Lighthouse Lakes 5/14/23

[ben_beyer]

The in-laws rented a house in PA for a long weekend so I took a kayak to fish when possible. Same as before I was wanting to see more of the Lighthouse Lakes if the water was high enough. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate very well and I was hesitant to go out with thunderstorms forecasted, which was the case on pretty much every day.

Thankfully the weather was clear for Sunday so I quickly got things loaded up and got on the ferry to see if I could find some Redfish.

The MLLW was 1.5-2' high and the area was a little deeper than when I had been there 2 weeks prior. I paddled down the boat channel on the far side to avoid lines set out from the bank and boats. Someone in a boat did yell something at me but I didn't understand if it was a thanks or something negative so I just cruised down to the start of the Redfish Loop trail.

The water was somewhat clean by the boat channel but very stained as I got into the lakes on the east side. Even though it was shallow, I couldn't see bottom.

I did spot a Redfish making a wake after entering from the boat channel into that first lake and started throwing a topwater towards it. Something (probably a red) swiped at my lure but that was about it so I started heading back. There were plenty of happy mullet jumping along the way but no real sign of Redfish, Trout, or Drum so I just kept going. I eventually made it to the isolated lake NW of the lighthouse and then worked my way back to the trial.

I kept going back and saw 2 boats headed into LHL on the trail and was thankfully behind them. The water cleared up the further back I went but was still pretty stained.

I kept going back looking for signs of fish but I didn't really see any. I eventually spotted another Redfish under the water near the boat channel on the west side of LHL and started seeing minnows in the water. I fished some more but didn't have anything take notice and it was about 5 o'clock so I called it quits.

I passed another kayaker right at the drain to the boat channel who had a limit of Drum using dead shrimp under a popping cork but dolphins had shown up and crashed the party so he came to the launch spot shortly after I had landed.

It was fun to explore and unfortunately no fish. I was also excited that I was able to do about 8 miles in the kayak.

Went to the beach on Monday afternoon after the storms had passed. My oldest and me found a big shell that washed up and I found a couple red mangrove seeds.

[ben_beyer]

Second set of pictures from above.

[Ron Mc]

Great photos, thanks for the report.
Exploring in a kayak is always great, because you're so close to the life on the flats.


As I go back over past-trip photo sets (albums in my Imgur), I see more clouds and distant rain squalls than sunshine.



Also see some time spent in a canal house or trailer waiting out the worst of it.
I'd much rather have rain and wind than doldrums' heat.
The way we like to fish grass flats, wind both moves you onto fish and gives you stealth cover.
Cloud cover keeps you cool and adds to the stealth.

[Kitsune]

The amount of fish in that area is incredible right now. I haven’t had the luxury of fishing a May month in a long time. I will be clearing my schedule during May for the remainder of my life. Lots of black drum and solid upper slot reds in the guts and passes during lower tides. With high tides, they move back into the lakes. The other day I was able to find the drum feeding hard with a quick limit, which left time for a limit of reds ( we take our family and fish to restaurants and eat it all). Now we just need those goofy-toothed speckled backs to show up and we may just be in Paradise!