Kayak Fishing – Wabasso Causeway/Marsh Island

Happy Monday Spacefish!

First off, I would like to acknowledge Memorial Day weekend, and express my gratitude to the fallen warriors that made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Without them, we may not have the privilege, the freedom, and the ability to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning and go out and fish. I know this is a cliche saying, but it shouldn’t be – freedom is not free, someone paid for it; many paid the ultimate price for it; and to those that did, we owe them our deepest gratitude!

Launch Spot

So today I am going to talk about my last two trips; they were both quicker, shorter outings, so I am going to combine them into one report. I launched from the north side of the Wabasso Causeway – Boat Ramp this is the boat ramp on the south side of the causeway, I parked on the northside and launched my kayak from the beach access.

Trip #1

On trip #1, it was a nice overcast morning, and the Snook were chewing! I didn’t catch any slot, over over slot; but I caught 17 Snook in a span of 3 ½ – 4 hours and had an absolute ball! I fished around the Marsh Island Point, and went into the Pelican Island Refuge, and made a return trip. Pictured above is my right thumb, I thought this was cool because I caught so many Snook they have me Bass thumb. Normally on days when you catch a lot of largemouth your thumb can look like this from grabbing so many bottom jaws, and Snook have that very similar type of mouth. This was one of those days where I ended up catching Snook in similar quantity to Bass, and to be honest, that just doesn’t happen much.

Why did I catch so many? I think it comes down to conditions; it was overcast, I got a rain shower around 9ish that morning as well; it was windy enough to push water and bait along the mangrove shorelines, and the water levels were low enough to where I could make consistently good skip casts under mangroves. All of this came together to be able to catch a lot of Snook. I tried out some new baits this morning, from a local company called Clarity Lures, based out of Brevard County. I fished their 3 inch Chunk (paddletail) in Glassy and Mullet. I rigged this bait on a ⅛ oz, 3/0 screwlock hook and this bait skipped like a stone deep into mangrove pockets. I also caught several fish on their fluke, rigged weightless and weedless on a 3/0 EWG worm hook. Rigg’s Outpost in Downtown Melbourne carries a few of their baits, but you can check out their full selection here https://www.claritylures.com/ – they donate 6% of their sales to non-profits dedicated to cleaning up Florida’s waterways, which is a cause we can all get behind!

Trip #2

On the second trip this past weekend we launched out of the same spot. My brother was in town for the weekend, and we had a morning window to go fish. We launched at day break. The Topwater bite, was non-existent – which honestly was a little mystifying since we are in true summer patterns at this point. My theory is that coming off a few nights with little to no clouds and a bright full moon the fish have been feeding at night. I ended up catching 2 decent sized Reds, and we both had a few medium sized Snook come unbuttoned in the mangroves, but it was a much slower day. Once the sun came up it was hot, with minimal wind and no clouds. Just not the ideal conditions, but sometimes it just be that way!

The bait that worked for getting the Reds was a new one from the Fish, or Die Bait Company. The Dagger XL, I rigged it weedless on a ⅛ Oz Twistlock hook.

Conclusion

This was one of the spots I listed a few weeks ago as part of the list of top inshore fishing spots for summer kayak fishing. I didn’t have any “banner” days, but the spot produced and at the end of the day, as a weekend warrior, that is all I can really ask for!

I’d like to thank Kayaks By Bo for being our paddle partner for our weekly adventures. Tomorrow they will be opening at their new location in Cocoa! God check them out!

Thanks for reading! Have a great week, tight lines everyone!