kayak fishing redfish

Happy Sunday SpaceFish,

This past week, I have been busy, it’s just been one of those weeks where work, family, etc all just converge to make getting time on the water tough. If you’re like me sometimes it feels like you need time on the water to breathe, and luckily for me, I was able to spend a few pockets of time to get on the water, and catch a good number of fish!

Work Trip – Orlando:

The first little excursion I want to talk about is a trip to urban Orlando. I coached QB’s at a combine there last Sunday. It ended around 2 pm, and I have been wanting to go cover some of the urban lakes in Orlando. I wanted to go hit Lake Ivanhoe, which is a lake that is listed in Orlando’s “fab five” but after I realized my time would be short, I opted for another nearby lake to where I worked called Lake Estelle. I parked at a public lot located at 812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32804. I launched from the shoreline across the street. This is a smaller sized lake, but for one man in a kayak there was a lot of water that could be covered. There is no boat ramp of any kind here, so I’m assuming this is a relatively low pressure lake. I did an entire circle of the western portion of the lake, and in 3 hours of fishing caught over 30 Bass, but they were all smaller fish ranging from dinks to the 1-2 pound range. It was really cool to be able to fish in a truly urban setting with large buildings in the background, and traffic going up and down Rollins Street and Mills Ave. Do not get me wrong I would much, much prefer the scenery of the Stick Marsh, or the St. John’s River any day of the week, but to be able to get out and fish on a “work” trip beats not fishing at all.

The water on this lake was very clear, I was able to sight cast to male fish guarding beds. I also caught a good number of fish flipping creature baits onto the Cypress trees on the south end of the lake. On the north side, there was a ton of matted hydrilla. My best shot at a good size fish came when I fished a DOA Sna-koil along the hydrilla, and let it fall in the holes in the mat. I got absolutely slammed by a big bucket mouth while doing this, but I could not get her out of the mat, and she ended up coming off. I caught most of my fish on a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm in Red Bug, this color seemed to be a good one for the water color I was fishing in, and I ended up going through almost the entire pack of 15 I started with. I had it Texas rigged with a ⅛ oz tungsten weight pegged at the hook, which was a 3/0 Eagle Claw Worm Hook.

Jury Duty Adjourned: Melbourne

So this past week I had jury duty, I was in the courthouse all day Monday, and Tuesday we were adjourned at 11 am. I already had a sub for the day at school, so I took personal time to take the rest of the day off. My wife had her National Honors Society induction after school, so I had about 3 1/12 hours before I had to go get my boys after school. I rushed home, got my kayak loaded up and drove to Jimmy Moore park, which is essentially in my neighborhood. I like to go down to the bridge on the corner of Fountainhead Blvd and Wickham whenever I have a new lure or set up and play around with it before taking it out on a real trip, and in doing so over the last year have caught a ton of Bass, even if I am experimenting with a lure designed for inshore fish. But this body of water is long and skinny, it runs north and south. The area by Jimmy Moore Park is more round and bowl shaped before it turns into the canal shape around Fountainhead. There are a couple of smaller east-west canals that run into the main canal. I’ve always wanted to launch my kayak from the park and explore this system, and on Tuesday due to time constraints, this seemed like just as good of a time as any. I was on the water for roughly 2 ½ hours, from 12ish to 230ish. Even though it was hot, and in the middle of the day, I was still able to catch over a dozen Bass. There are a lot of overhanging trees along the canal that create shade spots, even in the middle of the day, and targeting these areas was highly productive. I packed very lightly, and efficiently, and brought along 2 rods, both Texas rigged with ⅛ oz tungsten weights and 3/0 hooks. I brought along 3 packs of Zoom Speed Worms, in Junebug Red, Watermelon Red, and Candy Bug. I never used the Candy Bug, I caught 3 on the Watermelon Red, and after about an hour of that I fished the Junebug Red, and caught 11 over the next hour and a half. The biggest I caught was probably between 2-3 pounds. But I have caught fish in this body of water while bank or bridge fishing in the 4-5 pound range.

Saturday and Sunday Mornings: Eau Gallie River and Indian River Lagoon

This past weekend, I had my mornings free but my afternoons were tied up with family stuff. My youngest (baby of the family) brother is down in Florida for a work trip and we wanted to be able to spend some time with him, so I got out at day break and fished the Eau Gallie River (Saturday) and the stretch of the Indian River from the mouth of the Eau Gallie to the Eau Gallie Causeway (Sunday). Both of these mornings I primarily fished top water. It wasn’t all that great, on the river I caught a couple of fun sized Jack Crevalle (in the 10-15 pound range) that were busting school of Mullet, and had a few Snook takedowns, but missed the hook ups working the bait alongside mangrove shoreline and working the bait along docks. On the Lagoon I was able to catch a nice Red, and a few smaller Trout, and another bigger Jack, I probably should have spent more time skipping soft plastics under the docks for Snook, but with Spring in the air, and warmer weather and water temperatures it’s hard not to grab that top water plug in the morning.

The two baits I was using were the Mirrolure Mirro-Mullet and the Rapala Skitter Walk (Holographic Silver) SW-08. These are smaller profiles in the top water plug market, I figured that the predator fish, coming out of winter and into spring may still be looking for a smaller profile. I caught the most fish on the 3 inch Mirro-Mullet, but I really liked the Rapala. I have to give a special shout out to the man whom I affectionately refer to as the “Patron Saint of Topwater” Alex Spanky. I hit him up last week, and he highly recommended the Skitter Walk as his top water plug of choice. I have to say I really liked it, for a 3 1/12 inch size it had a good weight to it, it casts like a bullet, and it has great gliding action in the water. The hook up ratio was better than the Mirro-Mullet (small sample size of data to this point) and it had a great sound as it was cutting in the water. The top water bite for Bass is pretty good year round, but for the inshore fishery it is definitely more seasonal, especially for Snook, and I have a feeling as we are heading into Easter, that a red hot top water bite is just around the corner.

Conclusion:

We all have that week or two where is feels like we just can’t get away to get that time on the water, but the nice thing about fishing from a kayak is, even when a schedule gets hectic, it is nice to be able to grab and go, get some time on the water and get back to the grind of life. Thank you very much for reading, I hope you all have a great week ahead, and Happy Easter! Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring you a new rod and reel, or at the very least a basket full of Speed Worms and Top Water plugs.

Until next time!