If you’re looking to hook into some redfish action, now is the time to do it!
As is typical for this time of the year, there are a lot of big schools of bait-chewing fish along the beaches, in the pass and on several shallow marshy grass flats. The way I want to target them often determines where I go looking. When I want to throw topwaters, I typically fish early in the day along shallow, flooded reed lines, over areas of good broken bottom and in the mouths of creeks and bayous. If I want to fish jigs, I’ll wait until a little later in the morning when visibility is better and I can sight cast to cruising fish. Right now, though, the most productive method has been live chumming big schools in deep potholes on the flats.
Another fish that has been pretty easy to come by is the speckled trout. A lot of nice slot fish are being caught but some really big trout (28”-30” range) have been showing up, too. If you want to try to catch one of the big females, then you definitely want to be out on the water early. The low light offers many advantages to the angler when it comes to getting big fish to eat, especially if you are using plugs. If they aren’t paying attention to your artificial baits, then you can always try live finger mullet, menhaden or pigfish. If you are fortunate enough to land a big, beautiful egg-bearing female trout, please help protect the resource by photographing it quickly and releasing it healthy back into the water.
The bay is also full of mangrove snappers hanging around structure such as seawalls, docks, bridges, trash piles, old crab traps and tractor tires. When the tide is running, you can start out using live shrimp or small menhaden. If the fish aren’t wanting to eat right away, then you can always cut up menhaden into small chunks and start chumming. Once the mangrove snappers get chummed right up to the boat, you need only drift back a similar-sized chunk and let nature run its course.
As always, if you have questions about what’s biting, how to catch them or want to book a trip, give me a call or shoot me an email.
Good luck!
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