Redfishing on Artificials
I had the pleasure of fishing a old client and friend Brain Harmon. We talked on the phone of what he would like to try to do on his charter. He wants to learn to fly fish for Redfish. I told him no problem I’ll pick you up at the restaurant that he owns G Peppers at 6:30am. In the morning I pulled up with the Maverick be hind the truck for a quick stop of supplies and off to the ramp we went. When we got to the ramp just as the sun was coming up
and the big wolf full moon was setting with a light 5 kt north east wind. I told Brain it should be a great morning as we headed to the flat we wanted to fish. I told him to jump up on the bow and we would pole up to where the school of redfish should be sitting when the tide got out some more. We poled up to where I wanted to stake out and grabbed the long rod and started to show brain a few lessons on just keeping the line up and he did good job. I started to show brain how to double haul and a few redfish came by I told brain throw out in front of them and start stripping. The redfish had nothing to do with it so he picked up a spinning rod with a white jerk bait on it and it landed perfect just out in front of the fish and started to work it and bam Brain is on after a 4 minute fight a nice 29 inch redfish comes over the side for a quick photo op and back in the water it went. I got up on the platform and started to look around for the school and it looked like it moved down about 100yards. I started to pole down to them and saw a few singles but no takers as we stopped just up current of the redfish school brain took a shot on the outside fish with no success after a few more shots a big red came out of the school and tracked that jerk bait and ate it hard. I jumped down from the platform and staked out and landed that redfish and moved it to the tape for a quick measurement and it taped out at 32 inches wow what a great fish as we released it. As we sat there talking about what was going on and a osprey came out of no where and hit the water next to us and came up empty so I grabbed the camera and got some photos of him diving down next to us and this time he nailed what looked like a nice redfish and he could not pick the fish up because he was so heavy and finally got up out of the water and started to drag the fish up to the flat that was dry and started his feast. I asked Brain if he wanted to hit a Trout hole real quick and he said sure as we powered up for the short run and set up for a drift and as soon as the jig hit the water brain was on after a few more drifts and 25 trout later he said its time for him to get back to his restaurant G Peppers so we head back to the ramp and headed home.Redfish action is on right now in Tampa Bay
What a way to start the new year. Yesterday’s redfish trip was a slam dunk with jumbo oversized fish and crystal clear water for sight fishing. It’s redfish action at its best right now, as fish get happier with dropping water temperatures and begin to back up in schools. Live bait fishing them into a frenzy or careful stalking and sight casting with spin or fly, you can’t have much more fun than targeting west coast Florida reds.