Found big schools of menhaden flickering at first light in the ICW and knew we were setting up for a great day. Cut them up into chunks and fished docks as the tide rose from slack low. Rods stayed bent over for the whole charter with redfish crushing our baits. Broke off plenty but ultimately landed seven pigs with the heaviest at 13lbs. as well as plenty of slot fish. Fresh menhaden make fishing so good!
Visiting from France, Cedrik refused to let winds gusting 30+ out of the NE to keep him from catching redfish. We motored slowly over to one of the few corners with shelter and began to work the docks. Found a surprisingly strong bite given the conditions with cut mullet and mud minnows on jigheads both working. Good call Cedrik!
As part of their honeymoon, Danielle surprised Drew with a morning of inshore fishing. Winds had been heavy out of the North for several days and I was wary that the flats I had planned to target would be blown out. Fortunately, even with winds at 15+, the bite was still on! The fish were finicky and you could only get one out of each school before they got lockjaw. Nonetheless, we boated reds up to 30″ and several nine pounds and over. It turned out to be a great morning!
At the beginning of the charter, Kelly let me know that she hadn’t fished that much. Just an hour into the charter, it was clear she was sandbagging her talents. In the first few casts, Kelly landed a four pound trout. Not long after, her popping cork got smoked by an eleven pound redfish which she deftly navigated out of the grass and to the boat. Many more trout and reds were caught and we ended the charter with sharks. Nice work!
Before the charter, Dale mentioned he didn’t have any interest in catching small bluefish. I very much agreed. In the process of catching trout and flounder under popping corks, we did land two and tossed them in the live well. It paid off! Bull redfish smacked slices of bluefish and ripped the rods over. First red was 36″ and the second 39″. Turns out bluefish aren’t so bad after all.
Steven and Justin had such a good time on a half day charter last year they booked me for a full day this time. We made the most of all parts of the tide cycle. Dead low brought a bevy of sharks in the middle of the harbor. The rising mid-tide brought trout and flounder with mud minnows under corks. Finished the day watching tailers up in the grass eat chunks of blue crab. Well played guys!
Launched on a morning so foggy we had to ramble slowly across the harbor. Once the sun broke through, the fishing heated up. Started by catching nice size trout on shrimp under popping corks. At our next spot, we encountered a school of reds including one 29″ character who we landed even after he wrapped us around lots of weeds. Ended the charter catching more trout and bluefish around rocky structure at low tide.
Found a brief break from the wind and when combined with a nice mid morning low tide, conditions were perfect. The schools of fish were easy to see but still a bit finicky. We posted up and waited for them to come to us. The reds preferred cut mullet over mud minnows. Long time customer, Steele, set his personal best with a sweet 28″ red.
Left at first light, excited about a forecast for warmer weather and sunshine. At our first stop, the redfish were clearly happy about the change in conditions too. Put a couple of ten pounders in the boat as well as some in the five to six pound range. Reds ate cut mullet and mud minnows. Able to see healthy schools of reds for most of the charter. Great weather forecast through the weekend!
It turns out your can still catch plenty of redfish when the water temperature is in the 60s! We spent the day putting mud minnows out on circle hooks and letting the redfish schools swim over to us. For every fish that hooked up, there were at least ten that nosed the bait and the line. Both Noll and Pat caught their first redfish ever. Pat set the bar high for his personal best with this 12 pound beauty!
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