Limit of Redfish Shallow+Bonus
Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:39 am
I took an impromptu trip out yesterday in the middle of the afternoon, I just got the itch and the weather has been too perfect to sit inside.
Conditions
Wind: NE 5-10 mph
Temp: 82
Tide: slow out going tide that shifted to incoming
Water clarity: 6in or less
Bait activity: medium
Just 2 or 3 days after our first cool front I went for an afternoon fish. I launched at 1:30 pm and was greeted with warm temps and a blue bird sky. I came to this area because in the last few trips out it felt like it was getting right.. + I knew there was a ton of bait here. Upon launching I was working a drop off and picked up 2 sand trout back to back on a gulp shrimp with a quarter ounce jig head. I imagine I could’ve caught more if I stuck to that area, but I wasn’t interested in catching sandies, I wanted to get on some redfish.
I peddled over to a drain I knew had been holding bait. I tied on a root beer with chartreuse tail Vudu Shad and started picking it apart. Within 10 casts I hooked up on my first slot redfish of the day, a 21 in guy.
After unhooking and getting that guy in the box I positioned myself to hit that same area, a few casts later I hooked up again, but when I pulled it up I was greeted by a stinky gaftop… I shook him off and got back in there and hooked up quickly again… But yet again I pulled up a slimy gaftop instead of a red. I thought it was interesting that there were so many gaftop mixed in with the redfish, I haven’t come across this before.
I didn’t want to give up on the area just yet so I positioned myself closer to the inside of the drain. I casted to the corner where it goes from shallow to a slight drop off, I jerked the Vudu Shad a few times and had an aggressive eat… But instead of a gaftop or redfish I pulled up a nice 20in flounder.
I was excited about this, I don’t catch too many flounder these days. A few hours had gone by and I felt I had exhausted my efforts in this area so I headed deep into the marsh back lakes.
Upon entering to the back lakes I saw a spike of activity, redfish were everywhere. Pushing wakes in the middle and blowing up bait in the grass. Water depth here was 6in to a foot in most areas. I was drifting through a narrow cut when I saw the back of a redfish who just exploded on some bait, I cast right to it and hooked up immediately. He was 19 and some change.
I continued to paddle around and there were small schools in almost every little pocket of the back lakes.
I scouted around and found 2 redfish tailing and eating in the cut between the grasses above. Again I cast to with my Vudu Shad and hooked up, this guy was bigger and put up a better fight. 23 in.
I continued this pattern of checking little pockets of the back lakes and landed another 24 in red… all in all I landed 5 reds and lost another. Hard to beat sight casting to redfish in inches of water.
This day was spectacular and was a perfect example of just go fishing when you can, you never know what you will run into.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Conditions
Wind: NE 5-10 mph
Temp: 82
Tide: slow out going tide that shifted to incoming
Water clarity: 6in or less
Bait activity: medium
Just 2 or 3 days after our first cool front I went for an afternoon fish. I launched at 1:30 pm and was greeted with warm temps and a blue bird sky. I came to this area because in the last few trips out it felt like it was getting right.. + I knew there was a ton of bait here. Upon launching I was working a drop off and picked up 2 sand trout back to back on a gulp shrimp with a quarter ounce jig head. I imagine I could’ve caught more if I stuck to that area, but I wasn’t interested in catching sandies, I wanted to get on some redfish.
I peddled over to a drain I knew had been holding bait. I tied on a root beer with chartreuse tail Vudu Shad and started picking it apart. Within 10 casts I hooked up on my first slot redfish of the day, a 21 in guy.
After unhooking and getting that guy in the box I positioned myself to hit that same area, a few casts later I hooked up again, but when I pulled it up I was greeted by a stinky gaftop… I shook him off and got back in there and hooked up quickly again… But yet again I pulled up a slimy gaftop instead of a red. I thought it was interesting that there were so many gaftop mixed in with the redfish, I haven’t come across this before.
I didn’t want to give up on the area just yet so I positioned myself closer to the inside of the drain. I casted to the corner where it goes from shallow to a slight drop off, I jerked the Vudu Shad a few times and had an aggressive eat… But instead of a gaftop or redfish I pulled up a nice 20in flounder.
I was excited about this, I don’t catch too many flounder these days. A few hours had gone by and I felt I had exhausted my efforts in this area so I headed deep into the marsh back lakes.
Upon entering to the back lakes I saw a spike of activity, redfish were everywhere. Pushing wakes in the middle and blowing up bait in the grass. Water depth here was 6in to a foot in most areas. I was drifting through a narrow cut when I saw the back of a redfish who just exploded on some bait, I cast right to it and hooked up immediately. He was 19 and some change.
I continued to paddle around and there were small schools in almost every little pocket of the back lakes.
I scouted around and found 2 redfish tailing and eating in the cut between the grasses above. Again I cast to with my Vudu Shad and hooked up, this guy was bigger and put up a better fight. 23 in.
I continued this pattern of checking little pockets of the back lakes and landed another 24 in red… all in all I landed 5 reds and lost another. Hard to beat sight casting to redfish in inches of water.
This day was spectacular and was a perfect example of just go fishing when you can, you never know what you will run into.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk