Sand Flea Sift Bucket Project

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If your already in to surf fishing then you should know all about fishing with Sand Fleas. However, what a lot of people fail to realize is they work great in the intracoastal as well! There are a variety of commonly sought fish that will readily eat a sand flea. Any fish in the intracoastal that will eat a small crab will eat a sand flea, including, redfish, sheepshead and black drum. Make sure you bring more than you think you need as even pin fish love them and you'll can go through them pretty quickly at times.

The sand fleas are pretty easy to catch and free for the taking. A small package of them can cost you $4-5 at a bait shop.

Sand Flea Rake!

There are two basic ways to catch sand fleas and that is a sand flea rake or a sifting device. Actually, both work on the sifting principal. The rake is a wire basket on a handle and the other can be made from almost anything. A simple way to go is to use a 5 gal. bucket, etc. and drill 3/8" holes in the bottom. You just shovel the sand in and rinse it out, leaving sand fleas and some shells.

You don't need to be a genius to figure this one out but it's a little bit of useful information if your going to catch your own fleas. I trust you can figure this project out from just the picture so no complicated directions are needed.

Homemade bucket sifter!

Good luck sand flea hunting!
Larry S.
                                                                                                                 

IFA Kayak Fishing Tournament - Titusville 6-19-11

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Tournament Day!
Mosquito Lagoon - East side & Indian River Lagoon - Scottsmoor
Sun. June 19, 2011
Moon - 4 days past full
M.F.= 3:00 pm
Temp.: Low 71, 87 h.
wind: SSW varied from 0 to 10 mph, switched to E at 1:00pm
pressure: 30.03 (Steady)
humidity: 65% -52-88%
rain: severe storms over night
Sunny

My prefishing had not revealed any particular outstanding spot to get on some big reds so I decided my plan would be to get my trout out of the way early at Scottsmoor and then head for the NE corner of Mosquito Lagoon, put back in and just start paddling South looking for reds.

At the Capt's meeting we were instructed that we could launch no earlier than 5:45 am. I think I was in the water just before 6AM.

I paddled for the edge of the grass to fish the sand bottom at the 30-36" depth. On my third cast of the morning I hooked up with a trout on the 27MR-18 MirrOdine. Boy was I excited! I could tell by the way he pulled he would measure enough to get me on the board. Half way to the boat he pull off! Man, was that disappointing.

I recovered the plug and made another cast. A couple of fast twitches and I had fish #2 on. I jumped the ladyfish a few times and she threw the plug. The next cast was met with the same result…another lady fish. I pried her off the plug and hummed it right back out. The plug barely hit the water when it was smashed by a 3 lb. Ladyfish.

That's the one, I'm just about to make a big mistake!

I pulled the fish alongside the boat and lifted it up with the line. It’s mouth was gaped open with the forward hook in the lower jaw. This is where everything went sideways.

I could see what was about to happen but I couldn’t stop myself….I just had to lip that fish. As soon as I touched her she went wild, thrashing and hung the trailing hook in the side of my thumb! Now, I’m hooked on one end of the plug with a 3 lb flopping fish on the other. I instantly grabbed the fish and pinned it in the bottom of the boat.

My first thought was to get the fish off the plug before the hook got buried even worse. There was already blood all over the plug, thumb and my leg. I used my pointer and middle finger to maneuver the plug out of the fish while I held the thing with a death grip with my right hand and got her out of the boat. I rolled my thumb over and immediately realized the situation was already to the “worse” point! The hook was completely buried to the bottom of the bend. Damn it! This is pretty bad I thought. I might not be able to deal with this by myself. This might turn into a trip to the emergency room.

After accessing my options I decided to try to push the hook through and get myself back in the game.
I pulled my bait knife, cut the line to the plug and retrieved the needle nose pliers from my tackle box. The next step was to get the plug off the hook. I used my knife to open the split ring and was able to work the hook off. It was a delicate operation to say the least.

With the hook off the plug I clipped the other two hooks off the treble. All the easy steps were over and it was time to push this thing through! I don’t know how many times I pushed, probably 6-8 times. I would push….stop and take a couple deep breaths. It felt like I was pushing as hard as I could. Finally, the point started to come through. I cut the skin down the side of the point a little and once the barb was out it gave me enough room to get the needle nose around the hook and clip the point off. Man was that a relief when the barb popped off! After that it was just a matter of backing it out and bleeding it as much as possible to flush the wound out.

In a couple minutes I had a new hook on the plug and was back in the hunt! Strangely enough my thumb wasn’t even soar. I barely thought about it the rest of the day.

In short order I had another trout on and lost that one also. A few minutes later I lost another! I couldn’t believe this was happening. Finally, I put a trout in the boat but he turned out to he a ¼” short to measure. The bite started slowing after that so I paddled back north to start another drift.

I got back into a few fish and before I knew it I had five legal trout but all were about 16 ½”. I just couldn’t get any on that were any better than that. I had about 12 on all together. I don’t know how many ladyfish but they far out numbered the trout.

At 8:30, an hour late, I decided I would have to head for the ramp and get out of there. I loaded the boat as fast as possible and struck out for New Smyrna Beach.

I think I was back in the water around 10:00 and was feeling I had really burned a lot of valuable time and was questioning myself for not going to Dummits Cove where I had seen a pile of redfish on Friday and was much closer. The problem was I just could not get them to eat.

I started paddling south and had brought my binoculars so I could increase my coverage of the flat. It was a great idea that worked well. The only problem was that there was almost no redfish to be found. I paddled 3 ½ miles south and probably did not see half a dozen redfish and all were jumped, no pushers, no tailing, no nothing!

While it was only 87 deg. The wind had died on the flat and it was H O T! I had to pull my glasses off and wipe the sweat rolling down my face about every third cast.


Once I reached tiger shoals I realized the likely hood I was going to put a red in the boat was not good and getting worse. All I could dohope for a miracle. I did jump a few more fish on the way back but saw nothing I could try to make a cast to.

Finally, I made it back to a sandy strip I call the sink hole and came up on the down wind end and made a cast with the 27MR. Wham! Fish on but it immediately went air born……ladyfish. I made another cast and hooked up with a fish that pulled hard and held deep. I felt I might have a minimum red on but all of the sudden the line popped! Noooooooooo! After all the bad luck for the day I just lost a plug that I have literally caught hundreds of fish on. I guess it was inevitable though.

I tied my back up 17MR on and made another cast. I immediately hooked another lady. Another cast another lady.
I put the plug rod down and made a cast with my gold spoon. You guessed it…..another ladyfish! However, this one was a little small, maybe 10”. About half way to the boat a huge redfish in the 36” range struck at the thrashing ladyfish! I could not believe it. If it had not been for the swarm of ladyfish I could have had a real shot at catching that fish. I think I could have finished 3^rd or 4^th with that fish. As it were he probably saw the boat and I could never draw another strike from him….ladyfish, sure!

I fished one more sand hole which took me right to the wire. Weigh in was 1:00-3:00pm and it was after 1:30 and I still had over a mile paddle to get hack to the truck! I squared everything away and started stroking. I knew I did not have close to enough fish to make a good show but typically half the boats will not weigh in a fish. After all that effort I was at least going to weigh in what I had……or so I thought.

I hit the hill running, through everything in the truck and took off like a shot. I had to get back to New Smyrna and cross over on hwy 44 to get to the interstate and head south to Titusville for the weigh in. I thought about shooting down A-1-A but 95 sounded faster. Well, just as I got onto the interstate I could see it was a parking lot up ahead and all traffic was stopped!!! It turned out to be a small pickup upside down on the shoulder and looked pretty bad. Hopefully no one was seriously hurt. Talk about rotten luck for me though! Rather than finishing in the middle of the field at about 18^th, I got a big fat zero for not making the 3:00pm dead line.

What a day! I can’t remember ever fishing any harder.

The weigh-in was pretty enlightening . It worked out that first place went to a guy that fished 125 miles from where the tournament was held! What! I couldn’t hardly believe it! The rules had stated “no off limits” but It would have never occurred to me that someone would fish so far outside the area. Incidentally, this guy is a captain and a guide and fished his home waters. That just was not right! Legal according to the rules….yep!

I did send a letter to the IFA urging them to have a look at the way this rule is written but as of this day I have received no response.
I probably had 30-40 ladyfish and about 12 trout on. No redfish however. There were two really large trout caught , one 27.75” and one 26.25”. The winning red was 39”(from Jacksonville).

Anyway that was the big Titusville Tournament. I don’t know if I would do that again or not. Maybe with a few rule changes.

Larry S.



Fishing Report 6/25/11 - Marineland

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Marineland, Florida
Sat.  June 25, 2011
Moon - 2 days past last quarter
M.F.=  7:00 am
Temp.: Low 73,  86 h.
wind: variable@ 5-8mph (it was up and down, it would lay then change directions)
pressure: 29.98

humidity: 83% -66-100%   

rain: 2 1/4" last night and 1 3/4" this afternoon

Partly to mostly cloudy & building into the afternoon

 

After giving my self some time to heal up from the kayak fishing tournament last weekend I decided to try some sheepshead fishing for a change, up around Marineland.

 

The first order of business was to catch some bait. I stopped at the beach on the way to round up some sand fleas. I didn't have any kind of sifter so I just used a shovel and dumped it up on the hard beach to catch the fleas. It took a while but I caught 3 dozen or so and headed north.

 

There were a pile of pelicans diving bait way out but I could not see what kind of bait it was with the cloud cover.

 

I also caught up some fiddler crabs after I launched to go with my fleas.

 

 

The tide was supposed to full about 7 AM so it was about half out by the time I got there. That was not really the plan but it took well over an hour to catch the fleas.

 

My first fish came pretty quick but I was surprised to see a small Gag Grouper when I got him to the boat. I was only in 3 feet of water when I caught him.

 

 

I was getting a few bites starting out but they were all a little short. I finally caught a good sheepshead after a while but he would be the first and last for this day. I did have one other one that was just about 12" but I turned him loose.

 

There is some kind of major construction project going on in the river right now and there are some big barges and dredges anchored everywhere. There are some large pipes on the west side of the river and it looks like they are dredging a pipe line in of some sort. The water is pretty muddy looking and I suspect this did not help my fishing outcome.

 

That's pretty much the report for now. (1) grouper, (5) sheepshead

 

 

Larry S.

Fishing Report 6/18/11 - Mosquito Lagoon-Eddy's Creek

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Mosquito Lagoon -Eddy's Creek
Sat.  June 18, 2011
Moon - 3 days past full
M.F.=  2:05 pm
Temp.: Low 75,  89 h.
wind: SSW@ <5  mph all morning
pressure: 30.07 (Steady)

humidity: 68% -45-88%   

rain: 0

Sunny

I decided to fish Eddy's Creek for my last ditch effort to get on some fish for the IFA tournament. I have never fished it before and it was quite a haul to get there.

I decided to try a new tactic today and took some binoculars with me to do some long range recon.

I paddled into the lagoon and started north looking for redfish and fishing any sand I could find. I picked up a few lady fish here and there but that was about it. I never saw any sign of a redfish....did not even jump one paddling! I could hardly believe it. I paddled almost out to the whales tail and glassed the flats boats to see what they were doing but most guys were just standing on the deck at the ready position, waiting. There were boats everywhere!

I headed up north and after a while decided to try paddle back to the launch and try to hit another spot before it got to late.

I decide to plug the sandy bottom of the basin near the launch with my 27mr18. It was not long before I had a fish on and put another ladyfish in the boat. Another couple casts and I hung a trout that pulled off. I hooked up with another few ladyfish and finally put a nice 17" trout in the boat.

I paddled back to the launch, loaded up and headed for Scottsmoor. I did talk to 3 other boats at the launch that had the same experience as me....no redfish.

When I got to Scottsmoor there was a boat that had just come in and I asked what they had done. He related they had caught some trout but had not seen a redfish! He said they are all over on the east side!

I put in and headed out to the deeper waster just outside the edge of the grass. I worked up and down the edge but was only able to boat on 17" and a few more ladyfish.

It was getting hot so I decided to call off the hunt and head home.

Larry

Fishing Report 6/17/11 - Dummits Cove Indian River Lagoon

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Dummits Cove
Moon - 2 days past full
M.F.=  1:10 pm
Temp.: Low 75,  89 h.
wind: E @ 5-8  mph early, laid flat at 9:00am
pressure: 30.02

humidity: 67% AVG. 55-89%  

rain: 0

Sunny 

I fished Dummits Cove this mourning looking for some big fish in preparation for the IFA tournament on Sunday.

There was a good bit of bait activity on the paddle out to the mouth of the cut. I fished a little on the way out but was really wanting to beat it to some large holes in the lagoon. As I paddled out into the lagoon I saw what I was looking for.....10-15 big reds in the 30-40" class! I eased their way and made a cast.....and another and another and another...... I couldn't beat a bite out of those fish. I hate it when they do that! They eventually split into two groups and eased off.

I paddled off to the west looking for more fish. I crossed up a pile of one's and two's but just could not get one to take a bait. I caught a few ladyfish here and there but that was about it. I really saw a lot of reds but they were just not cooperative.

I fished my way back and saw a number of reds in the grass along the cut  but they were not tailing or pushing or giving any tell tail sign they were there so I ended up jumping them. Had I had more time I would have spent a little more of it there blind casting and maybe soaking some baits gulp shrimp.

I did not find any trout action so it looks like I'll keep looking for a spot for tournament day.

Larry S.

Fishing Report 6/12/11 - Mosquito Lagoon

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Mosquito Lagoon Sun.  June 12, 2011
Moon - 3 days past first quarter
M.F.=  7:40 am
Temp.: Low 69 at daylight,  86 at 2:30
wind: NNW @ <5  mph early, laid flat at 10:00am then switched to E at 8-10 mph
pressure: 29.98 (Steady to slightly rising)

humidity: 88% at 6:00am, 51% at noon   

rain: 0

Mostly Sunny

This morning I decided to go back to one of my favorite spots on the east side of Mosquito Lagoon. I haven't been there in about 3 weeks and the conditions have really changed. I was the first Person through the gate this morning and was launched just after 6:00am.  I had noticed a lot of bait near the launch last time I was there so I did a little plugging with the 17mr and picked off a real nice 17" flounder the first crack out of the box. I flipped him in the boat and he shook off the hook and landed in my lap....Man that was close!

I paddled on looking for tailing redfish but all the flats I had seen fish on last time were so shallow the grass was exposed. To make things worse, the grass was shedding and the dead grass had floated up in to a thick mat way out and fish, particularly trout, couldn't get to the sand holes I intended to fish if they wanted to. I found some lady fish here and there but if was slim pickin's.

I decided to go on the hunt and paddle south looking for signs of life.

After about a mile and a half I came into a little deeper water with a mixed bottom but more grass than sand. Shortly after, a swirl up ahead caught my attention and I grabbed my plug rod and made a cast. As fish closed on the quartering plug , all of a sudden they exploded, I felt a solid thump and the reel started singing. After a short tour of the flat I finally got the big red boat side and got my hand on him......29 1/4"! A heck of a nice fish.

By the time all this was over and the picture taking was done I realized I was in the middle of a big school of fish. At first I thought they were small reds pushing but I believe it was just catfish with big mullet. I did hook another large redfish in a flats jig tipped with a tiny bit of ladyfish but he straightened the hook and tore off. I hate it when a fish gets off like that.

I pushed on south and ended up about 2 1/2 miles below the launch before I turned around and started heading back.

As I was paddling back I caught a glimpse of something dark, above the water and about 4ft. long. "I sure hope that was a manatee" I thought ! I decided to check it out. Being that I was in a 12' plastic boat I approached the spot cautiously. There was a big muddy spot and I was paying close attention. Unfortunately, I did not see the one on my right and paddled up a little to close. About the time I noticed it...it noticed me! Lucky for me he did not try to go under the boat and went around but I still got rocked pretty good....man that was close.

Well, about a quarter mile from the launch I noticed a manatee nose poke up out of the water. You guessed it.....I paddled over for a closer look! I readied my camera for a picture. I came alongside, parallel and dropped my paddle to the bottom to keep the wind from pushing me on top of them. About then the pair noticed I was there and did not like it. They both beat their tail violently in the shallow and headed for deeper water. The amount of water they displaced was incredible and I was able to get a little bit of a picture. I don't think I have ever seen such spooky manatees. They wouldn't try to hurt you but you could get flipped pretty easy.

I guess the total catch for the day was (35) ladyfish, (1) 29 1/4" redfish ((1) big one lost), (1) 17" flounder and (3) ambitious pin fish, zero trout.

I 'm still not excited about the fish I have found for the up coming tournament but this red would have been a contender!

A rod for every occasion!

Larry

Fishing Report, Indian River Lagoon, Scottsmoor Ramp, 6/11/11

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Indian River Lagoon Sat.  June 11, 2011
Moon - 2 days past first quarter
M.F.=  7:40 am
Temp.: Low 70's at daylight, forecast for low 90's wind: ENE @ <5  mph early, built to 10-12 mid morning (slick flat early)
pressure: 29.94 (falling slightly)

humidity: 80% at 6:00am, 57% at noon   

rain: 0

Partly cloudy

 

I got a good sounding tip from a friend of my brother that put me launching at the Scottsmoor ramp this morning, into the west side of the Indian River Lagoon. This is my first time fishing out of there. It has some pretty nice grass flats that parallel the long straight bank with a little bit of sand bottom interspersed.

 

I launched into the slick calm lagoon at 6:00am and paddler out the channel before heading north. It is pretty skinny for a long way out from the bank since the water is so low. There is visible grass showing for 300+ yds out from the bank.

 

Bait was a little scarce until I got 3/4 of a mile north and there was good bait activity from there on. I could hear bait spook and shower so far away I couldn't even see it this morning. Up wind of course.

 

This morning I fished a Johnson gold spoon and the MirrOdine 17mr for the most part. I did use a gulp shrimp here and there and picked up my first trout of the morning on it, using it as a jerk bait over some deeper sand. (The links are hot if you need some more info. on these)

 

About 30 minutes into the hunt I spotted a fish strike some bait towards the bank a little ways out of casting distance. I made a 90 and closed on the spot. There was no more sign of the fish but I made a cast with my gold spoon and started a slow retrieve. All of the sudden some mullet exploded and I felt a solid thump on the line. I set the hook, felt the fish strain on the line and P O P! By By spoon. I have no idea why it broke off. I checked the leader when I rigged all the rods this morning. Oh well. That was probably the only keeper I had on all day. I'll have to replenish my spoon stock now.

 

I caught a few lady fish on both the spoon and the MirrOdine but I was not seeing any tailing so I headed back south to try to strike on some action.

 

Just before I got back even with the ramp I found a little sand hole and caught a short redfish out of it on the spoon.

 

I found a little bit of trout action on the outside edge of the grass south of the ramp but all were under slot. I probably caught 6 trout total, there just wasn't any size to them. I think I picked up a couple more lady fish down there as well.

 

I'm thinking the falling barometer may have had something to do with the slow action? I probably only jumped 8-10 reds all morning and none loooked of any size. Never saw a fish tail. They just did not seem to be there.

 

I guess to sum it up I'd say there was a lot of angling for big fish today but precious little catching!

 

Larry S.

 

 

Fishing Report 6/8/11 - Lake Disston

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Lake Disston Fishing Report
Wed.  June 8, 2011
Moon - 1 day before first quarter
M.F.=  4:40 pm
Temp.:  low 80's
Wind: E @ 5-10mph
pressure: steady (high)
Humidity:   

Rain: 0

Sunny

I decided to stop at lake Disston for an hour or so of last light.

I had rigged my fly rod with a little poppin' bug and I brought my micro spinner with a Rapala f-3 on it.

There was a little 5' gator waiting to greet me at the launch. I put in and paddled his way to see how close he would let me get. Here's a pic of him. I saw 2 more before dark and paddled up on a stump that looked like a huge gator's head! WOW! FULL REVERSE! It was just about dark and that had be a little shook! Once I gathered myself and started ahead I jumped a fish that splashed water in my little plastic boat and I just about abandoned ship!

Well. I did catch a hand full of fish but they were a little small. Probably  had (5 )bream and (2) bass.

Unfortunately, my first cast with the micro spinning rod drew a strike from a little bass and the line failed when I went to lift him in the boat. Turned out the cheap line that came on the thing was rotten.


I Think there's some fish to be caught here. I just need to fix the failings in my gear and put some more time into it.


Good luck,
Larry