Monthly Archives: February 2014

Feb 17 – 23

This past week the weather was the best we’ve had in quite some time.  With the weather stable all week through Thursday, and fishing the best tides in the afternoon the redfish bite was on fire! All four days produced some nice numbers of fish between 24 – 30 inches.  Moving around and working the tides these fish came out of water between 12 and 20 inches deep.  

Friday was a rainy day and brought a cancellation.  Sunday was a morning trip with the first stop of the morning being the only stop for the day.  It’s very unusual for me to do that but there was no reason to leave.  The redfish were stacked up in this location and we sat and caught fish in the 25 “ class for the entire ½ day trip.  

The black drum and sheepshead that had been mixed in with redfish on the hard bottom drop offs for the last month really didn’t show up this week.  This could have been a problem.  But the redfish bite was so good – nobody cared! With the water and air temps warming and spring right around the corner, the fishing should just keep getting better

Feb 10 – 16

This week the fishing has been great!  Monday brought light winds, bright skies and temps in the 70’s!  The fish were turned on and we had a really good day with redfish between 4 – 6 lbs.  The black drum were 2 – 8 lbs and sheepshead from 2 – 8 lbs. 

Tuesday brought a little cold front on the way.  When we left the dock it looked like it was going to be a really nice day.  By the time we started back it was overcast, foggy and cold with a 20 knot wind.  Evidently the fish knew the cold front was coming in, because the bite was going OFF.  We finished the day with around a dozen redfish, plenty of back drum and sheepshead between 2 – 10 lbs.  

All these fish have come off hard bottom drop-offs in 6 –10 feet of water.  This is the only time of year that we have sheepshead in the back country in these numbers.  The place to find them is on these hard bottom drop-offs, which just so happens to be holding the redfish and black drum as well. When I got back on the water on the weekend I went back to fishing the same pattern as the first of the week with the same results – good numbers of really nice fish.  

Next week the weather forecast is for an extended warm up and I expect a week of some really awesome fishing.  From now through April is my favorite time of year.  The fishing is GREAT, my customers happy and my job easy!  

January 27 – Feb 2

This week started out with knowing Monday and Tuesday were going to be the last days to fish until the weekend due to the cold and rain on the way. Monday we made a few stops close to town without a bite.  As the tide started to fall we made the move up to the north and had good luck on the redfish in the slot size, fishing a little deeper water – about 4 to 8 feet.  We continued in this pattern, catching one after the other until the water got so low it was time to move.  

We moved out onto the flats to target a couple schools of redfish.  They were there in big numbers, but not too interested in eating anything we threw to them. You know its time to move on when the whole school just camps out on top of a quarter blue crab and won’t eat it! 

Tuesday was fairly good weather early, but as the day progressed it began to get worse with the temperatures dropping and the wind picking up.  The visibility was low with fog setting in.  During the higher tide we were targeting trout with the fly rod.  My “go to” set up for trout is a sinking tip line with a chartreuse and white clouser minnow.  But on this day the trout just didn’t want to play.  The plan was to swap up to a floating line and go pole the flats for redfish.  But with the wind picking up I decided to change up and go with spin tackle.  

With the barometer falling and the cold weather on the way – the fish were feeding up.  In the end, we […]

January 6 – 12

This week with the cold weather I really didn’t get on the water much.  Monday through Thursday we had a mixed bag of weather.  Monday was windy and rainy, Tuesday and Wednesday were very cold and windy.  Thursday was warm, but with wind and rain. 

I did get out on the water Friday, but the bite was a little slow.  I was reading water temps as low as 52°, which is very cold water for this area.  The fish seemed lethargic and slow to eat.  We ended up with a few keeper redfish in the 24” range with quite a few short fish under 18”.  Saturday was a complete blow out with overcast skies and high winds around 25 mph. 

Sunday turned out to be a nice day, and with rising water temps the fish were fired up and eating.  We were doing a half day trip and every place we stopped we caught fish.  I didn’t keep count of exactly how many fish we caught but I know we had over a dozen nice slot fish in the 24” – 27” range with lots of small fish 16” – 17”, along with a nice flounder around 4 lbs.  This is my favorite time of year to be on the water, and with some more normal weather days the fishing is going to be on fire. 

Jan 13 – 26

The week of the 13th gave us some pretty warm weather compared to what we have had.  The redfish bite was good but not what you would expect this time of year.  Out of 20 spots you fish and do really well, there may be 2 of those spots holding fish that will actually eat.  […]