Last week, in between crab buoy runs searching for tripletail, I turned into the Eau Gallie River for a mid-day break to check out the area for the first time. I haven’t scouted the whole river out yet, but the area I did drive through was holding a lot of bait. During my short visit, I saw pods of bait being blown up on, and tarpon rolling in the channel. I did pre-fish the area for a short amount of time, but no luck on artificial. So for this trip, I decided to return to the Eau Gallie River with live bait and hopes to get into some early spring tarpon action. I also thought this area may be similar to Crane Creek a couple of miles south and could be holding some large snook, so I was excited to have on board a live well full of croakers.

The water temps were still a little cold so I started by fishing a northern seawall that had been exposed to the baking sun all day. This is where I found my first fish of the day. The first thumped hard, I was ecstatic, and after watching too many Lawson videos, I thought I had a nice size snook on. I was surprised to see that when it came to the side of the boat it was actually a jack. I had my tarpon setup with me this trip which is a heavy action rod paired with a 4000 sized reel and the fish was still pulling a good amount of drag. I was just saying the other day how I haven’t seen any jack in the river (Banana) in a long time. I used to have a blast catching dozens of them at a time in the residential canals as a kid during the winter months. A lot of people would be bummed that it wasn’t a snook but I was excited to be catching yellow submarines again.

The second spot that I fished was off one of those float-on boat lifts. This is where I saw all the bait being blown up on during my last trip. It didn’t take long before more strikes were coming in hot. After a few swings and misses, I managed to reel in a couple more fish, all jack crevalle. After multiple interactions with the locals on the water and a fellow canoe fisherman, I decided to make a short move to one final spot.

The Last spot was where I saw tarpon rolling in the nearby channel, and today off of this shoreline of deep water mangroves. I spent awhile pitching croakers and then finally my lone finger mullet into the mangroves, as you can see in the video, I was having a lot takes but no real thumps. I missed one hard thump, that may have been the tarpon I was looking for. At the end of the video, I finally get onto whatever kept coming after my bait and ended up being another jack. This time a little disappointed that it was not the tarpon I have been watching roll around all evening.

I ended out the trip by slowly fishing topwater plugs while making my way to the mouth of the river by Ballard Park. I didn’t have any luck, but overall pretty happy with my experience for the first time fishing in the Eau Gallie River. I was surprised how consistent the activity has been back in there considering how many reports I’ve read about it being a “dead river” that’s full of muck. I’ll be checking out again soon, maybe this time with some pinfish or small crabs. Until next time, good luck out there, and have fun on the water!

Spanky