Fishing Report 6/4/11 - Indian River Lagoon, Scottsmoor Ramp

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Mon. July 4, 2011
Moon - new moon on Fri.

M.F.= 1:30 pm
Temp.: Low 72, 87 h.
wind: calm winds -0-5 mph max.

pressure: 30.01 (Steady)
humidity:81% -66-94%
rain: 0

Sunny to partly cloudy

notes: water dirty, little bit of grass floating

I haven't been able to  get the trout off my mind that I found over at the NIRL. I got up at 4:00 AM to make the drive to Scottsmoor. I was in the water by 6:30 and headed for deeper water.  I moved out to 30-36" of water and started plugging with my 17mr.

I was surprised how slow it was getting started. I picked up a few ladyfish but could not find a trout. The ladyfish we a little larger than average. I fished about 3/4 of a mile south and then decided to head back north.

I had bought a new X-RAP recently and decided to put it on a spinning rod and see what it can do. I

I started running into more bait activity north of the channel to the launch. About 250yds north I hung a trout on the new x-rap, glass-ghost. I made another cast and hooked another. The third cast back to the spot produced the same result. The only problem was they were a little short. I grabbed the rod with the 17MR and made a fourth cast.....nothing, dang it! I made a 5 th cast with the x-rap and fish on, another trout. I could not catch a trout on the 17mr to save my life. I think it was partly due to the dirty water and the x-rap's deeper running depth.

I picked up a few more lady fish and a couple of trout as I moved north but the bit petered out so I headed back south to where I had found the trout. I made a long cast with the x-rap and I didn't make two cranks on the reel and the plug got smashed. The rod bent over and I started loosing line! I thought "this is gona be a heck of a trout!" When I got the fish near the boat I got to see him boil up and saw the spots on his side...trout! The next time the fish came to the top I saw a much bigger fish with a side that looked 6-7 inched wide but it had no spots?? "What the heck was that?" The next thing I know the fish boils up again beside the boat and I've got about a 10lb. sail cat on the front hook and a 17" trout on the rear!! Unbelievable! I really did not know just what to do....the cat was to big for me to grab and I did not want to loose the trout. About that time the fish solved the problem and broke me off. The last I saw them, they were headed down still hooked to the x-rap. Damn the luck! That was a brand new plug.

It looks like This new X-Rap is going to be a winner!

Since that was my one and only xrap and the bite had slowed to a trickle I decided to head for the hill.

It was pretty much my designated quit time anyhow.

I ended up hooking about 8 trout and 30 or so ladyfish. Only 3 of the trout would measure and I had lost all three of them. $35-40 in fuel to get down there and back and I had nothing for the supper table.

That cat trying to eat my trout and hooking both of them at one time made for quite a memory though.

Tight Lines, Larry S.

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Halifax - Daytona Beach

Fri & Sat. July 1&2, 2011
Moon - new moon on Fri.

M.F.= 11:40 am
Temp.: Low 73, 89 h.
wind: light winds (east on sat)

pressure: 30.03 (Steady)
humidity:83% -65-100%
rain: 0

Sunny

 

 

 

Dad has been working on the trout and redfish in the Halifax the last couple weeks. He has caught up to 8 reds in a trip and another trip close to 20 trout were hooked up.  He's been catching at least a few trout every trip so we made a plan for an after dark trip  Friday and again on Saturday.

 

I really felt like we were going to work them over but it was SLOW! We only caught one 17" +/- trout on Friday night and zero on Saturday night. We were able to supplement the catch with some redfish so we weren't skunked.

 

Firday night we boated (5) reds, (1) trout and a few ladyfish. We kept (2) 19" reds and the trout that trip.

 

Saturday the tide was slow to change and was weak in flow. We finally managed to catch (3) reds well after dark between 9:30-10:30. Two were short but one was a nice 25" fish that got to take a ride in my chevy. We also had 4-5 ladyfish but no trout.

 

 

 

We fished with live shrimp on both trips both under a cork and carolina riged on the bottom around the docks. We had caught some nice crokers and fished them a little but had no takers.

 

One other unusual thing happened when I snagged a stingray in the top of the head with a 17MR-18 MirrOdine. I thought I had something good until I got him near the boat and he stopped and hugged the bottom. I knew something was up when that happened but I sure was not expecting to see a ray on my plug.

 

 

 

Part of our time both nights was wasted waiting on the tide to get going. I really don't prefer to fish the tail end of the outgoing and beginning of the in coming but that's what we had so we made the best of it.

 

I did not take any pictures Friday night  but I did take a few saturday night. Here they are.

 

Crokers, trout love them!

 

 

Larry S.