Kayak Fishing: Crane Creek

Happy Monday Spacefish!

Today I hope everyone has enjoyed their Labor Day weekend! The weekend started on a high note for me, as my football team, the Melbourne Central Catholic Hustlers went up to Ocala and beat the team that knocked us out of the Regional Finals last year, Trinity Catholic, 38-6. Great win for the Hustlers to knock off the back to back state runner ups on the road. I got out and fished yesterday; it was an “ok” day – I discovered a new Tarpon hole, and ended up jumping 4, but struggled in tight quarters to maneuver and keep them on; but I had Tarpon jumping over my kayak and making runs under, and despite getting my you know what kicked, I had a ball doing it. I caught some dinky Snook, and lost a monster over slot, that came unbuttoned after blowing up my topwater at daybreak.

So that being said, I am going that spot again, and hoping to get some redemption! So I am going to write about Crane Creek, which I was going to do last week, but ended up writing about the state park fiasco. Which I am happy to report, has been called off after a week of outrage expressed from politicians all the way down to grass roots style protests. So if you ended up reading last weeks report, and going online and doing the petition, THANK YOU!

Launch Spot

For this trip on Crane Creek, I launched from Scurrah’s Landing just south of downton Melbourne. This is one of my favorite local launch spots, it is for non-motorized craft only, and the parking is close to the launch, which makes for quick and easy loading/unloading. Also, if you get there early, it is never crowded.
Tarpon Report:

There are plenty of Tarpon in Crane Creek, they are in the deep water of the harbor/marina, but as you move westward up the creek, they are there aplenty. I did not land a Tarpon on this trip unfortunately, I ended up jumping 3. The first was near the lone dock on the south bank of the creek, about halfway down between the railroad, and the water treatment plant. I also jumped off two smaller ones further up creek at the point where the creek gets narrow and has two smaller forks that go around an island. I was able to make good casts to rolling Tarpon back in there because it tightend up. I saw a lot of rolling fish in the main part of the creek that were out of casting range. Crane Creek is very wide in the main stretch, trying to stalk, and cast to rolling fish can be very difficult, so if you are a live bait angler, trolling or casting and soaking a small live finger mullet may be a better method for getting on the Tarpon here. I ended up with 3 eats, but couldn’t execute to land the fish, all of my eats came from casting the Tsunami Swim Shad (2 inch) in front of the face of rolling Tarpon.

Snook Report

While I spent most of the morning on the move looking for rolling Tarpon, I had another rod rigged with a weedless swim bait, so when I saw fish eating in the shallows next to hard structure on the banks, I’d make a move over and cast the weedless bait in and around the area where bait fish had been harassed. I was able to pick up a few Snook doing this.

I didn’t land any monster sized Snook but I caught a few in the fun sized range. I was using the Fish, or Die Minutemen in Independence (Pearl) on a ⅛ oz, Owner Twistlock (3/0). I ended up catching more on the main part of the creek because this is where I spent most of my morning. But on my way back out, I was able to target Snook in the marina.

I was able to land some smaller ones by skip casting under docks. The marina is a great place to target Snook when it is really hot outside, and also when it is cold because they like to get up under the docks and lay up in the deeper water which offers relief from severe heat, but also provides warmer water during cold snaps. Finding the Snook here has never been my issue, but landing quality ones is difficult because a lot of the areas to target are pretty tight with all of the yachts in the harbour, so even with the pedal drive kayak I can’t back pedal out like I could with a big Snook out in the wild on a mangrove shoreline. So while I landed a few small ones, I ended up having my leader broken off on a dock piling because I couldn’d get the fish out. I was using a heavier than normal set up – 4000 series Penn Reel, 15 pound braid, and 30 pound leader, but it was no match for a big powerful Snook and a dock piling with shells. I ended up retying 40 pound, but never got any bites.

Sea Trout

After striking out on Tarpon, but finding some Snook success, I decided to move out of Crane Creek and go fish the docks just south of Scurrah’s landing. I have had success here before with Snook, Trout, and Redfish. I was hoping I could catch at least one Trout, and one Red so I could get an inshore slam. Unfortunately a Red was not in the cards for me on this trip; but I ended up having a blast catching a bunch of Sea Trout. None of them were brag worthy size, but being able to catch a dozen plus Trout in an hour can definitely provide some fun and make a long hot morning of fishing end on a high note. I stayed with the Fish, or Die paddle tail. I caught some hanging in the shade under docks, and others outside of the docks, in that depth change area just outside of the ends of the docks, I slowed down my retrieve, moved the weight up as far to the nose of the hook as I could and bottom bounced the paddle tail like it was on a jig head. I usually would use an actual jig head, but I thought my best chance for a red would be under the docks, so I kept the weedless presentation to be able to skip deep under the shaded areas of the docks. But alas, no Red on this day, but still a fun and exciting day of fishing.

Conclusion

I was really hoping to land a Tarpon so I could go 4/4 on South Brevard’s Tarpon tributaries, fingers crossed I get a chance to go back on Crane Creek before the Tarpon bite dies off in the fall. My goal this year was to catch a Tarpon on the St. Sebastian and Eau Gallie Rivers (check, and check), Turkey Creek (check), Crane Creek (X), and Sam’s Creek (haven’t been yet). Right now I am going to do my best in my limited time during football season to get the Crane and Sam’s Creek boxes checked. Once that happens I am going to shift my attention to kayak Bass fishing for a while because I know I have been slacking there. Tarpon failure aside, I love Crane Creek, even when the Tarpon frustrate me, I can usually salvage the day with Snook and Trout.

I hope everyone had an awesome Labor Day weekend, and I hope that you all get a chance to get out and fish this coming week/weekend and find some tight lines. Thanks for reading, and a huge thank you to Kayaks By Bo for being our paddle partner!

Right now they have an awesome, “End of Summer Sale” from now until September 30th. Every kayak in the store is marked down, and you get a free PFD with a purchase of a new kayak – go check them out at their new location in Cocoa!