Labor Day Scouting Trip

This afternoon's fishing excursion was actually a Labor Day scouting trip.

Karen and I didn't have anything planned today and since she wanted to spend some time with her horse,  I decided to pack up some rods and head out to see what was happening in our area.

When I finally decided to leave the house, it was around 5:30 pm and the air temperature was 93 degrees.  The weather was perfect for sunbathing or laying around the pool but not very conducive to fishing.

I decided to head over to Playalinda Beach to see if anybody was doing any good surf fishing.  I expected the parking lots to be crowded and most of them were, but compared to other area beaches, Playalinda was not as packed as I expected.

  
Unfortunately because the tide was out, not many people were actually surf fishing and the ones that were did not seem to be catching much.

I stopped at four parking lots and took some pics at each of them before driving through Eddy Creek.

Other than a couple of kayakers out in the Mosquito Lagoon, no one was fishing from the pier or wade fishing the area.

I again took some pics and decided to make a quick run down Bio Lab Road.

Bio Lab Road can be accessed from the beach road, so I took a right and drove parallel to the abundant grass flats adjacent to the Whale Tail.

I was really surprised to see that nobody was fishing the grass flats.  Unbelieveably, I did not see one single flats boat in the Mosquito Lagoon this afternoon.

As I drove down Bio Lab road, I stopped several times to toss a Chug Bug and a ZMann paddle tail bait into some areas I hoped held Snook.  Since today was opening day, I was hoping for a Snook.

Unfortunately, I caught a lot of Ladyfish (which were a blast) but no Snook. 

The shorline of the Mosquito Lagoon along Bio Lab road was packed with grass in most areas which
made wading out  a real pain.

  

I tossed the topwater Chug Bug around in a couple of areas and picked up a couple of trout, but I never saw a redfish or a Snook.

Since I was in the vicinity, I decided to drive past Haulover Canal and check out the Patillo Creek area.

As I crossed the Haulover Bridge I slowed down and took a couple of quick pics of the canal and again was surprised that no boats were anchored at the eastern mouth of the canal entrance.

Usually the deep hole is covered up with black drum fishermen dunking live blue crab.

I entered Patillo Creek road and drove around the area and saw only one fisherman in a kayak at the turnaround.

I stopped to cast the Chug Bug, a paddle tail bait and a gold spoon but except for another small Ladyfish on the Chug Bug, had no takers on any of the other baits.

It was getting late so I decided to take a quick run around Peacocks Pocket Road from the eastern entrance.  The water on the river and in the marsh area was virtually flat, and very little wind was blowing. 

I stopped at several spots to cast lures into likely looking areas and landed three sea trout on the Chug Bug, all about the size as the one below.

 

All the time I was traveling through Peacocks Pocket road, I never saw a redfish.  Since it was late in the afternoon, I suspect it was because of Labor Day traffic earlier in the day, assuming there was any.

Anyway, when my wife called I was more than ready to call it a day.

Before I left the area I took some more pics of the sun going down.

Rather than load up this post with a bunch of photos, ,I compiled this video of my Labor Day scouting trip.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

December 29, 2011 Fishing Report

The fishing for Dec 29th could according to the Almanac should have been pretty good, unfortunately the Almanac isn't gospel.

Today the air temperatures were in the low 60s and there was absolutely no wind on the Indian River.

The water in the marsh areas was dead flat which made for challenging conditions.

 The few people that were fishing around Catfish Creek loop were not catching anything, neither were the fishermen around Peacocks Pocket road.

My wife didn't want to go fishing with me this afternoon so I took Elmo our "wonder dog" along to give him some fresh air.

There was very little traffic this afternoon on the unimproved road and the people who were out were taking pictures of the wildlife.

To make a long story short, I fished several areas around Peacocks Pocket road with my favorite Bagley gold spoon, a "gold sardine" colored Heddon Saltwater Super Zara Spook Jr. -Black Shiner top water plug, a Creme Lures Spoiler Shad Swimbaits  and even dead shrimp without getting even a half hearted tug.

I spent the most time fishing "Bobcat Bay" where I missed two oversize redfish yesterday, but today they were either not in the area or they just weren't interested.

A FWC came by as I was getting ready to call it a day and we chatted a bit about the fishing.

 

Cody introduced himself and after a while continued down the road.

I took my time driving very slowly looking for signs of fish but the water was so calm that nothing except finger mullet were moving around.

As I drove up to the kayak launch, I stopped to talk to a fisherman that I occasionally see kayaking the area.

He reported that he caught some sea trout around the shallow flats near the creek to the Space Center and a couple of small reds on live shrimp under a cork.

He mentioned that the resident population of Black Drum were all over the place but that they were hard to target because of their erratic swimming patterns.

He spotted a lot of tailing redfish but they just weren't biting today. It could be the cold front or the lack of wind but whatever the reason, today's fishing report was dismal.

He mentioned that the fishing in the northern Indian River lagoon flats east of Scotsmoor wasn't that great right now and that there were a flock of fishing guides poling the Tiger Shoals area in the Mosquito Lagoon. This is a dead giveaway to where the big schools are located.

Tiger Shoals and the Whale Tail area in the southern Mosquito Lagoon are always good for redfish and sea trout.

I thanked him for the fishing report and headed for the house.

The temperature was 58 degrees as I left Peacocks Pocket road.

Tomorrow's another day, Tight Lines!