For the most part the fishing has been great this month. A typical day has been starting out close to town, catching plenty of mangrove snapper between 10 and 13 inches. These little snapper are fun to catch and even better to eat! We’ve been spending about an hour doing this type of fishing, then moving up north into the back country creeks catching quite a few slot redfish and lots of Black drum in the 2 – 3 lb range.
As the tide gets lower we have been moving out onto the flats fishing for schooling reds. These fish have been running between 22 inches up to 30 inches. Then as the tide starts in we have been getting a consistent redfish bite on a couple of Rip lines in deeper water out on the intercoastal. These fish have been running between 22 and 24 inches. This last week, the 16th through the 22nd, these trips have been starting about 2 hours before high tide. Some trips have been spin cast and the others have been fly tackle.
The fall mullet run is in full swing and the inlet is full of jacks in the 8 to 15 lb class. We’ve been starting the day out pulling on some of these big Jacks. Whether throwing spin or fly tackle, these fish are a handful!
As the tide gets near high at the inlet we run to the north and fish the redfish in the grass on this full moon flood tide. The flood tide fishing has been excellent! We fish the redfish in the grass the way I always have during flood tide – getting out of the boat and walking the grass flats. I had four anglers in the past week that had never fished flood tide before. They were very leery of getting out of the boat at first. But at the end of the trip said it was the most fun they had ever had fishing!
There is nothing like seeing a big redfish tailing in the grass – walking over, making a cast on fly or spin – and seeing that fish explode on your bait!
We should have the same level of flood tide fishing on the next new moon. It should be great!
