored slot size sea trout.

 
Both fish gave me a decent fight before I managed to land and release them.

As dusk neared and I was bringing in my Chug Bug, another huge gator sea trout blasted the lure just as it was chugging over a drop off.

The fish missed the first time it hit and got foul hooked in it's side a split second later as it swirled back onto  the bait.

As I was trying to find a spot to land the fish away from the heavy brush that lined the bank, the big sea trout straightened out the treble hook and got off. 

I knew the gator trout I caught last week wasn't the only big one in the area.

I lost several sea trout in this same general spot that looked to be the same size or larger, and today's hookup only substantiated my theory.

The fish come into the "swamp" area via open culverts, become somewhat land locked and with all the forage in the area,  they quickly grow to trophy size.

Anyway, I made several more blind casts just at dusk and missed another smaller fish that hit short before I decided I had enough of the bugs.

I took a couple of pics of the sunset and headed for home.

As I left the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge I had to stop briefly to let an 8 foot gator cross the road and again to watch a bobcat prance across the road as I was leaving Peacocks Pocket.

Hope to get out again tomorrow..

 Till then, Tight Lines.