On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:36:27 -0500, thunder
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:10:55 -0600, Vic Smith wrote:


Normally, bigger fish need deeper water.

I'm not sure that's really true for Florida fish. They like to have a
deeper hole around for protection, but for feeding they will travel into
some very skinny water. I've caught 20# snook in water knee deep, and
many other fish are known to feed very shallow. Redfish and bone come to
mind.

Good points. I know the big ones can get back there, but my
experience in skinny estuary and canal fishing is you mostly get
runts. Not always though. And you can plenty of runts in deeper
water too. I can't say I have a good handle on it.

If you are familiar with Hutchinson Island, you must know about the
nuclear plant. On the Indian River side, there is a very deep hole. It
might have been a borrow pit for the nuke, but 80-100 lb. tarpon have
been taken from there. Much smaller tarpon will actually travel through
the corrugated pipes to get into the mosquito bogs along the river side
to feed.

Drove back there to the gate once, but never had a boat there.
Always surf-fished when I visited.
Mostly wanted sand-perch and pompano. Fried sand-perch are probably
my favorite eating fish, but my dad liked baked pompano.
I caught one once that was maybe 18". Terrific fighter.

--Vic

On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:50:42 -0600, Vic Smith wrote:


Drove back there to the gate once, but never had a boat there. Always
surf-fished when I visited.
Mostly wanted sand-perch and pompano. Fried sand-perch are probably my
favorite eating fish, but my dad liked baked pompano. I caught one once
that was maybe 18". Terrific fighter.

I never had much luck on the ocean side. That side was for lazing
about. ;-) As for the river side, you don't really need a boat. You can
have pretty good luck, just wading out, lot's of seatrout in the grasses,
with an occasional redfish, or snook thrown in.

On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:05:51 -0500, thunder
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 10:50:42 -0600, Vic Smith wrote:


Drove back there to the gate once, but never had a boat there. Always
surf-fished when I visited.
Mostly wanted sand-perch and pompano. Fried sand-perch are probably my
favorite eating fish, but my dad liked baked pompano. I caught one once
that was maybe 18". Terrific fighter.

I never had much luck on the ocean side. That side was for lazing
about. ;-) As for the river side, you don't really need a boat. You can
have pretty good luck, just wading out, lot's of seatrout in the grasses,
with an occasional redfish, or snook thrown in.

Reminds me I did a fair amount of bridge fishing on the river there.
My dad liked that, as he'd chat with buddies. Never caught anything
notable though, except plenty of sand-perch and puffers. My dad would
clean a good sized puffer.
Seems most of the fisherman were after trout. I really don't like
bridge fishing. Just too much noise from the cars/trucks whizzing by.

--Vic