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, 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 5/21/11 - Mosquito Lagoon

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Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report
Sat.  May 21, 2011
Moon - 4days past Full
M.F.=  2:15 am +/- (moon at 2:00 position+/- at daylight)
Temp.: mid 60's to low 80's in afternoon
wind: SW @ 5-7  mph early, built to 10+ and died about noon then switched out of E at 10 mph
pressure: 29.75

humidity: 55%avg.(41-83)   

rain: 0

sunny

I know what everybody's thinking........Larry, where's all the fish, you lost your touch or what? I've been thinking the same thing. I have just recently started fishing for this year since Spring Gobbler season has ended and have not really been able to get on any fish to speak of.

I 've mostly been trying new places but today I decided to go back to a spot I fished a few times last year that seemed to always have a good number of fish on the east side of Mosquito Lagoon. I dubbed the spot the "Sink Hole" after my friend Lou flipped his yak there on its maiden voyage last summer. He would have got a kick out of seeing me go over today. I was polling with the paddle standing when I thought I saw fish lying in a sand hole. I grabbed a rod and made a cast but the wind pushed me on. I twisted around and next thing I know I'm in the water. Good thing it was real shallow or I would have got real wet. As it was I was only half wet and was back in the boat before anyone saw it!

As far as the report, I should have just taken a picture of my shirt at the end of the day.  I was covered in fish blood and poop. That would have told the whole story and I could have forgone all the rest. I thought my professional fishing shirt was ruined! A wash in cold water followed by a liberal amount of hydrogen peroxide with a follow up wash, pretty much got all the stains out. It's a good thing half the lady fish get off before you have to handle them. Man those things get nasty. I had them hooked every way possible, even had one hooked in the mouth and tail at the same time! That was was wantin' some relief!

There were some Redfish there but not in the numbers I expected. What was there in numbers were Ladyfish!! I fished some sand pot holes where every cast brought a strike. I know I caught over 45 of them before the day was over. As for the redfish I caught 4 or 5 fish in the low end of the slot, 18-19" range.

I had four rods on the boat, (2) plug rods and to spinning outfits. I had a Mirrolure "Top Pup" on one and a "MirrOdine twitch bait on the other. On the spinners had an Assassin Jerk Shad in pearl and the other had a "Tsunami bucktail flats jig."  Nothing would touch the top water plug. The MirrOdine however, killed the ladyfish, they loved that thing. Watch the hooks on these things, they are the sharpest treble hooks I have ever seen.  I
had ladyfish hooked every way possible, even had one hooked in the mouth and tail at the same time! That was was wantin' some relief! I caught one of the reds on the soft jerk bait and the others on the jig. The ladyfish loved the jerk bait but had trouble getting it in their mouth so I couldn't hardly hook one on it but I could see them knocking the crap out of it. I have had no luck at all in this clear water with a top water plug.

Well, I pushed off from the hill before sun up but I wanted to have actually made the mile plus paddle to the flat I wanted to fish, in the dark. I couldn't get into the park before 6 AM however.

I stopped on the way at a little point that looked fishy. It had a few dead mangrove stumps and some slick water next to some 2-3 feet deep stuff. The first cast with the jerk bait drew a strike from a ladyfish. Just after that I noticed a redfish tail pop up between me and the bank. I pitched to him but nothing. That one and another fish were moving down the bank and disappeared. I moved around the point and saw them again. I made a cast at the one I could see. As the bait got to him he spooked off but instantly I felt a hard thump and my Okuma started giving up line. Apparently, the second fish saw the bait and rushed it, spooking the first fish as it was right beside him. He was a nice 19" fish.

Since I was only a few casts into the trip and I was fixin' to really spank'um I decided to turn that red back and hold out for a bigger fish that was sure to come. A couple hours later with no big redfish on the stringer I was question that decision.

I finally caught a replacement for him on a little bucktail flats jig tipped with a piece of ladyfish in one of my favorite sand holes. I had paddled over a mile to get to this spot and there was a boat anchored, fishing the very hole I wanted to fish, out of all the others around! I never saw him catch a fish out of it but I felt there had to be something there. A while after they poled off, I paddled over and caught that red on the first cast! That was some pretty good justice!

The wind was a little troublesome. It was around 10 mph on up in the morning but died around noon and the water slicked off. In about a half hour it changed directions and started coming off the ocean. I mostly used the stake pole  to hold my position but that made for a few poor pictures with the sun at my back. It was just to much trouble to  re-position the boat so I just did the best I could.

I had my camera remote quit on me when I caught that first red and ended up paddling back to the truck for a spare since I was not that far away. There were 3 other yaks putting in as I paddled away. They headed south behind me but stayed further out. I kept to shallower water looking for a tailing fish. I got into a decent group of reds tailing past that same point I had caught the first at. They were filtering by a few at a time so I staked down and casted to them as they came by. I could not get one of them to eat anything I offered though they were actively feeding.

I did see one more small school of reds at mid day that were moving south and I could see some tails but They were not really feeding they had just pushed up into some shallow grass. They were moving along pretty good actually. I couldn't do anything with them either.

Later, when I got back to the launch, two of the trio of yak fishermen showed up and one of the guys came over and said "what were you catchin', ladyfish? Every time I looked over at you, you were fight another one!"

They had not caught no where the numbers I had but each had caught a red or two that were 24-26" and one had caught about 5 or 6 trout that were all short except one 15"er. I had not seen a trout all morning myself. They had caught the trout in deeper water.

There's probably more ladyfish pictures here than necessary but you get the idea a pile of fish!

Larry S.