Fall Fishing – Thousand Islands

Happy Monday Spacefish!

Today I am going to write about a specific trip I took to the Thousand Islands Conservation Area in Cocoa Beach. I have discussed this area before, and if you have been there yourself you know that this is a beautiful area to go for a paddle, and that the fishing can be really enjoyable as well.

Launch Spot

For this trip, and many others I have taken to this area, I went to Ramp Road Park. But Ramp Road Park was closed. So I ended up going to launch from a place behind the Cocoa Beach Aquatic Center which is a really nice place to launch from, they have floating kayak docks, and areas you can just push in from the mangroves. I liked this spot because being able to launch from a different spot in the area makes it easier to explore different areas.

One of the things about fishing in this area from a kayak is that it is a very expansive area, and almost everywhere looks fishy. It’s definitely an area where one could go fish and be overwhelmed with how much area there is.

On this trip I launched from this new spot and pushed east. I had roughly 4 hours to fish on this trip, and I ended up making a big circle and fishing in between two of the bigger islands. Below I have included a picture of the route that I took. The area where I doubled up, is where I spent the most time as I was most productive with both Redfish and Trout in this area. Despite my poorly drawn lines, I worked this area very methodically.

The Best Part of this Trip

The best part of this trip was catching a few nice Redfish, nothing overly big, but big enough to be fun to catch. The Redfish were in shallower areas on this warm fall afternoon. The water was pretty dingy on this trip, so I was not able to do any sight casting. But I was making casts towards the mangroves and getting thumps on the retrieve. Which means they were probably cruising these shorelines looking for food.

I caught them on DOA Paddletails, in the Silver Mullet and Figi Chix colorways, both paddletails were put on a ⅛ oz Chartreuse DOA CAL Jig. I slathered my baits in Pro-Cure and fished them with slow-steady retrieves, and by bouncing the bottom. Pictured above is the last Red I caught on this afternoon trip, the one pictured below is the first one I caught that afternoon.

Old Reliable

If the Redfish made for a pleasant surprise, the species that I caught in the highest volume was a reliable species to catch in the Thousand Islands, and that is the Speckled Trout. I have mentioned before in other reports that this area is a Juvie Trout factory, I assume this area offers a crucial nursery habitat to this species, because on almost every trip here I have caught 20+ schoolie Trout.

If you follow along the boat channel leaving Ramp Road, and use that like an interstate highway to cover ground, and make exits you will notice that in pretty much every area where the deeper water from the channel provides an exit to a shallow water area these small Trout stack up. So any depth contour is liable to hold a school of hungry juvenile Trout.

While 99% of the Trout I have caught here over the years are nothing to brag about, they do provide action and can make for a good time and tight lines. This is an area I like to take people to that just want to have fun catching some fish, and taking in a beautiful environment to paddle.

Vudu Shrimp, and Gulp! Shrimp are very effective for generating lots of small Trout, but probably the most effective presentation is a smaller 3 to 3.5 inch paddle tail on a jig head. Something you can cast far, bounce/jig back at a slow to medium retrieval speed. Once you find one, you can probably sit in that area and catch a lot, it just depends on what you want. I usually catch 2-3 before I move on, just enough to confirm they are schooled up, but I don’t usually want to waste too much time catching schoolie’s when there is so much water to cover in this area. That being said, If you make a bunch of casts, and covering a bunch of water you are likely to end up catching 20+ of these guys just because they seem to be so abundant here.

Lots of Lady’s

One thing I have noticed in my last couple of trips here, is that there are a ton of Ladyfish, especially in the area I have been in. They have been aggressively going after my paddletails and shrimp lures, and to be honest have been a real pain in the ass to deal with. From the slime, the stink, and the chaffing of leaders. But I did want to mention it because for those that like to cut bait fish, they can make for really good bait.

The area that has deeper water, behind Cocoa Beach High seems to offer a strong concentration of them, this is also an area that has a lot of rolling Tarpon in the summer months, so if soaking chunks of cut Lady is your thing, or if you are willing to put in the effort to catch them, cut them up, and soak them this could be the key to unlocking a monster Red in a highly pressured fishing area.

Conclusion

The Thousand Islands area has always been one I really enjoy fishing at, this fishing is not always dynamite, but it’s a great place for a kayak angler. It is aesthetically beautiful, and offers a ton of area to explore. During the cooler months of the year it’s a good area to fish because there are some deeper water areas close to shallow water areas, such as the area I highlighted on this trip. These areas tend to be productive from early fall-late spring because it offers species like Redfish deeper holes to sit in when cold snaps occur, and warm shallow flats to “sun” in on warm afternoons between the cold fronts.

Also, I’d like to wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING and say THANK YOU for taking the time to read my reports. I don’t know about you, but Thanksgiving is usually the time in which we start decorating for Christmas, and also when we start doing some Christmas shopping. As you start your process of making lists, and picking up gifts, make sure to stop by Kayaks By Bo in Cocoa!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Until next time!