Baby Alligators Love the Rain

[onshore]

Baby Tarpon Play in the Rain

The rainy season is finally getting underway in east-central Florida. Look at a long range weather report and it will tell you two things; we have a 40-60% chance of rain every day and Baby Tarpon will be on the move.

The Indian River Lagoon runs roughly from New Smyrna to Ft. Lauderdale; some 80 miles. Along the way there are numerous rivers, creeks and drainage canals that
add their waters to the lagoon – especially after heavy rains. This time of year, that’s the place to fish. The freshwater runoff will draw tarpon, snook and trout to the confluence of those tributaries

The primary target are Baby Tarpon which is a misnomer for any Megalops under 100 lbs. But, it’s not unusual for a few adult fish, maybe up to 150 lbs. to be mixed in with the little guys. Any way you cut it; it makes for spectacular light tackle fishing. We have had rain every day now for a week and my new fishing friend, Bob has been hounding me to go. So we did; launching our kayaks in the Sebastian area yesterday afternoon, as soon as the thunder-shower ended.

Moving into Turkey Creek, we immediately found breaking fish chasing small bait between the railroad trestle and the Dixie Highway bridges. Couldn’t tell what the bait was, but the fish were definitely small Tarpon. Bob moved in slowly and I held back to his left so he could take the first cast and I could take pictures. One false cast and he shot his line just to the right of the breaking fish and let the white deceiver settle slowly. Then a twitch, and he was fast to a nice Tarpon of about 15 lbs.

Five or six jumps later after scrappy fight and he had the fish alongside his kayak and held by his bogagrip as he clipped his leader to release his first ever Tarpon.

The shallow pool we were in was pretty well riled up so, I moved up under the trestle and into the creek. As I cleared the trestle, my nerves were shattered by the appearance of a huge Alligator on the base of the abutment only about 30 feet to my right; apparently sleeping. I slowly backed up and as I retreated under the trestle, snapped a picture of the sleeping giant. I didn’t stop to measure her, but estimate it was around 12 feet long; just half a foot shorter than my kayak !

Bob went slowly and quietly up to the trestle and he took a picture also, which is above. The big gator must have been tired cause she never opened an eye that we could tell. We decided to explore Turkey Creek another time when it is not so well guarded. Now we paddled back into the lagoon and headed for a couple spoiles islands just offshore as the sun sank toward the west giving us about an hour’s more daylight.

Nothing was happening out around the islands other than an occasional mullet jumping to break the glassy smooth surface. We hauled out about 8:45 and sat on the shore watching the darkness blur the images of Pelican Island across the lagoon. A great day afloat, Bob’s first Tarpon and a couple good shots of a big gator guarding upper Turkey Creek. We were both using 8wt. rods with WF9F lines and casting my White Polar Bear Deceivers about 3" long.

Shot of Alligator by Bob Allard

Bill Hubbard

[Frogfish101]

Nice report Bill!

[Cookinman]

Now THAT's a fishing report ! Nice work - Lil poons are better than the big ones IMHO !

BTW - I went to Culinary School with an APRIL Allard (from New England also ) for a few semesters anyway- any relation ?

[onshore]

Bob is from Ohio and has no sisters, two brothers.

[Cookinman]

Bob is from Ohio and has no sisters, two brothers.

OK, worth a shot Still some great shots!!!