Indian River

I haven't been back to Hutchinson Island and the Indian River since last April.  I've been wanting to get back up there but the weather has been sketchy.  It's about a 90 minute drive and I'll usually fish closer to home if there's rain or strong winds in the forecast.  Also, I've never done particularly well there, even though the Indian River is considered one of the best shallow water fishing destinations in the country.  In recent years some of the sea grass has been dying off, which has affected the fish, which like to hide in it.  Quite a bit of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee has been dumped into the Indian River.  But since yesterday's weather forecast looked OK, I decided to give it a try.

When I arrived, the wind was pretty calm and I was seeing mullet out in the creek where I launched my kayak.  Within a few minutes a small snapper hit my Mirrodine lure.  It's always good to get the skunk out of the boat as soon as possible.

I continued pedaling on out to the mouth of the creek, where it empties into the Indian River.  I found a school of small snook hanging around the mangroves in that area.  I had about four of them come up and attack my lure but none of them managed to stay hooked.   There were some white caps further out in the Indian River proper, as the wind had picked up a bit.  I didn't venture out too far beyond the creek mouth.  But the area looked like it might hold some sea trout.  I let the wind push me south across the mouth of the creek.  Nothing was hitting the Mirrodine, so I switched to a plastic shrimp imitation on a jig head.  Almost immediately a small sea trout nailed it.  I stayed in that area for another hour or so.  There was no further action and the wind got a bit annoying, so I headed back up the creek toward the kayak launch.

At one point I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 2:30 - too soon to call it a day.  So I pedaled back out toward the creek mouth, hoping I'd given that school of snook enough rest that they might be interested in hitting one of my lures.  Along the way I helped a gentleman fishing from shore save a snapper he had hooked that had gotten tangled around a branch.  A few minutes later, a snook darted out from one of the mangrove pockets I'd been casting into and managed to stay hooked long enough for me to release it at the boat.

For a little while I threw a white and red deceiver fly into the mangrove pockets, hoping to entice another snook to come out and play.  But by then the wind was blowing briskly up the creek from the ocean, so casting the fly rod became more trouble than it was worth, so I went back to spinning tackle for the rest of the trip.

I called it quits around four o'clock.  Three not very big fish doesn't make for a great day.  But I'd done better than I thought I might.

I like the area I was fishing.  Maybe I'll try it again in a week or so with a different tide pattern.

Here's a link to the video:   http://youtu.be/pdByUDlwQxo

At one point I talk about a school of dolphins.  Actually at that point I meant to say "snook."  But I had just seen a couple of dolphins further out in the Indian River, so that's why I mis-spoke.