BigBendFishing.Net

Hi all. I'm new to the forum and pretty new to flats fishing too. My friend and I have been going out of the St. Mark's light house for the last few weeks and have caught blues, spanish mack, trout, etc. Now we've been thinking about trying to land some redfish but neither of us have caught them before (My friend and I never went flats fishing before we started going out of St. Marks.....offshore fishing only). So what advice/recommendations/fish stories can you drop on us?

Don't fish the flats for redfish. Fish the creeks and shorelines.

There are many reports in the Inshore Fishing section. You might want to read some of them.

Use a topwater bait (Rop Dog, Skitterwalk), a gold spoon, a spinnerbait, and a jig and grob. Start hitting the creeks. If you work the creeks you'll see the reds. About the only other thing I can suggest is to keep your line wet. You'll catch reds.

Do a search for redfish on the Forum. There is a lot of good info already on this site. 2nd get as shallow as your boat will allow, chunk a bait that will allow you to cover as much water as quickly as possible, and keep moving. I prefer a gold spoon in the summer and a spinnerbait in the winter. Once you find them you can slow down and work the area more thoroughly with other baits.

look for the jumping mullet, the redfish will usually be there

Thanks to all of you! I've been checking the rest of the site out. I won't be going out this weekend, but after that I'll hit the creeks. Maybe we'll go up the East river.

mu wife caught her first redfish this past sunday at the econfina

Look for BirdDog and TinCan. Then start fishing. Just don't get too close. Your tackle box may go missing.

Pops...tell her congratulations . JT... LOL yeah I read about the missing tackle box.

Keep an eye out for schools of mullet in fairly shallow water, the bigger the school, the better. I like to throw MirrOlures, 52M series if the water's deep enough. Shallower I'll go to a Catch2000 or 7M series. Topwaters work too, like the MirrOlure TopDog series, Rapala SkitterWalk, etc. Topwater prop baits also work well, MirrOlure 5M series, Smithwick Devil's Horse, Cotton-Cordell Boy Howdy, etc.

Reds love hard structure, rocks, oyster bars, etc.

Big trout like these conditions, too. Which is why I lean toward lures favored by both trout and reds.

Charles is spot on. You'll often find big trout in the same places you find redfish.

birddog wrote:Charles is spot on. You'll often find big trout in the same places you find redfish.

They're both right.

You could learn a lot by buying a Woods n’ Water magazine (monthly mullet wrapper) and reading about your local water body that you fish.

Here’s a link to see what the current issue looks like: http://www.woodsnwater.net/

I think it’s a pretty good place to start learning local waters. Good luck.
Brian

Yesterday I was on a sand bar out the mouth of the Aucilla and caught a 27" red and then a 26" trout in two consecutive cast in about the same spot!

Using pinfish tails under a CT.

Thanks BBB! Redbelly...sounds like you has a good trip. I'm having to work on the next few weekends so I won't be able to try for the reds for a while (unless my fishing buddy wants to go on a 'sick' day agin) .