Finding Fish & Wind Protection on the Eau Gallie River

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday season so far. What an interesting weekend we just had, the weather warmed up, we had some humidity and cloud cover, but some very strong ENE winds rolled through. This made conditions in the IRL pretty choppy. I ended up getting out both days this weekend, for the first time in a while, which felt really nice. I fished two spots that served as great places to hunker down in the wind, and both spots were productive for me. I am going to break down my Saturday trip in this report, and will go into detail on Sunday’s trip for another time.

Launch Spot

My original intention was to fish Goat Creek in Grant-Valkaria. I have been getting some nice reports by members of our school anglers club about Goat Creek, however with the strong east winds on Saturday I made a late audible and went to one of my favorite haunts, the Eau Gallie River. My game plan was to launch out of Ballard Park and head south along the eastern shoreline of Elbow Creek to catch some wind protection. I was going to go down to the bridge and back, but I ended up catching so many fish in a handful of spots, I did not make it all the way down. I spent my last hour or so playing hide & seek with some Juvie Tarpon, which I could not have been more thrilled about. I have never caught Tarpon in December, and to come across some was awesome.

Trout Stacked Up

One of my favorite times to fish the Eau Gallie River is in the winter because if you have strong North winds you can head west and have wind protection, if you have East or ENE winds you can head South along Elbow Creek. But in addition to wind protection, you also have a lot more Trout in the river-spring time which can make a day of fishing a lot more enjoyable. Trout in the area can easily add 10-15 more catches per outing, especially when the Juvie’s school and stack up. Catching a bunch of little Trout is not going to land one on any brag board, but in the bleak mid-winter I really enjoy just being able to catch a higher number of fish, it just makes every outing feel worthwhile. I found two areas where the Trout were stacked up, one area was just behind Ballard, and the other area was between docks about halfway down Elbpw Creek between Ballard and the US1 bridge. The key is to find a good depth contour and be on the lookout for feeding fish. With it being more windy, and overcast and a little drizzly at times, I took the rod/reel set up I have been using to fish the Vudu Shrimp and switched it out for a hard bait, which is something I don’t fish a lot. Because I am not a hard bait guy per se, I don’t spend much on them, I have 2 Bomber Bait Bonanza that I got from Walmart for like 3 bucks. I have a Holographic/Chartreuse one, and a RedHead/Holographic White body one. I exchanged the weak terminal tackles on these cheap baits with VMC 1/0 Single Inline hooks, and Owner brand stainless steel split rings. I was able to catch roughly 15 small trout fishing this bait around the docks and depth contours, I also caught a Jack Crevalle and a Ladyfish while trolling this bait as well.

Baby Snooklets in the Mangroves

So I ended up catching 2 babies and one “fun sized” 20ish inch Snook. I got absolutely smoked in my 1st 20 minutes or so by a large mangrove mama right behind Ballard. I was using pretty beefed up tackle for winter, I had 15 pound braid, and 30 pound fluorocarbon with a 40 pound bite tippet tied on the end. With the lower water levels in the winter, sometimes these Snook will be way back in the mangroves and it’s accessible to reach them with good skip casting, but harder to get them out and even with the heavier than usual tackle I couldn’t get her out, I got wrapped up and broken off.

But down closer to the Buddha dock I caught 2 smaller ones, and under the next dock south I caught one around 20-22 inches. I included a picture of one of the babies below because it had some really cool markings, something had tried to get it, either a Bull Shark or a Dolphin and it had lived to tell its tale.

*Buddha Dock = Long Dock with a Buddha Statue, across from the Boathouse.

All of the Snook bites came on a Saltwater Assassin SW Shad in Magic Grass. This is a cool colorway, with deep purple and green and a chartreuse tail. I just rigged it on a 3/0 EWG Worm hook. I just picked up a pack of 50 H2O Express brand hooks from Academy Sports last weekend for like 8 bucks. Great value and these hooks are pretty strong too. This bait rigged weightless and weedless may be one of the best skipping presentations I have ever assembled, and it has great action. I love going weightless in the winter time because these baits have a slow and enticing fall rate.

Tarpon is December?!? Merry Christmas!

The pleasant surprise of the trip was finding some Juvenile Tarpon that wanted to play. The first one I caught was a complete surprise. I saw something blow up on the corner of the mangroves just north of the Buddha dock. I skipped the Magic Grass Jerkbait under those mangrove, felt an immediate thump and set the hook. After losing that previous Snook I had the drag tightened up to the max, and was ready for battle. I immediately started back-pedaling towards open water, and with a medium heavy rod, 15 braid to 40 fluorocarbon with a tight drag set on a 4000 Penn Reel I whooped this poor little baby Tarpon in seconds. I actually felt kind of bummed I didn’t even get a jump out of him.

So after that, I went with my Light action rod and threw around a Tsunami 2 inch SaltX Swim Shad with 8 pound braid tied to 15 Fluorocarbon. Within minutes I hooked up with another Juvie between the Buddha dock and the mangroves who displayed some spectacular aerial jumps and moves before spitting the bait, and then in that stretch of mangroves north of the dock with all of the jetskis that sprays you with water if you get too close I hooked up with another baby Tarpon and after a few exciting jumps I got him into the net. I thought this was a really cool picture of the little Tarpon set against the backdrop of fall foliage in the trees.

So one thing I do want to say about these Tarpon is that I never saw any rolling like I would see in the summertime. I hooked them all blind casting. The best advice I can give is be on the lookout for things blasting smaller fry baitfish, as well as be mindful when you are retrieving lures for “Tarpon taps” if you feel like your bait is being tapped then slow down, but also be ready to switch to smaller profile baits.

Conclusion

While this trip lacked brag worthy quality fish, it made up for with quantity and variety. Winter fishing can be slow and tedious especially for those that like to power fish artificial lures. So I will gladly take a trip like this where I caught lots of fish, and caught 5 different species. I think the recent warming trend, cloudy skies and rise of humidity was a welcome change that really fired up the bite. Fingers crossed we get good conditions as we approach Christmas!

Thank you for taking the time to read this report, and make sure to stop in at Kayaks By Bo in Cocoa to do any last minute Christmas shopping. They have good deals running on everything in store. Go check them out!

Stay safe, be happy, may you and your family enjoy a very Merry Christmas. Take care and God bless. Until next time!