February 25, 2010 - Fish, Fish Everywhere
As spring tries to push ole man winter into the recent past there are hungry fish emerging everywhere in the Indian River Lagoon from Titusville to Sebastian Inlet. Capt. Peter and I have been having a blast fishing the east side of the river up north as a massive school of huge black drum continues to entertain along with big redfish, our normal residents. And Capt. Roland has been catching big numbers of a variety of slot-sized fish along the west side of the river from Melbourne south to Grant. Here are summaries of our most recent trips.
Tuesday the weather was perfect with near calm winds and mid 70 degree temperatures. I had the day free to scout fish for upcoming charters and grabbed a couple of dozen hand-picked shrimp from Capt. Roy Allen’s Bait Shop before continuing north. Since there were several boats already staked on my intended flats I headed even further north in search of solitude and tranquil waters. My tack could not have been better suited for the day. Staking down amidst numerous tailing drum, I abandoned ship for the serenity of wading amongst the schools. Over the next two hours the two dozen shrimp disappeared as huge drum after huge drum was hooked, fought and released. The smallest fish weighed 20 pounds with several twice that size. Add a couple of communal redfish to the constant parade and you’ll understand why my arms ached at the end of the afternoon. By the way, I estimate that this school of big drum has fanned out across five miles of shoreline. It was a perfect day of fishing with a perfect day of weather to enjoy it.
Capt. Peter had a similar experience several days before with locals Chuck and his son Mason in some of the same waters. They hooked a number of the big drum in the morning before switching over to the long rods to throw a few flies at the beast. Peter estimated seeing 1500 fish on the day with reds running to 30 pounds and the drum ranging to 50 pounds. Peter was so preoccupied on the poling platform that the only photo snapped from the charter was of a 30 pound sting ray caught by Mason on a fly.
I was also on the water at the same time since my charter canceled the night before and wound up spending part of the day protecting Peter’s crew from two other boats curious about how he was catching so many fish. At one point the two boats had poled and trolled to within a boat length or two of Peter to watch. When not having to protect Peter flank, I stalked several of the big redfish lurking nearby. It was a great day of fishing all around and I felt sorry for the party that had been scheduled but declined to participate.
During this same stretch of time Capt. Roland took three charters into the Indian River from Melbourne to Grant. His Saturday crew consisted of Vince and Aubrei Blumberg down from Michigan for the third straight year. This time around 12 year old Aubrei bested her father catching a dozen fish to his six. The biggest fish was a 32 inch redfish which brought a huge grin to Aubrei face and archived by Vince’s camera. The Blumbergs are already looking forward to next year.
On a rare Sunday charter for Roland, the Kalb family joined him in the Grant area for a fabulous day of fishing. The gorgeous sunny skies and mid-70 degree temperatures fueled an intense feeding frenzy in which the Kalbs landed an estimated 25 fish consisting of upper slot reds, black drum, sheephead and trout. The action was so hot that at one point during the feed Capt. Roland had to stop the fishing so he could finish unhooking and releasing fish already boated. Everybody in the family of five caught fish except for mom who was too busy taking pictures to pick up a rod. The two photos below were shot by her, by the way.
On Tuesday Gary Greenough from Arizona and Dwight Entwistle from Indian Harbor Beach chartered Roland in the same waters. The skies started out overcast and there were a few sprinkles before the weather cleared and the serious fishing began. Using shrimp on light tackle Dwight and Gary caught an estimated 15 fish including numerous reds, black drum and trout on their half day charter. The couple wound up taking the following red and drum home for a fish fry later that evening.
Posted by Rocky Van Hoose on February 25, 2010 at 09:52:56 AM
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