Kayak Fishing: Banana River (Kelly Park – Merritt Island)

Happy Monday Spacefish!

This past weekend I fished a part of the Banana River I have never fished before on the west side of Merritt Island, just south of the 528 Causeway. I have to say, for a new spot I was pleased with how it went. Let’s dive in!

Where to Launch

I launched from Kelly Park East, located at 2504-2526 N Banana River Dr, Merritt Island, FL 32952. There are two different Kelly Park’s, the “east” variety is the one you want, the other one has a boat ramp, but Kelly Park East is the place you want to launch non-motorized craft from.

Looking across the Banana River from this vantage point something hit me, when launching out of this park you look across the river to the east, just north where the sun is rising is Cape Canaveral, the world’s biggest cruise port, further north of where I took this shot is Kennedy Space Center…not only do we live in a place that millions of people save their hard earned money to vacation to and/or retire to, but we live in a place that is naturally beautiful! I think sometimes living here we get in the modes where we take it for granted, Lord knows I do anyway. But yesterday when I was heading home, I stopped at a store to grab a cold fountain drink and a gas station hot dog (it’s hard to beat that combo after getting after it on the water); but as I walk in the store I am barefoot, smell awful, and look battered and bruised and have fish blood stains on my shirt. A family gets in line for the register behind me, I apologize for my smell, and tell them that I had been out fishing. The “dad” asked me how it went, I think I said something that was basically summed up as “pretty good” and he tells me about where they live in the Midwest and that they are on their way to the port to go on a cruise, and that I should count my blessings to have this outdoor playground as my home. Having a stranger say that really hit home and provided perspective on where we live. Every fishing trip and outing may not always be great, but the scenic beauty of Florida’s Space Coast is undefeated (and un-tied) and we shouldn’t ever take that for granted.

Where I Fished

So instead of a lengthy written description I figured I can just give you this, I followed the path of the arrows and got back into this mangrove marsh and followed back into the little creeks as well as fishing both sides of Sandpiper Street.

Fish Caught/What I Caught Them On

Redfish –
I only caught one, but it was a really good one! I was throwing the Fish or Die Minutemen Swimbait, in Independence (Pearl/White). This swimbait is 3.5 inches and I rigged it on a 3/16 oz Z-Man Trout Eye Jighead. I was fishing the Midnight Run color at first (Black w/Gold Flake) and after not getting any bites I switched over to White, and I guess the white/gold combination was the winning ticket in the raffle because this fish smoked it. I was throwing it on a 7 Foot Ugly Stik Spinning Combo with a Penn 3000 on 10 pound braid and 20 pound fluorocarbon tied on with a loop knot to give the bait extra action. When rigged on a jighead I alternate between bouncing the bait off the bottom or a slow roll retrieve. With the fish pictured above, I was able to see his tail and push a wake in skinny water. I cast the bait past him, and timed the retrieve to run the bait across his face. Outside of big Snook blowing up Topwater, sight casting a Redfish like this in skinny water back in a mangrove marsh on a kayak might be as good as it gets!

Rig and Bait for Trout & Black Drum

So I have had a ton of success on this bait, which is the Fish or Die Warbird, a soft plastic jerk bait, but I had always rigged weedless and weightless. Now after putting it on a jighead to get down and bounce off the bottom in deeper water, I have found my new favorite “I just want to catch a bunch of small trout” rigs. So here is the thing about fishing off of Merritt Island and the Banana River, there are a bunch of Juvie Trout one can catch on artificial and while they are not trophy catches, it is really fun to be able to go catch 20-30 schoolie Sea Trout to keep rods bent and line tight. I threw this bait on a ⅛ oz Gold Trout Eye Jighead from Z-Man and on an Ugly Stik Lite Pro Spinning Combo with a 2000 series Penn reel with 10 pound braid and 20 pound fluoro leader.

The most exciting catch on this bait was a nice sized Black Drum, I saw him cruising alow the mangroves and I cast this up ahead of him and gave it jerks and let the bait dart erratically, and while these guys are usually bottom feeders I think the action to him looked like a panicked Shrimp, and he watched it fall and went and nabbed it. This was no means a big ugly monster like people catch around the bridges, but put up a hell of a fight on light spin tackle. Even though I threw this bait on a jighead I still fished it the same way I would any twitch or jerk bait. I let it settle and gave it that classic jerk-jerk-pause cadence.

Conclusion

It felt good to get back inshore, and to get on the Banana River for the first time in a while and have a day of solid action. I caught the biggest Redfish I have caught in a long time, and was able to get into a nice schoolie Trout bite. For anyone interested in this area, it’s a nice place to launch a kayak from, and there is plenty of places within paddle or pedal distance that will hold fish, from the little mangrove marsh I fished most of the day in, to docks & canals, to the 528 causeway bridge, there is a lot of area to explore and I will certainly go back and fish this place again.

A big thank you to Kayaks by Bo, I am thoroughly enjoying the Old Town kayak! Thanks for being our official kayak fishing partner, and thank you to Fish, or Die Bait Company. These handmade baits continue to shine and produce catches.

I hope everyone has a great week, gets out on the water and finds some fish, until next time!