Kayak Fishing Report – Sweet and Salty

Happy Sunday SpaceFish,

This past weekend I had a chance to fish both days. I spent Saturday afternoon in the sweetwater, going back to Fox Lake for the second time in a month, and on Sunday I got my saltwater fix and went to a “new” spot. I had actually launched out of this place once before, in the summer of 2021, but I have never mentioned or written about this as a potential launch spot in a SpaceFish report.

Sunday Saltwater:
I launched from the public boat ramp on the Eau Gallie causeway. I went after we got home from my son’s soccer game, so I got a late start and it was pretty hot, and sunny. Up to the point where I went out, the forecast was calling for a slight chance of rain, with cloudy conditions to begin around 2 pm – that never materialized. I chose this spot because I thought with cloudy skies getting wind protection from the ENE winds would help me. I was able to take advantage of the water moving a little bit, but not to have to deal with choppy conditions. This time of year, spot selection for inshore kayak fishing can be difficult, the fish are kind of all over the place and it seems like we get late spring weather mixed in with intermittent cold fronts, it’s tough to really pattern the fish.

I was really hoping to get some cloud cover and fish some of the calmer shorelines with top water. I had a Bone colored Super Spook Jr tied on my top water setup, but the conditions never really worked out for me to fish it, outside of walking the dog around the shadow lines of docks and the causeway bridge, but I did not catch any fish on top water.

But outside of that slight disappointment I did find fish, and catch fish. Within the first 30 minutes or so I was on the board with a Redfish and a Sea Trout. I really felt like I was going to notch a slam, but I could not buy a Snook bite! I ended up catching 7 Redfish, and 5 Trout. No Bulls or Gators, but a few of the Redfish were “fun” sized. One thing that I thought was really cool was how light the Reds were and I love catching them when they have that blueish tint on the tail, I guess the one in the picture above had been munching on shell fish all week. Last week I included a picture of a Redfish I caught on the Eau Gallie River, in that tannic river water that was almost a golden bronze color. Crazy how much different they can look just 2-3 miles apart.

All of my fish were caught on the Salt Strong Slam Shady 2.0 Paddle Tail on a 3/16 oz 3/0 twistlock hook. This is what I fished around the shorelines and mangroves. I was able to sight-cast to 3 of the Reds that I saw cruising the shorelines. I made my casts a few yards ahead of them and slowly rolled the weedless swimbait in front of their face. I missed a couple as well usually due to missing the timing, in hindsight it probably would have been better to fish a Gulp! Shrimp on a Ned rig and let them decide to eat it, that is usually the best method I have found for sight casting to Redfish. The Trout were caught about 15 to 20 yards off the shorelines. I was seeing bait being chased – small fingerling sized mullet from what I could tell, and was throwing my 3.5 inch paddle tail into the fray. I did catch one on a cast into the mangroves, and it followed it out. 4 of the Redfish were caught under docks, all of these were caught on long docks about ⅓ of the way out (roughly 20ish yards from the shorelines). I threw DOA Cal Paddle Tails in White and Figi Chix on a Red ¼ oz DOA CAL Jig Head. I used to use DOA all the time, but since I’ve gone to more weedless presentations I haven’t used them as much. They are shorter and denser lures than others, that I prefer to rig weedless. On a straight retrieve they have to be burned pretty quickly to get the tail moving. But fishing deeper water, and bouncing along the bottom are very effective.

Saturday Sweetwater:
So the last time I went to Fox Lake, I left feeling very excited about this spot. I really got hot towards the end, and wanted to see if the same Bass patterns were holding up there. I was hoping that if I could get out and pick up where I left off, I could catch a good number of fish, and hopefully pull in a bigger Bass. I also saw a lot of guys Speck fishing, and I wanted to see if I could catch a few of those as well.

Disclaimer – I am from Georgia originally. In Georgia they’re called Crappie. It is still weird for me to get used to hearing people say “speck fishing.”

Nomenclature aside, I launched from the kayak/canoe dock just west of the boat ramp, and went to the first patch of lilly pads with a Zoom Ultravibe (Speed Worm) in Junebug Red. I had it rigged on a 3/0 worm hook with a ⅛ oz tungsten weight, pegged. On my second cast I caught a Bass. I continued to work the lilly pads in the SW corner of the lake for the first hour and caught 5 Bass. Then I switched to targeting Speck. I went into the shallows and worked a Beetle Spin with a black Beetle and worked grass lines, and the edges of shallower lilly pads. I caught 2 in an hour, then I switched to a Bass Pro Shops brand Squirmin’ Worm (they’re version of a speed worm) in Watermelon Candy. But I used to tiny 4 inch model, and trimmed an inch or so to make it even smaller. I rigged it on a 1/0 worm hook, with 1/16 oz tungsten weight, pegged tight against the hook. I was able to catch 2 more working closer to the vegetation and into some of the lilly pads. I also caught 2 more Bass doing this.

I went back to targeting Bass with the Junebug Red Speedworm I caught 3 more, and a Gambler Little EZ in Forty-Niner (Gold) on a 3/0 Owner Twistlock with a gold Colorado blade underspin. I caught 2 on this rig. My surprise catch of the day was a Chain Pickerel. I have never caught one before. What a cool fish. He was very angry and when I had him in the net and was trying to remove the hook with pliers he was actively snapping at the pliers with his gnarly teeth. I ended up having to get my fish gripper to remove the hook.

I fished until the sun started sinking behind the trees – which by the way, if you live here and haven’t made it out to one of the freshwater lakes on the Space Coast, I highly encourage you to do it, especially one afternoon and into the evening. Watching the sunset to the west over a Florida lake is absolutely awe inspiring. Entering into this last hour of fishing I was satisfied with the number of fish I had caught, but I really wanted to catch a bigger Bass, a 4-5 pounder. Both times at Fox Lake I have caught a good number of fish, but none bigger than a pound by my estimations. I decided to go big or go home, I fished a walking frog very slowly through lilly pads and along the edges of grass. I got one follow and swirl, and one take down from the back of the frog but didn’t connect. From what I could tell, that fish wasn’t very big. The daylight started fading, the mosquitoes started biting so I decided to bring her in, and pack it in for the day.

I went back to Fox Lake Saturday, here are 3 of the species I caught Saturday afternoon.

All in all, it was a great weekend of fishing for me. It’s the first time in a while I have gotten a chance to fish more than once in a week. I’m a little salty that I couldn’t get a Snook today to complete the slam, but the sun will come up, and I will go back to it again next week.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead, and I hope you have a chance to get out and wet a line! Spring time is almost here.

Until next time!