Trout In The Culverts

Haven't had time to fish much these days but I decided to head down to Gator Creek to wet a line while waiting for the Space X launch this evening. 

As I rolled into Gator Creek Road, I took a couple of pics of some nice artwork on the concrete barriers that stop people from pulling up close to the water.

I had what I thought was an hour or so to wait so I pulled up to an open culvert where I had luck catching rat reds in the past. 

There were what looked like trout in the culverts feeding in the shallows on small newly hatched baitfish, so I tied on a 3" Cream Spoiler Shad bait that I had with me and started tossing it around the weeds.

I had a bump on the first cast and missed the fish so I continued fan casting the area.

In about 15 minutes of fishing, I had three more hits and missed every single fish.

I cut off the bait and started rooting around my truck to find a smaller lure that would hopefully get a solid hookup.  

After tearing apart my center console, I found a small white Cream Spoiler Shad about an inch or so long that I tied on.

After the first cast, I hooked into a nice slot size sea trout that put up a decent fight for its size.

I took a pic, released the fish, and continued tossing the small bait around the area.

A couple of casts later, I caught another sea trout that was a clone to the first one.

In the next half hour, I managed to land two more fish and missed about the same before I packed up the rod in expectation of the Space X launch.

It took a few minutes and a search on my cell phone for me to realize the launch was going to be delayed again till around 8:00 pm.

I didn't feel like waiting around for another possible letdown, so I headed to the house.

As it turned out, the launch did go off around 8:30 pm but I videoed it from my back yard.

Not the best vantage point, but it was still cool.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Trout In The Culverts

The sea trout in the culverts this afternoon were cooperating quite well.

I planned on trying for some juvie tarpon around the weedy flats of East Gator Creek but after a half hour of fishing without a hit I decided to walk Peacocks Pocket Road and hit the ditches.

When I pulled up to the barrier, which was pulled down, I parked off to the edge and took a couple of rods tipped with a gold Johnson Sprite spoon and a creme paddletail bait.

I planned to walk up to the first pond but when I saw fish activity around the first culvert I decided to stop and give it a try.

The water movement in the culvert was brisk and a small pod of fingerling mullet was periodically breaking the surface, so I started blind casting the area.

On my second cast I had a light tap and on my third cast I hooked into a slot sea trout that I quickly landed and released.   

I thought about keeping the fish for dinner but since I just bought a ham, the fish lived to fight another day.

After letting the area settle down a bit, I started casting the bait around the roiling water around the culvert.

A couple of casts later, I hooked into another larger sea trout that I landed and released.

On the next cast, I hit another sea trout that was slightly larger than the last fish.  This fish almost got into the brush at the bank, but I skinnied down to the culvert and managed to land the trout.

For the next half hour or so, I managed to hook and release four more sea trout that were all in the slot from 15 to 18 inches in length.

Just as the bite abruptly stopped,  an angler with a fly rod pulled up and started walking up the road.  

He stopped and we talked about the bite and difficulty in landing fish on a fly rod with all the brush around the banks.  

He told me that he loses a lot of fish but like me it's fun to hook them.

I offered him my spot as I started gathering my gear to head to the truck.

On the way out of the refuge, I took a spin around Catfish Creek to check out the sunset and see if anybody was still fishing the bank.

Hope to get out again this week to wet a line.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.