Indian River, FL

[schoolie monster]

Rexhamer's thread on flat's lures reminded me that I wanted to post a report from my trip a couple weeks ago. I met my dad in Orlando and we drove over to the coast. We fished the Indian River around Sebastian which I've fished for a several years now.

We fished two days with a guide and a couple hours from shore which was limited due to weather. We dealt with quite a bit of wind and clouds so sight fishing was tough. We fished alot of mangrove shorelines, grass flats with sand potholes and other edges (sandbars, cuts, etc.) mostly using small jigs and jerkbaits (bass assassins and ledgerunner split tails).

The first day started out beautiful. Little wind and sunny. We caught quite a few fish, but didn't have much size. Small trout, snook and jacks kept things interesting. One of my trout was decent. I got one cast on a nice red, but he was wise to us.

Then the clouds and rain showed and things got tougher. We caught some more small trout and Cpt. Tod got a small redfish on a popper.

We ended the day trying to drift some pinfish in the Sebastian Inlet for bull redfish. The bluefish were stacked in there and you couldn't get the baits down quick enough. We got a couple blues, but not what we wanted. It was great to be warm though. This was March 13-17, so it was still pretty cold up here. Just being able to get out on the water was sweet.

The wind kicked up the next few days. Our second day with the guide predicted winds up to 30mph. It was also mostly cloudy with just a few breaks here and there. My dad got a decent trout early in the day and a couple small jacks. By 9am, we had to tuck back into some protected coves and mangrove island channels. After some more of the plentiful small trout and jacks, I finally hooked up with a fish that ripped some drag. It was a nice jack maybe 8lbs. It was a blast and with the conditions, I was happy just to get a nice fish.

At mid-day on day 2 in a gale, I was starting to get resigned to the fact that I might not find my redfish. But things turned fast. We came to an area with a grass flat extending off some mangroves and we spooked a nice red. Bait was pushing all thru the area so we got excited. I saw a wake coming out of the 'groves and got a good cast on it and I nailed a nice redfish. My trip was made.