Kayak Fishing Report: Over the Dam – Eau Gallie River

Happy Sunday SpaceFish,

I fished Saturday on the Eau Gallie River, and to say the least it was a pretty wild day. I had an absolute ball, covered miles of the river, went over the dam and fished the freshwater side, and ended up catching 22 total fish from 7 different species. I saw Dolphins murdering schools of helpless fish, Manatees and their calves meandering through the water in search of fresh vegetation to munch on, a plethora of beautiful aquatic birds doing their thing, and watched a 6 or 7 foot Alligator come lunging out of the shallows to take a swipe at a wading bird hunting minnows, but was a swing and a miss that left the Alligator empty handed for this encounter.

It was a day that made me truly realize how blessed we are to live in such a place as the Space Coast of Florida. As much work as we have to do to restore this once world renowned fishery to its rightful place as one of the truly great regions of the world to fish, I think we also have to realize how great it is currently, and the amazing opportunities that we have just beyond our doorstep at home. There are over 330 million people that live in the United States, unfortunately for most of this mass, 308 million of them do not live in Florida, and do not have the blessings to be able to do what we do on any given day, But with that blessing comes a burden that we have one of the world’s truly unique ecological regions in our backyards, and with that comes the responsibility to cherish, preserve and protect it, so that our kids, and grandkids and so forth will one day be able to enjoy the fishery like we do. Rant over. Thank you God for allowing me to live in Florida, on to the fishing report!

I launched out of Ballard Park around 8 am. This time of year, I actually do not want to be on the water too early, especially when targeting Snook, they seem to be more active in the winter once the water has time to warm. All while these magnificent (and often times heartbreaking) creatures prefer to feed in low light conditions, there are plenty of areas to target them on the Eau Gallie River all times of day. Right now, if you wanted to go out and catch as many Snook as possible to the EGR, I would suggest targeting the middle and deeper sections of the docks, the water is super low, I fished it last Sunday with my cousin, and again on Saturday and I didn’t catch a single Snook in the mangroves, they were all under docks or under overhanging trees that provided shade a few feet along the shoreline. I think the shallower than normal water has a lot to do with this.

I had an extensive game plan to follow and gave myself time increments to follow. My first order of business was a one hour timed trip down Elbow Creek, in which I did make it all the way down to the Highway 1 Bridge. My first fish on the board was a smallish Trout, that I caught in the river channel when I was getting a practice cast in before launching from Ballard. Moving on down the Creek, I hooked into 2 very quality Snook, but lost them both, the first game off at the first above surface head shake, and the 2nd came off right beside the kayak when I was trying to get him in the net, he was by estimations roughly 30ish inches and took my swimbait that was swimming along a shadow line just outside of a residential dock, in an area where I have probably caught hundreds of Snook, it’s actually a dock you can look down and see from Hwy 1, for those that fish that area, it’s the dock where the automated voice tells you you are criminally trespassing if you get too close and then sprays you with water. Anyway, I had these two Snook come unbuttoned, and it was completely my fault, I have a bad habit of setting the hook too quickly on Snook around structure, but I was using a Gambler EZ Swimmer in White Lightning, and I usually use a 5/0 Gamakatsu Twistllock hook, but I was out of them, and was using a 3/0 Owner Twistlock, after that 2nd one came off, I switched to a new bait I haven’t used before this weekend, the Yum Money Minnow, which by the way, may be the most realistic looking paddletail swimbait on the market, but a pack of 5 is 10 bucks. They are also very thin, and the plastic is not durable whatsoever. Unfortunately I went through all 5, but none of the fish I caught were quality, except maybe for one decent size Redfish, caught along the mangroves just north of the aforementioned dock. I was happy to spend 2 dollars catching him, but the other 4 baits were mangled by 5 small Snook, a Ladyfish, and 2 Jacks. After I spent an hour on Elbow Creek, I paddled to the other Hwy 1 Bridge and gave myself an hour to fish going down river, I hugged the North shoreline and caught all 5 of my Snook under residential docks. The Lady and 2 Jacks were caught out in the main river, on the edge of the channel, I just casted my swimbait into schools of bait being busted and hooked up. I had my 2 two 7 foot Ugly Stick combos rigged for the inshore portion of the day with 10 pound braid, and 20 pound fluoro leader.

After my alarm went off I paddled straight down to the dam, spent some time cooling it in the shade, hydrated up, rigged up my 3 baitcasters for the Bass fishing portion of the outing and got the kayak hauled over to the other side. I had 3 set up rigged, A black weedless hollow body frog (no bites), and the two that produced well for me, a Zoom Ultravibe (Speedworm) in Junebug Red, which was rigged on a 7 foot medium light casting setup with 10 pound braid, and 14 pound fluoro, Texas rigged with a ⅛ tungsten weight and pegged with a bobber stopper. The other set up was a 7 foot medium heavy casting combo with 50 pound braid tied straight to the hook. I used a Zoom Mag Worm (Ribbontail) in Redbug with a ¼ oz tungsten weight pegged about an inch above the hook. I like giving the weight a little room when fishing ribbontail worms. I ended up catching 7 Bass, and maybe the largest Mayan Cichlid I have ever caught on the speedworm, and 4 Bass on the Ribbontail. I fished on the freshwater side of the dam for 2 hours and it was definitely the highlight of my trip. None of the Bass I caught were lunkers by any means but they were chunky, well fed Bass.

The cool thing about fishing this area for a kayak angler is that there is no way to get a conventional boat back there, and very little shoreline access, so this is a low pressure area in which if you’re willing to put in the work to get there can provide an awesome bite. This is now the 3rd time I have gone back there, and each time has been productive. Right now the water level is low, but the visibility level is high, certainly a result of the dry season. The Bass are on beds, 7 out of the 11 I caught were sight casted to, while I was standing up in the kayak. Several of them were male Bass guarding beds, the others were roaming the shallows. Of the rest 2 were caught flipping the ribbontail worm on the edges of emergent grass, and 2 were caught flipping into downed trees. I can’t remember who told me this long ago, but when you find wood, pitch to wood, that’s Bass gospel.

The Bass fishing on the freshwater side took the cake, but this was my most exciting inshore catch on the Eau Gallie River this weekend. I have not caught very many of these guys in this river, but I love how bronzed their color is in the muddy river water.

After fishing beyond the dam and catching enough Bass to feel complete, I was feeling pretty wiped and knew I had roughly 4 miles to paddle against the wind current so I called it a day and powered my way home. It was a very warm day, and by the time I got home and took a cold shower I realized I was pretty exhausted. But it was an awesome day. Inshore slams are not common for me on the Eau Gallie River, for large parts of the year, the Trout and Reds are not in the river, but it was really cool to catch an inshore slam + double digit number of Bass on the same river, on the same day. I can’t wait for the Tarpon to get back in the river and chase backwater slams on the Eau Gallie this summer. Like I said earlier, we are truly blessed to live here and be able to fish the Space Coast.

One last thing, I am a very superstitious person. I always have been. If you’re wondering why I have a set of green beads around my wrist in the pictures this week, I found a set of Mardi Gras beads (Happy Mardi Gras, by the way) in the parking lot at Ballard Saturday morning. I put them around my right wrist because I was going to throw them away in the trash can, but I forgot. When I caught that Trout before launching they were on my wrist. I didn’t like the sound of the rattle so I took them off and put them in my pocket. After losing the first two Snook in my first 30 minutes or so I immediately blamed the beads, so I put them back on my wrist and caught all 22 fish with them on. I am not sure if fishing is a game of luck, or skill – probably somewhere in between but at the end of the day I thought long and hard when I was throwing away trash that I picked up along the way, and decided to keep them in my fishing bag. I’d like to say I don’t put too much stock in lucky items, but if I’m struggling them next time I go out, you best believe the beads might have to get put back on my casting hand.

I hope everyone has a great week – “good luck” to all, go out there and catch some fish. Until next time!