Kayak Fishing: This, That, and The Other

Happy Monday Spacefish!

We’re in April folks, but for the past week or so you wouldn’t know it if you get up out of the house before 7 am – it’s been in the 50’s the past 5 mornings in Melbourne at day break, but since the rain we got on Thursday we’ve had 3 straight days of bluebird skies and the barometric pressure has been way up. This past weekend I was slammed, I did a Habitat for Humanity service project with a group of student-athletes from Melbourne Central Catholic, and this past Saturday night we had the Green & Gold Gala, so after not getting home until after midnight and the temperatures being way down in the morning, I decided to sleep in, get some much needed rest, and take my kids fishing Sunday afternoon. So what I am going to write about in this report are two shorter trips.

Guide for a Day

Last weekend my brother, and his two kids came down and spent the weekend, on Saturday my cousin and his wife were in town so we did a big family beach day, on Sunday my brother wanted to go out and do some inshore fishing so I picked him up and we got out for a few hours. The last two weekends have been pretty similar in terms of low morning temps, so I told him in terms of getting our money’s worth, we’d be better off getting out after noon and let things warm up. So I picked him up from our parents house in Melbourne Beach around 12ish, and we went and we launched out of Honest John’s Fish Camp, located at 750 Old Florida Trail, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951. I wrote a piece about fishing the Mullet Creek area of the Indian River Lagoon, launching from Honest John’s. You can read that report here –
https://spacefish.com/byte/kayak-fishing-honest-johns-fish-camp/

Back to more recent times, I picked my brother up, we got 2 dozen live shrimp and got the kayaks in the water around 1. We had roughly 3-4 hours to fish, my parents took my kids, and his to the beach…I have a 4 and 3 year old, his two kids are 4 and 2, so that being said, we had to be back to provide some man power! It was a blue bird, high pressure day, and being that this was only his 2nd time inshore fishing, I thought live shrimp would be the best move in terms of him getting the most out of a short trip on a day where the odds were not in our favor.

I did very little fishing, mostly taking him from spot to spot, and scouting the area to increase his odds. He ended up having a solid day! He caught 3 Snook, 1 Trout, 2 Mangrove Snapper, 1 fun sized inshore Jack Crevalle, and of course 2 Catfish as well. All in all, for someone that doesn’t get to fish inshore, and has very limited kayak experience he had a great time, and I was just as excited as him each time the popping cork went down!

I had him set up on one of my 7 foot Ugly Stik/Penn 2500 combo’s, 10 pound braid, a Cajun Thunder popping cork, 12-15 inches of 30 pound flurocarbon and a 1/0 circle hook, he hooked the shrimp right under the horn, and would cast his cork to certain targets, let the rings dissipate, then slowly retrieve it with sharp pops, and long pauses.

We got the Trout in open water on a depth contour, the Snook and Snappers were hanging tight to the mangroves, and the Jack was caught in an area I just knew he was going to catch a quality Snook. There was bait and birds along this mangrove shoreline that had a deeper cut and more depth, water was wrapping around a point which made for a perfect ambush point, he made a perfect cast inches from the mangroves and the cork shot straight down within seconds, it wasn’t the slot Snook I was hoping for him, but it was a drag pulling Jack, that provided a fun fight for a novice kayak angler.

Now my brother is a good angler, he caught an 8 pound bass a few weeks ago, but this was his 3rd time kayak fishing, and his 2nd time fishing inshore. I feel like we all have times where we’re taking someone fishing and they’re either new to the sport, visiting the area, or maybe for us experienced angler’s facing tough conditions, or we’re in the middle of a rough patch of bad outings…whatever the case may be, never discount the power of live shrimp to provide some action and excitement!

Short Evening Trips on the Eau Gallie River

I’ve written a couple of pieces about the Eau Gallie River, it’s been a little while since I have talked about the EGR, but it’s the closest body of water from my house, I live roughly 5 minutes from Ballard Park. So while I may not write about the EGR a lot, it’s where I got when I just need a little me time on the water, or I just want to fish for fun (not for reports), or if I want to experiment with some new stuff before I use it on a report or something. Because of my tight schedule and time constraints the past two weeks I have gotten out twice on the EGR in the last two weeks for some evening fishing. I launch out of Ballard Park, located at 924 Thomas Barbour Dr, Melbourne, FL 32935.

Good Evening Topwater Bite

Even though the mornings have been cold, the air and water have been heating up with warm afternoon temps, and the lack of clouds, when the sun is high the bite has been tough unless you find deeper water, and bounce something on the water, but once that sun starts to get low on the western horizon the topwater bite has been good for me in the evenings with Trout, Snook, and Jacks actively hunting and feeding in the shallows. I have to cast closer to structure to get the Snook bites, but I look for bait being chased to wherever to target Jacks and Trout. I haven’t caught an overly impressive Trout or Jack, but I did catch two decent Snook recently on evening topwater. I am using the YakTribe Topwater in the Owie (Black & Silver/White Belly) or Dulce (Bone) colors with single in-line hook replacements. I like to throw top water plugs on a bait caster set up, usually with 20 pound braid, tied to a short 50 or 60 pound Monofilament leader – I always use Mono for topwater because it floats and doesn’t drag the nose of the plug down. I have been getting twice and many misses and take downs, but I just keep working the plug, more often than not the fish that made a run and missed will stay on it, I just usually slow down the speed, but try to make it walk side to side while slowly bringing it back. I keep the rod tip moving fast, while the handle of the reel moves slow. The only time I speed up the cadence is when I toss the plug into a panicked school of bait fish, then the speed seems to actually help.

We Lost a Lot of Good Men Out There

So I have one casting combo that I use every single time I got out, it is my all time favorite go to set up, I had another combo that was a specific bait casting set up for inshore fishing, a rod designed to throw lighter stuff; This rod was an absolute work horse, I nicknamed it Christian McCaffrey because like the versatile NFL RB that can tote the rock between the tackles, but also split out and be an effective pass catcher/route runner in the slot, this rod could do it all inshore for me. It could throw anything from 1/16 oz jigheads, to half ounce topwater plugs, it was firm, yet sensitive, and with a super fast action tip this rod could walk the dog with minimal effort or make jerk baits twitch with just the flick of the wrist, which when you’re doing those things for hours on end, it makes a difference. After 17 months on duty, and hundreds of fish caught, I was guiding the Snook in the header photo into the net when the rod tip snapped. What a good run this rod had, all I can say is, “and now his watch has ended.” RIP Christian McCaffrey, good night sweet prince. I thought about trying to get it fixed up with a new tip, but I just feel like it would never be the same.

Bottom Bouncing

Ok so for these mid to late afternoons, 4ish-6ish, before the topwater bite turns on, I have had success finding areas of deeper water, now when I am talking deeper water, I am talking 4-6 feet, nothing too deep. But 4 or 5 weet of muddy water is going to be a lot cooler to a fish than 1-2 feet of skinny water on a sandy bottomed flat. Of course depending on where you may be fishing shaded water may be the ticket on bright, and sunny afternoons. But On the Eau Gallie/Elbow Creek the water level is a little lower and there are not as many Snook in the mangroves as I would see in the summer time. I am sure they are moving to the deeper end of docks. All of my recent EGR Snook have come on Topwater, I have been fishing a jighead/paddletail in areas of slightly deeper water. The Fish, or Die Minutemen in Swampfox (Silver with Gold Flake). I use a 3/16 oz Z-Man Trout Eye Jighead in Red or Gold. I love this weight as it’s perfect for getting down to the bottom, but not too heavy to do a slow roll either. The paddle tail is 3.5 inches, is chunky and durable. It has a great wobble on the slow roll, and has a good tail kick on the fall when jigging it. I haven’t caught anything crazy big or bragworthy, but it’s put a few fish in the yak for me recently in a tougher part of the day.

The area I have done well has been the area just south of Ballard Park, it’s an open cove just east of the top of Elbow Creek. This areas has been holding a lot of bait, and Trout, as you work down Elbow Creek towards the southernmost US Hwy 1 bridge on the EGR, there is good water depth between the boating channel and the eastern shoreline, small Trout have been hanging on the ledge, and small Reds have been caught kind of in-between the 4 foot water and the shallow shoreline.

Conclusion

I am ready for summer! Both for consistent fishing patterns, and for school to be out for a while so my fishing schedule opens up! I haven’t been on true solo trip since I went to Lake Baldwin on Good Friday, but the nice thing about kayak fishing, even when life gets hectic and busy, it’s nice to be able to pack/load up quickly and be on the water somewhere in minutes, being able to get out on the water, even if it is a series of quick evening trips is so much better than not being on it at all!

Thank you for reading, and thank you to Kayaks by Bo, for being our paddle partner. As summer approaches, this is the perfect time to look into upgrading your kayak fishing, and paddle sports set up, go check out Kayaks by Bo in Titusville – they have a spectacular inventory of kayaks, paddle boards, Yak Attack accessories, and apparel.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week…stay safe, be happy, and may your fishing lines be ever tight. Until next time!