Another Fishing Cart

I've included a couple pictures of another fishing cart that I've recently seen on the beach. Compared with the cart I pictured in an earlier post (see post for Oct. 31 ), this one is quite simple. It, however, meets the needs of the owner and helps make his fishing more enjoyable.

Did you notice the short rod with the big reel? The fisherman who owns this cart often fishes for sharks in the surf. On Thanksgiving afternoon he hooked and landed a 6 and a half foot spinner shark. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on the beach at the time to get a picture.

Fishing Conditions: This morning the ocean is fishable. There are long rolling waves and the water looks clean with no seaweed. The water clarity is medium. There is a light wind from the west. There were a number of people fishing and I saw some catches of whiting, sheepshead, black drum and a few pompano.

Calm Beach Day

I was surprised at how calm the ocean was this morning. You can see this from this picture I snapped this morning. It will be a great day for walking the beach in Indialantic. Why not plan to walk the beach either before or after dinner?

There were a number of anglers out trying the luck. They were catching a few blue fish, whiting and some undersized pompano. Overall, it was kind of a slow fishing morning. The water, however, is fairly clear and there is a very light northerly wind. Wave action to stir up the sand fleas is missing, so I doubt if it will be a good pompano fishing day.

Anyways, have a great Thanksgiving day and weekend!

Hungry Sandpiper!

---Click picture to enlarge it ---
It is a very nice day on the beach today. There is a light wind from the west and the water is clean. Unlike much of November, there is no evidence of seaweed. I saw a couple of people fishing. The one with whom I talked had caught one whiting and a nice blue fish. Overall, he said that fishing was slow. Although the ocean is very fishable today, I doubt if it will prompt much in the way of pompano activity because of the westerly wind.

I saw this sandpiper scouring the beach for his dinner. Often I see birds digging in sand flea pods for their meal. There was, however, no evidence of sand fleas today. Perhaps the warmer weather will prompt them to come out.

Beachside Flowers

---Click on pictures to enlarge them ---

This morning I walked along part of Indialantic's boardwalk. There are a number of interesting plants, flowers and trees that one can see on such a walk. I snapped these pictures of a pretty flower. I need to read IDENTIFYING FLOWERS FOR DUMMIES because I don't know the name of this flower.

Fishing Conditions: There is still a rather brisk northeast wind. It is producing waves and a rather strong current. You might hold bottom with 5 or 6 ounces. I saw one guy fishing. He said that the wind is supposed to subside. When it does, fishing should be good since the water looks very clean. I did not see any sand fleas along the beach.

A Good Day Fishing!

- Click Picture to Enlarge -

The fishing conditions on Indialantic's beach this mid morning and early afternoon were good. The water was clean and there was enough wind and waves to stir up the sand fleas on the first sand bar. Thankfully, the seaweed that had been plaguing fishermen was gone. I was surprised to see a lot of surfers, but only one other fisherman.

I snapped this picture of that fisherman's cooler after he had landed his 4th nice pompano. Before he was done, he caught 2 other nice sized pompano to make his limit. He also had whiting plus a rather nice black drum. He caught all his fish on sand fleas.

By early afternoon the wind had switched to the northeast and the temperature dropped some. The ocean became rougher, but it was still possible to hold bottom. The fisherman that I observed was throwing 6 ounces.

I think the weatherman is calling for windy conditions for the weekend. That might blow out the surf, but if not, the pompano are out there!

Beach Access

One of the nice things about the beach in Indialantic is that there is easy access to the beach for the general public. This wasn't the case from what I remember about the beach in the Fort Lauderdale area. Outside of the public beaches, it was difficult to find access there.

This morning I took pictures of one of the accesses in Indialantic. It is at the end of Watson Dr. where Watson Dr. intersects A1A. This is about a quarter mile north of the red light at A1A and 192. Sunrise Park is here as well as steps leading down to the beach. There is parking, but you will have to feed the meter!

Fishing Conditions: There is more wind and current than there was yesterday and the water is choppier. Yesterday the water clarity was great, but today is is of medium quality due to the wind and waves. Although it is not impossible to fish today, you would need a very heavy sinker to hold bottom. Yesterday, one fisherman was throwing 5 ounces and his sinker was skipping due to the current. I did not see anyone fishing when I was out on the beach in mid morning.

Sunrise on the Beach!

Since I don't live directly on the ocean, I can't just look out my patio door at the sunrise. I have to walk down to the ocean to have a look. It seems that every time I go down to see the sun rise, it is more or less a "dud"! Oh, the beach is still beautiful, but the sunrise is never spectacular.

A friend who reads this blog sent me this picture of a sunrise taken from the balcony on her condo along Indialantic's beach. The sunrises that I see are never as pretty as this one. One of these days, however, I'll be down on the beach with my camera when the sunrise will overwhelm me with its beauty.

FISHING CONDITIONS: The water has cleared today compared to Saturday, but it is still not crystal clear. The seaweed in the water is still a problem. There is a brisk wind from the northwest. It is causing a strong current that mixed with the seaweed is making holding bottom difficult. Yesterday (Sunday) I saw men fishing, but they were not having much luck.One fisherman today caught a whiting and nice sized black drum, but gave up fishing because of the seaweed.

Fog on Indialantic's Beach

It has been a long time since it has been so foggy on the beach at Indialantic. The picture was taken at approximately 7:40 pm Saturday morning.

As the morning progresses, the fog will burn off. The water, however, will continue to be dirty. The water should continue to show a slight brownish tint. Also, there is still seaweed, but not to the extent of a couple of days ago. The wind this morning was light out of the south south west.

The water should clear in the next couple of days as a front comes through and the winds take a north north easterly direction. When conditions do improve, pompano fishing should be very good.

Worse Yet!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, these pictures say it all about the present conditions on Indialantic's beach!

Fresh Crop of Seaweed!

Strong on shore winds are bringing more of something the beach doesn't need----sea weed! A fresh crop is now strewn across the beach of Indialantic. People are remarking that they've never seen the amount of seaweed that we've had this fall.

The wind is brisk. The weather man says that there is a high pressure system to the north and a low pressure system to the south. Between them is a pressure gradient that results in strong on shore winds.

Needless to say, fishing is out of the question. Surfers may like the big waves the pressure gradient is producing. Those who walk the beach will have to dodge the clumps of sea weed.

Blue Fish

This proud fisherman holds up a blue fish that he just hauled in early Monday afternoon. He caught the blue on cut whiting. It was one of several blues he had taken on the day. Earlier in the day he caught some small pompano, but no pomps big enough to keep. He said that he saw a 5 to 6 foot black tip shark jump out in front of him. He suspected the shark and blues have scared off the pompano and whiting.

Fishing conditions are not ideal. A fresh batch of sea weed is moving in with the incoming tide that is making fishing far from enjoyable. There is a strong north to northeast wind, but you could hold bottom with a heavy sinker. The water is very clean except for the sea weed.

Sea Pods Again

The picture today is of the sea pod from 2 days ago. I was surprised to see it germinate. Sort of reminds me of a green bean sead that is kept moist and germinates.

There were quite a few fishermen on the shores of Indialantic on Saturday. The several with whom I spoke were not catching much of anything. One told me, however, that a guy beside him caught 2 keeper pompano with one cast. I've never seen that before.

Seaweed continues to be somewhat of a problem. It seems bad on one part of the beach, but much better on other parts of the beach. Otherwise, the water was clean today. I wonderubg if Hurricane Paloma might cause some rough surf later.

Fishing Report

It looks like I was right yesterday when I wrote that conditions were improving and Friday might be a good fishing day. Well, from what I saw this morning, fishing is really good today.

I talked with a man fishing about half a mile south of the Indialantic boardwalk area. It was only after 7 AM and he had already caught 3 nice sized pompano and a black drum. When I walked past him on my way back up the beach, he was reeling in another keeper pompano. This fisherman had 3 lines out. He was using fresh clams for bait.

The water clarity is on the good side, but not perfectly clean. There was just a tad of seaweed in the water, but not enough to to cause problems. The wave action was good (not too many waves or too few). The wind was fairly light and was coming from the northeast. When I was on the beach, the tide was near low. When the tide is at high, the seaweed might become a problem since there still is a lot of dead seaweed on the upper part of the beach.

1:20 pm: The seaweed has become a problem. I talked to another fisherman who had caught 3 pompano in the late morning, but by early afternoon he quit because the seaweed had become such a problem.

Sea Pods

Conditions are improving along Indialantic's beach. The ocean is still on the choppy side, but the water is cleaner. There is some seaweed in the water, but it is not fresh. The high tide is washing the older sea weed back into the water.

I did not see anyone fishing along the beach, but there were some surfers. If conditions continue to improve, tomorrow the surf may be fishable.

Since I don't know the technical term, I'll call them sea pods. For almost a week there have been sea pods strewn among the sea weed on the beach. I can only guess where the pods have come from. The first picture shows the sea pods among the sea weed . The second picture is a close up of one of the pods.

Yucky Beach Day!

It is a yucky beach day today. Not only is the beach is strewn with sargassum (seaweed), but it is overcast, cool and windy. The ocean is not nice either. It is dirty and quite choppy. It is not a good day for either fishing in the surf or even walking the beach.

I encountered the fellow above in my walk. He didn’t seem to mind my taking his picture, although he kept his eye on me. You may know what kind crab this is, but my knowledge of crabs in limited.

Surf but not Fish!

Today is not the greatest of beach days. Not only has it rained much of the day, but the ocean is on the rough side. In walking the beach in the early afternoon, I saw no one fishing, but there were a few surfing. Even the waves for surfing are only fair. Can you spot the surfer in the picture above?

The conditions would make it tough to hold bottom if fishing in the surf. Plus, you would have to contend with a fresh crop of seaweed brought in over the night. Except for the seaweed, the water clarity was not too bad. Standing in the sand, you could almost feel that pompano were lurking not far off the beach.