Exploring Turkey Creek & The Sanctuary

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and finds themself in good health and full of happiness. Today, I am going to write about a trip last weekend in which I fished, but put more of my focus in exploration. There are several reasons that I chose to spend a day doing more exploration. Honestly, it is something that I need to do more often. Number one, it is fun. I can’t speak for all kayak anglers when I say this, but personally, I actually got into kayaking first. I really enjoy the aspect of paddling to explore and see things. I enjoy nature, I enjoy the trees, the animals, the peace & quiet, the time to think. Especially the time to think. That is something I don’t get very often these days. At home I am a father/husband, at work I am a teacher/coach. As much as I love those roles, I don’t get much quiet reflection time. Most of the time I spend alone is fishing. But sometimes I fall into a trap of being so focused on the results of fishing I forget to slow down and enjoy the things that drew me to it in the first place. We are in the season of Lent as we approach Easter Sunday. Besides abstaining from meat on Fridays, and abstaining from tobacco, the other part of my Lenten reflection is to slow down and enjoy the scenery more. I think not dipping has also led me to crave more peace and quiet (lol).

When I was out on this trip, I encountered quite a few people on rented kayaks and paddle boards that rented these solely for the purpose of paddling the sanctuary. I think anytime you can combine kayak fishing with the sightseeing opportunities people pay for it truly is a win-win.

I also have two other reasons that are less holistic. Last year I made a goal to catch Tarpon from every major “creek” that empties into the Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County. I got close, but did not achieve my goal. Partly, I started it too late. So this year I vowed to start earlier, but I also made a goal of exploring more of these tributaries to find more “spots” so that when I am really getting after it, I have more bullets in the gun (metaphorically speaking – I promise I am not going to shoot a Tarpon).

The other reason is because I wanted to run the whole length of Turkey Creek. From Castaway Park all the way back to the spillway. I didn’t quite achieve this goal. I got off to a late start due to the chilly morning temps last Saturday, I also ended up stopping and talking with different people. I really slowed the pace down once I got into the sanctuary due to pulling my kick fins out of the water and going with a paddle over pedal approach. There are so many downed trees in the sanctuary, it’s easier to navigate by paddling than pedal drives and motors.

But I do plan on making trips to Turkey Creek here in the future that will be more focused on fishing, but I also want to do more exploring starting from the kayak launch in the sanctuary and I’ll go back to the spillway from there.

Launch Spot

So let me start by saying there are two boat ramps that are open to the public on Turkey Creek. But I have been avoiding boat ramps since I got the Hobie since I don’t want to get the bottom scratched up. I decided to hit up my favorite Turkey Creek launch area, which is Castaway Park. They renovated the park this past fall, and while it is aesthetically pleasing, and they did a good job, it now sucks as a place to launch kayaks. They put rocks up everywhere and it’s a total pain in the you-know-what to get a kayak down to the sand. On the next trips I will be using Paddling Paradise and the Kayak Launch in the sanctuary. I have never launched from either one, but I have parked and walked down to the sanctuary launch. It will be challenging logistically to get all my stuff down to the water, but the big perk there is starting way back.

Fishing Report/Tarpon Scouting

I did not catch many fish on this trip. I spent large stretches of the day pedaling and paddling. But I would stop in areas where I saw Tarpon swimming by, or the occasional roll. They seemed to be pretty inactive on this trip, I reckon the day starting with upper 40’s probably had them sluggish. But I did see a pair cruising by and made a cast in front of them. This was about a mile east of the Port Malabar bridge. That was one of the first casts I had made for the day. I casted a few feet in front of them and as soon as the DOA Tiny Terror Eyez hit the water it was immediately eaten by a small Snook. I don’t think I have ever been disappointed to get a Snook eat, no matter how small the Snook is. I can’t say I was disappointed, but it scared those two Tarpon away.

I got a few “Tarpon taps” after making casts in the sanctuary. That was the closest I got to catching a Tarpon on this trip. I saw a bunch back in the sanctuary, and definitely saw Tarpon with nice size back there too. I ended up skip casting under lay downs and overhanging cover hoping to catch more Snook, I caught several Bass instead, but it was fun. When I go back I am going to bring a few more soft plastics in darker profiles since I know there a good number of Bass there. I am thinking Black/Gold, and Purplish colors since this is an area where you are likely to catch Snook, Bass, and Tarpon in tea colored, tannic water. I caught all 3 of my Bass on the Savage Gear Loose Body Pulse Tail Mullet on a 5/0 Owner Twistlock hook with a ⅛ oz weight.

Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to land my first Tarpon of the season. I have been throwing a variety of downsized baits, but the Gold DOA Tiny Terror Eyez has gotten the most taps/bites so far.

I can’t really say with any confidence at this time that there are specific spots to go to for Tarpon. I was pleased to see them pretty regularly once I got far back in there. Turkey Creek has a healthy population of Tarpon, they will be out towards the mouth in the summer, right now there seems to be a population in the back, which is why I want to go back and target them while they are in the backwater sections before summer.

Wildlife of Turkey Creek

So I know I touched on the fact that Turkey Creek is a top-tier sightseeing, nature observing paddle destination. I did want to touch on some of the wildlife that you are likely to see when paddling this beautiful creek.

Dolphins, Manatees, Osprey, Pelicans, Wading Birds, Alligators, Turtles, Snakes, Raccoons have all been animals I have seen at one point or another while kayaking and fishing on Turkey Creek. One of the cool things about taking the trip at the mouth around Castaway Point going all the way back through the sanctuary is that within a few miles you can see how the environment changes from the salty Indian River Lagoon through brackish water, until you are in a predominantly freshwater river/creek system.

If you have never spent the day kayaking or paddling down Turkey Creek, I highly recommend it!

Kayak Fishing Hack

Once you get beyond the Port Malabar Road bridge and enter the sanctuary you will start to get into areas that you really don’t want to have 7 foot rods sticking straight up in the air. On this trip, I already packed light since I was doing more scouting anyway. But only bringing two rods I was able to hold one and have the other secured using the retractable bungees that connect to gear tracks on the side of the Hobie Outback. I went back and forth between my rod with a DOA Tiny Terror Eyez for Tarpon, and the other rod which I had a Savage Gear Pulse Tail (Purple) Mullet on a 5/0, ⅛ oz hook.

If you have a Hobie, I am sure you have the built in capabilities to do this, but if you don’t have built in bungees like this, I have done something similar in the past using the gear tracks that almost all fishing kayaks come equipped with and macgyver it using small cheap bungees from wal-mart. I usually only have to worry about this when I am fishing in certain river/creek systems, but these are the places that can be really cool to fish, but my advice is to not overpack. Less is definitely more when going through these types of creeks.

Conclusion

I am really looking forward to fishing this area more and focusing on areas. I hope to start scratching Tarpon caught in different tributaries off my bucket list soon! The last couple of weeks I have been fishing way back into Crane Creek, Turkey Creek, and Horse Creek. I can’t say enough about how valuable it has been to have a do-it-all kayak like the Hobie Outback. The ability to cover miles of water with the pedals, but then become an easy to paddle kayak in tight areas is really nice, coupled with the storage features and all that it comes with, it makes for a very nice set up. If you are interested in the Hobie line up, go check them out, and test drive one for yourself at Kayaks By Bo!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week ahead! Stay safe, be happy, and go catch some fish!