Shallow Water Redfish

Spotting redfish in shallow water seems easy enough, by looking for the obvious tails sticking out of the water or that wake they make cruising the banks. But, on windy days that may be tough at times. There are more ways to detect schools of reds that you may have never noticed. Watching bait fish is certainly one of those. Many times you may never see the tail or the wake. It may just be bait fish running for their lives or popping on the surface trying to escape those hungry fish. Today was one of those have-to-be-observant type of days. Southeast winds creating small waves usually makes it tough to see the fish, but if you look for certain breaks or ripples that are not in the same direction as the wind is blowing it's a dead giveaway. Tossing the lure in front of the school will net you many fish that may have gone undetected and resulting in more hookups than just casting blind. The bait of choice today, catching these schooling reds was a suspending shad bait. But tossing live bait such as shrimp or minnows will prove to be very effective also. Touts and swim baits, as well as spinners and gold spoons are also a great choice. So next time you see a change in the water, it just may be a hungry school of those beautiful golden reds. One other note that is important, is a good pair of polarized sunglasses. Today's ultralight choice, which is the standard for me since the fight is more exciting than the catch, was a Shimano Sedona 1000 series spinning reel with a 7 foot Diawa Laguna 701 medium light action rod with 12 pound Nanofil and a 20lb mono leader. The leader may be just as important as the line or more so. Those big redfish can fray your line with that rough mouth, so having a leader that will hold up is always a safe bet. Good luck fishing. Hope to see ya on the water.

Comments

  1. GarrettApril 17, 2017 at 10:39 PM

    Excellent Tips from an Excellent Angler. Thanks Bob.. Tight Lines!!!

    ReplyDelete

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