Tie on your favorite topwater plug and get to casting, gator trout will be lurking around the bait pods along the ICW. First light, outgoing tides and schools of mullet is the formula for a successful morning outing for trout. Working topwater and sinking plugs parallel to dropoffs and around creek mouths will guarantee success! Don’t over look deeper creek holes as “Gator Trout” can be taking residence.
Redfish will also be patrolling the shell banks of the ICW working the bait pods during low tides. Deeper flats that are holding mullet will have redfish shadowing mullet pods looking to eat the shrimp and crabs the mullet kick up. A FishBites Extreme watermelon color jerkbait on a Slayer 4/0 Penetrator 3/16oz. hook is a great search bait for flats fishing. Oyster bed hopping and casting to spartina grass edges will also produce strikes as long as the mullet are around.
Flounder should be chewing steady on all stages of the tides in the flats but outgoing being my favorite. Live finger mullet with a few small split shots or using a FishBite Paddle tail slowly bounced across the bottom will produce flatties. Jig fisherman will target deeper dropoffs with mudminnows or finger mullet. Doormats around the inlets will fall for 5-7 inch mullet on a fish finder rig.
Big Blue fish should continue to chew around Matanzas Inlet, they will bite just about any lure that resembles a mullet, first light is best for numbers. Jacks will start to show up as well and being caught at first light with surface poppers or live bait in deeper water later in the day. Ladyfish will be stacking up outgoing tides busting baitfish in the bigger creeks that will keep the kids occupied. Light jigs and paddle tails or live shrimp will get slammed by lady fish on every cast once you find them.
Well it seems as my favorite way to fish (sight fishing) is now a thing of the past its time to adapt with the change that Spring will bring as its only 2 days away. On recent trips I have noticed less schools of Redfish and more schools of mullet invading our inshore waters as the temps continue to climb.
The following day was still a great day on the water but no where near the sore lippin like the day before
Frank Smith was able to land his first Redfish on fly
We found smaller schools where Gary and Frank were able to double up
Knowing that I was on borrowed time with the Redfish schools I was able to get a few more charters on them before they broke up.
Bob took advantage and landed several nice Reds like this one.
The following day I had Russ and Joe who never experienced fishing Redfish schools and were not disappointed with the numbers they seen and caught.
Now fast forward to today where finding any large or small school was tough with the wind and high water so I switched to fishing creeks and targeting single Redfish on oyster beds with tiger minnows and Slayer 1/4oz. jigs. Nine fish fell for this combo today with Bob “Almighty” taking top honors with the 2 biggest fish of the day.
I even had a chance to fish this week where I saw this redfish working some mullet, I threw a paddle tail that was immediately pounced on by this 26″ redfish that weighed just over the 8lb. mark. I don’t think the photo does this fish any justice but by far the fattest fish I seen swimming these waters in a long time.
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