Every so often I feel the need to go fish a new area of Florida, so when I got a call from my buddy Steve Carl we did just that. Steve suggested we go to Scootsmoor and fish the northern most area of the Indian River Lagoon. A few days later we embarked on our trip.
Steve picked me up at 5:30 AM on Friday morning and we loaded up my tackle and set out on the drive to the boat ramp. The drive from my house to the boat ramp took about 45minutes. The boat ramp is small but there is plenty of parking. The only draw back is that there are no bathroom facilities. Once you launch your boat it takes less than a minute to where it opens up into a large body of open water and within minutes you can be fishing the grass flats.
Our target species that day was to be redfish. Steve, having fished the area several times before, knew some of the better spots to search for the fish. We drove to the shoreline on the north end, cut the motor and Steve got up on the poling platform. We worked a couple of creek mouths and the shoreline with no luck so we fired up the motor and moved to a different area.
We worked the shoreline of the new area and again no luck. It wasn’t until we moved about 50 yards off the shoreline that we started to see redfish. The water in this area is usually clear but with the rains they’ve had lately made the water murky and difficult to sightfish. It wasn’t until we were right on top of them that you could see them. By that time you have already spooked them and you could watch them swim off. We had a couple of shots at some cruising fish where steve put a Berkley Gulp right in front of their noses and they wouldn’t eat it. I had a shot at a cruiser that stopped and I lost where he went. I knew he was somewhere where I last spotted him and when I threw the fly I must have hit him right in the head because the water erupted and he was gone.
We didn’t catch any fish that day but I did see enough of them to bring me back to Scottsmoor again.
Locally the flounder bite has been hot. Use a Berkley Gulp on a jig head and work the shorelines of the ICW. For big trout, locate schools of glass minnows around docks and throw a Mirrolure 17MR for big results.
Steve picked me up at 5:30 AM on Friday morning and we loaded up my tackle and set out on the drive to the boat ramp. The drive from my house to the boat ramp took about 45minutes. The boat ramp is small but there is plenty of parking. The only draw back is that there are no bathroom facilities. Once you launch your boat it takes less than a minute to where it opens up into a large body of open water and within minutes you can be fishing the grass flats.
Our target species that day was to be redfish. Steve, having fished the area several times before, knew some of the better spots to search for the fish. We drove to the shoreline on the north end, cut the motor and Steve got up on the poling platform. We worked a couple of creek mouths and the shoreline with no luck so we fired up the motor and moved to a different area.
We worked the shoreline of the new area and again no luck. It wasn’t until we moved about 50 yards off the shoreline that we started to see redfish. The water in this area is usually clear but with the rains they’ve had lately made the water murky and difficult to sightfish. It wasn’t until we were right on top of them that you could see them. By that time you have already spooked them and you could watch them swim off. We had a couple of shots at some cruising fish where steve put a Berkley Gulp right in front of their noses and they wouldn’t eat it. I had a shot at a cruiser that stopped and I lost where he went. I knew he was somewhere where I last spotted him and when I threw the fly I must have hit him right in the head because the water erupted and he was gone.
We didn’t catch any fish that day but I did see enough of them to bring me back to Scottsmoor again.
Locally the flounder bite has been hot. Use a Berkley Gulp on a jig head and work the shorelines of the ICW. For big trout, locate schools of glass minnows around docks and throw a Mirrolure 17MR for big results.