Kayak Fishing: After The Storm

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope all is well, and that everyone came out of the storm okay! Continued prayers with those affected by Hurricane Milton, and Hurricane Helene. I got a chance to go fishing Saturday morning; it was a bit of an adventure finding a place to go, but once I got going – it was a good day of fishing!

Launch Spot

So when I left the house early on Saturday I was anticipating not being able to access and launch from my chosen spot; I wanted to go back to Long Point since my last trip resulted in losing a few large Snook; but they were closed. I assume this was due to flooding from the Hurricane. So I got back on A1A and went to Sebastian Inlet State Park; my plan B was to launch from the kayak/canoe launch and head south to go fish the mangroves, and eventually the line of docks along the eastern shore of the Indian River Lagoon – but the State Park’s gate was shut and locked – not sure if they opened later in the day or not.

So that brought me to plan C! I continued south of A1A and took a right on the Wabasso Causeway and ended up launching from the shoreline of the causeway park. I am hyperlinking the address to the causeway park Boat Ramp but just know that I launched from the northside and started my journey heading north towards the tip of Marsh Island and the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Where I Fished

So I ended up covering a good bit of ground on this trip. I went around Marsh Island and back towards the Causeway. I fished around the bridge pilings and caught a few small Mangrove Snapper, and a rare Sheepshead on artificial. Then I went north and fished the deeper ends of the docks and caught 2 small Reds and 3 small Trout.

I pushed north into the Refuge hoping to find some Snook; but this was a bust due to high water levels making skip casting to the mangroves impossible. So I tracked back towards the tip of Marsh Island. By this point the breeze had picked up and was coming from the east. So I did a few trips of starting on the NE point of Marsh Island and letting the wind and current push me around the tip, then I’d fish the wind protected side for a hundred yards or so and then go back and start it over again.

This was my most productive area on this trip. I caught Jacks and Sea Trout around the point, and caught two nice Redfish on the flats on the wind protected side. One I sight casted to, the water levels on this flat were up, but I was able to see the fish’s wake.

Don’t Go to Battle without your Minutemen

The quantity of this trip came on a shrimp lure, which I will discuss below – but the quality came from the Fish, or Die Minutemen in Independence (Pearl White). I rigged it on a Gold Z-Man Trout Eye Jig Head in 3/16 oz. I casted the bait upcurrent, near structure and slowly retrieved it by bouncing the bait off the bottom or dragging it along the bottom. The water temp felt chilly, with all of the rain from the storm, and that post storm cold front the bait and the predator fish were moving slowly, so taking that paddle tail and making it act cold and sluggish seemed to be the ticket, along with bottom bouncing a Shrimp lure.

All Hail the Vudu Shrimp

Most of the fish on this trip were caught on the Vudu Shrimp – I threw a colorway called Blue Moon/Chartreuse. This one lure caught Mangrove Snapper, Sheepshead, Sea Trout, Redfish, Jack Crevalle, and thanks to a generous amount of Pro-Cure I kept slathering on – the dreaded Saltwater Catfish. I have to say I was so impressed with this lure, they come 2 per pack for roughly $7 bucks at Strike Zone, and they are extremely tough, durable, and very lifelike in profile! This bait with Pro-Cure is about like fishing live shrimp in terms of the high number of bites it generates for me. I am officially a practitioner of “Vudu”!

Conclusion

So let’s analyze the post Hurricane landscape. The water levels are up, and the water is dirty, I imagine from here through early Winter the water levels will gradually decrease, and get cleaned up again – but as you go out, I think anything presented with Chartreuse or Gold on the tip of the bait, and on the jighead, and the use of scent enhancement from Pro-Cure or Dr. Juice will definitely increase your chance as long as the water is brown and tea-colored like it was this weekend.

I also kicked myself for not having a weedless hook with a Gold underpin blade on me, as I feel like the extra flash and vibration would have helped me to cover water and power fish. Also Strike King sells something called Redfish Magic, which is a Gold Spinnerbait and Z-Man sells Chatterbait Jig Heads, that or a good old fashioned Gold Spoon would probably kill it in this dirty water.

Regardless, it is nice to be in the fall season where the fishing is good through the late morning, and early afternoons! Thank you for taking the time to read this report, and make sure to check out Kayaks By Bo either in store in Cocoa, or online at https://kayaksbybo.com/ – stay safe, be happy, and catch fish this week! Until next time!